Feeding a Crowd at Christmas
Bringing friends and family together is one of the best things about Christmas … but feeding them all can be one of the most stressful.
It needn’t be. Read on, frazzled hosts!
Get Planning
One turkey does not make a Christmas dinner alone. If you’re hosting a houseful, you’ll need to have a fairly detailed plan on what you’re doing for each meal.
Before you get started, double check dietary requirements and any passionate dislikes, especially when it comes to children. Entertaining when one of your guests is gluten intolerant or vegetarian needn’t make things complicated, as long as you know about it in advance. Making sure to plan appropriately and prepare a gluten free or vegetarian Christmas dinner is crucial to a successful meal!
Next, make sure you’ve got enough plates, bowls, glasses, cutlery and seats. If you’re stuck, you can always ask a local friend who’s away over Christmas.
If, in the planning stage, it begins to look a bit overwhelming, ask one of your guests to be in charge of a meal or two. Good cooks love the chance to flex their culinary muscles over Christmas. Just be sure to co-ordinate what they are bringing and what they expect you to provide.
Making The Most Of Your Fridge Space At Christmas
However big your fridge, Christmas is the one time of year that it won’t be big enough. Before guests arrive, have a sort out and check the use-by dates of any jars or bottles to make space - when you’re cooking for a crowd at Christmas, you’ll need every last inch of space you can get.
Do remember, when you put your shopping away, to keep meat at the bottom of the fridge (cooked and uncooked stored separately, of course) and dairy at the top. You’ll need space for lots of drinks and leftovers, so be smart and don’t pack it too tight.
Our top tip? Here at COOK we make frozen meals, so the answer won’t surprise you: make the most of your freezer. Sauces, stuffing, gravy, meat, casseroles, pastry, milk, bread, egg whites, herbs, grated cheese … all of these things freeze brilliantly. So, anything you make in advance and don’t need right away, bag or box it up and put in the freezer. This will not only save space in your fridge, but also allows you to preserve anything you make in advance.
If you make a big casserole or stew for the freezer in advance, defrost it overnight and heat it on the hob. You’ll need to keep stirring so it doesn’t stick and you can add a splash of water if it looks a little dry. This will work even if you’re cooking for 20. Just make sure it’s piping hot throughout before serving.
Most of our meals cook from frozen but, if you get a COOK turkey, you can keep it in the freezer and defrost it on Christmas Eve at room temperature, so it needn’t take up any fridge space at all. If you need to cater for any dietary requirements, you should start thinking about alternatives to turkey at Christmas.
If the weather’s seasonally chilly – under 5°c – you can keep food well wrapped in a sealed container in a shed.
The Perfect Meal Plan
Obviously, you’ll want to have a really special meal on Christmas Day, but don’t make life hard for yourself. You don’t have to roll out the red carpet for every single meal over Christmas. Pick your battles!
Breakfasts
Probably the easiest meal to make for a crowd. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for most breakfasts, just make sure you’ve stocked up on the essentials. Milk freezes well and slices of bread can even be toasted from frozen, too. Breakfast for a lot of people doesn’t need to be complicated, just tasty!
Cooking breakfast for a crowd is pretty straightforward, even if you push the boat out. Trays of sausages cooked in the oven, piles of scrambled eggs (much easier than individually frying or poaching them), oven roasted tomatoes with some salt and fresh rosemary … all delicious and easy.
Good coffee and fresh fruit with pastries are another way to put a smile on everyone’s face without breaking a sweat. The croissants that cook from frozen are well worth investigating, as they’re at their best on the day they are made.
Formal Meals
Apart from the big lunch on the 25th, you’ll want to mark a couple of special days throughout the Christmas season. Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and so on. Decide which ones you want to focus on and don’t schedule too many fancy meals on the trot! If you’re serving a special lunch, guests will be more than happy with a light supper.
A side of salmon is a great option, as it’s not too heavy. We love it with buttered new potatoes and seasonal greens. Or embrace some other festive dishes like roast venison, duck, or another special cut of meat. Remember, nut roasts aren’t just for vegetarians, either! If you need inspiration, you should check out our Christmas lunch bundles for ideas on what food goes great together for Christmas.
Spruce up your side dishes for these big occasions – you could swop roasties for Dauphinoise potatoes, spinach for cavolo nero, or make a proper red cabbage with port and spices. You can make flavoured butters in advance and keep them in the freezer – a few slices will add real oomph to your veggies. Good combinations for Christmas are sage and onion, garlic and parsley, and chilli, lime and coriander.
Don’t forget the pudding! There are some more details about these at the bottom of the page.
Informal Meals
You’ll certainly want some classic crowd pleasers at Christmas, especially if there are young children visiting. This is the time to roll out the hearty pies, lasagnes, toad in the hole, and casseroles.
Be sure to have lots of staples in the cupboard: pasta, potatoes, carrots, leeks, broccoli, and so on. As well as being traditional at Christmas, a big ham will come in very handy: bubble and squeak, cold cuts, ham and eggs, toasties, eggs benedict, turkey and ham pie … there are so many uses.
Fish pie is a traditional option on Christmas Eve, and you can make them in advance and freeze them, like we do … just be aware that hard-boiled egg doesn’t freeze well, so leave that out.
A good cottage pie followed by sticky toffee pudding with cream won’t take too long to get ready, but it’s almost guaranteed to be a hit.
If you’re having more of a dinner party, Christmas canapes are a great way to start off the evening. Delicious morsels without being too filling, you can set the scene ready for dinner later on!
If you’re hosting a vegetarian or you just want a break from all that meat, we’d suggest a nice veggie lasagne. At COOK, we’ve found our veggie version is as popular as the meaty one with our customers.
Turn Leftovers into a Banquet
You will have leftovers. And we’re not just talking about the turkey. Estimating precisely how much will be eaten when cooking for a crowd is almost impossible. But, with a bit of flair, they can be turned into another brilliant meal.
Cold cuts, jacket potatoes, some salads, quiche, and a good chutney can be a least one meal. All of these make a great lunch or even as a Christmas buffet for the next day - cold platters are always tasty, even with guests round.
If you have lots of bits and bobs to use up, why not have a buffet? Add in a few new additions, like a baked camembert, some salad, a frittata, a ham, some pâté and a terrine and you’ve got a perfect Boxing Day lunch.
They can also be used for a children’s supper, so the adults can have a leisurely dinner after the little ones are safely tucked up in bed.
Emergency Meals
If you’ve ever hosted Christmas before, we need hardly tell you this: your meal plan will fall apart at some point. Guests will stay an extra day, the pub will be fully booked, the neighbours will come round. When that happens, you don’t want to find yourself frantically picking rogue fish fingers out of your freezer drawers and wondering if they go well with cold sprouts.
Have a meal ready to go in the freezer. It needn’t be anything too elaborate. You don’t need Christmas dinner starters and desserts for a backup plan, just a main meal will do!
Kids Meals
All the chocolate pennies and late nights can mean crabby children at Christmas. Line up a few basic children’s meals so they can eat earlier some evenings. As mentioned above, leftovers are great here. Get some good bread for Christmas toasties, too (also beloved by adults!).
Which Puddings Should I Choose for Christmas?
It’s hard to judge how much Christmas dessert you should get for the big day. You need to account for dietary preferences and their tastes. Some guests will favour salted caramel and chocolate, others fruits and cream, and still others the traditional ones like mince pies and Christmas Pudding.
If you’ve got guests staying for a while, why not have a range of smaller puddings. A rolling selection will keep everyone happy and mean you won’t be left with endless little bowls of pud covered in cling film when your guests leave.
Of course, for the really special meals, you’ll need something fancy to inspire the kinds of ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ you hear at firework displays. They can be incredibly time-consuming, so don’t be afraid to buy some in.
Don’t forget the finishing touches. You’ll need some good ice cream and cream, for starters. A small selection of seasonal berries works as a garnish for most puds, so have those ready in the fridge. And a dusting of icing sugar might be old-school, but it really works.
