15 tricks for keeping your sanity if you’re hosting Christmas

Few holidays inspire as much nervous anticipation as Christmas. In-laws and cooking? The stakes are high, and something could go wrong at any moment. Fortunately, with a little food science and common sense, you can avoid the pitfalls that sitcom writers love to rely on. Check out these 15 tips to make your holiday that much easier.

Unless you’re a culinary master, trying to pull out all the stops and create every possible dish that might show up in a Hollywood-perfect Christmas feast is a recipe for disaster. Turkey, baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and a simple vegetable dish such as string beans is already a feast. If nervous about cooking for guests, pick dishes that you’re comfortable making. If you’re trying something new, give it a practise run a few days before.

Even if you are a culinary whiz, divvying up courses is a great way of bringing a group of people together, and an opportunity to pass along culinary traditions to younger generations. If you have young kids, you can also use it as an opportunity to give them confidence in the kitchen. Making mashed potatoes? Hand the recipe over to your kids and offer to be their assistant chef.

French for “everything in its place,” mise-en-place is the practice of prepping all the ingredients and measuring them out in advance. Making a stuffing? Dice up the celery and veggies the day before, and store them in a plastic container or plastic bag in the fridge. Using breadcrumbs? Spices? Measure them out into another small container. If you’re baking your stuffing separate from the bird – recommended for food-safety reasons – you can even stash the mise-en-place parts inside the baking pan and store the whole thing in the fridge. Then, on Christmas day itself, just pull the pan out of the fridge and mix-and-go. (Tuck a copy of the recipe into the pan when you’re prepping, too!) Repeat this for all your dishes, and you’ve already cut the big day’s work by more than half.

Freezing food ahead of time can also be helpful, here are some foods you had no idea you could freeze.

I know, heresy, but the microwave does a great job for cooking certain types of foods such as potatoes, asparagus and string beans. Cooking starchy foods like potatoes is all about heating the starch granules up to around 82°C to 87°C for the starches to melt and then gelatinise, and popping a potato in the microwave gets it up to around 100°C, the boiling point of water – well above the temperatures needed to cook that potato. Figure about a minute to two per potato, checking as they cook. For veggies like asparagus and string beans, throw them in a microwave-safe bowl, add a few teaspoons of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave until the water starts to steam, four or five minutes. If you want to go fancier, you can always toss the veggies into a pan and sauté them in butter or olive oil and add spices.

Cooking a whole turkey is a challenge for a simple reason: turkeys don’t cook uniformly. Turkey breast meat will be finished cooking before the darker, leg meat because the ratio of the types of proteins in the meats differ, and different proteins cook at different temperatures. If you don’t mind giving up the tradition of standing at the head of the table and carving the turkey, try cooking turkey breasts and turkey legs separately. Experiment with cooking the turkey legs in a slow cooker in olive oil – they’ll come out moist and delicious after six hours – and roasting the turkey breast in the oven, just like any other type of roast.

Meats are done cooking once they reach a certain temperature. Medium-rare steak is done when it hits 55°C, whether that takes 10 or 30 minutes. Same thing with turkey. The NSW Food Authority recommends cooking poultry until the thermometer reads 74°C; this is the “instant kill” temperature for any bacteria that might be present. With care and proper hold times, you actually can safely cook turkey to lower temperatures to avoid potential dryness, but hold time becomes critical for proper pasteurisation. Regardless, use a good digital probe thermometer to let you know when the turkey has reached temperature.

Making sure your food is properly handled and cooked will stop you from getting food poisoning. Check out what else you really should know.

A good bakery can turn out a great Christmas pudding for practically the same amount of money that you’d pay for the ingredients yourself. If you’re really into baking, or feel that the homemade touch is important, try making something else. Chocolate is always a winner, so why not chocolate cake? Buy a pudding for those that prefer it, and try an exciting new dessert recipe.

If there’s one thing that rings true about Christmas it’s this: the kitchen gets crowded. If you are the hostess with the mostess and have several different dishes to prepare/keep warm in the oven, opt for square or rectangular pans to fit more at a time. You’ll thank yourself later when both your stuffing, turkey and vegetables all need some time in the oven.

Here are some more genius tips that will make your holiday cooking so much better.

Sometimes guests arrive too early, sometimes you’re so crazed it slips your mind, sometimes you just need a drink yourself after all the cleaning and cooking. In order to cool your bottle fast, try wrapping it in a damp cloth or towel and placing it in the freezer for about ten to 15 minutes.