10 Tips for Christmas Dinner on the Range Cooker

Christmas dinner is the perfect meal to show off your range cooker. But if you want to enjoy your turkey roasted to perfection with all the trimmings, you’ll need to be prepared and organised so everything runs like clockwork.

A range cooker, such as an Aga or Rayburn, will make short work of turkey, roast potatoes and mince pies leaving you time to relax and bask in the praise of your guests – and the warm, homely glow from your range cooker.

Here we showcase the top ten tips for the perfect Christmas dinner on your range cooker from Aga accessory supplier Blake & Bull.

1. Always check your fuel supplies

It’s bad enough running out of fuel with any meal half-cooked, but Christmas Dinner is different. Don’t leave it to luck – if you’re running a ‘conventional’ range cooker make sure you have enough solid fuel or oil in the tank and check with a dipstick for the most accurate reading.

2. Turn up the oven on Christmas Eve

Your range cooker will need to have plenty of heat in reserve to cook the dinner for the big day, so make sure you crank up the heat in plenty of time on Christmas Eve. Don’t forget to turn it down before you cook or you could burn the turkey!

3. Bring the turkey to room temperature before cooking

A range cooker is the ideal way to cook dinner for a crowd as most ovens can handle a 14kg bird with ease. For best results, ensure that your turkey is allowed to come to room temperature before you start to cook. If you place a fridge cold turkey in your range oven you run the risk of lowering the temperature and ending up with a turkey that isn’t properly cooked.

4. Make allowances for different oven temperatures

Oven thermometers are inexpensive but they’re one of your biggest assets when cooking Christmas Dinner. Since you’ll be using the roasting oven for the centrepiece turkey, you’ll need to keep an eye on the temperature in the lower ovens.

They can cool down quickly as the larger oven uses more heat so check the temperature frequently to make sure other dishes are cooking evenly.

5. Don’t use your hotplates

There’s a simple rule to observe if you want your Christmas Dinner to cook flawlessly. Aga range cooker owners know it as the 80/20 rule which means you only cook on the hotplates for 20% of the total cooking time.

Ideally, you won’t use them at all – and don’t even think of boiling water unless you want to lose all your heat! Try cooking your vegetables and other side dishes in the simmering oven and use an electric kettle for boiling water.

6. Prepare your oven set up

Take some time on Christmas Eve to plan out the setup of your oven racks. Not only will everything be ready for you when you start cooking but you won’t waste all your carefully built up heat by having to move the racks around.

7. Make the most of your oven capacity

Your range cooker may have been supplied with its own oven racks, but when you need to cook a variety of different dishes they can be very space-consuming. Invest in flat racks that rest directly on the runners to maximise oven space and make sure that everyone gets their favourite side dish.

8. Pre-warming is your friend

If you’ve spent Christmas Eve carefully building up a reserve of heat to cope with roasting the turkey, the last thing you need is to bring down the oven temperature with cold trays, dishes and pans. Preheating all your kitchenware in the simmering and warming ovens or on a drying rack above the cooker makes the most of all that stored heat without wasting it.

9. Make a preparation plan

Cooking too many items at once will put a strain on your cooker and you’ll end up with soggy roast potatoes and sprouts like bullets. There are plenty of preparation plans available to help you get through cooking Christmas Dinner and many elements can be pre-cooked and then re-heated on the day.

Pigs in blankets and roast potatoes can both be pre-roasted and then simply crisped up once the turkey is resting. Just remember to drain off the cooking fat from the potatoes and refrigerate them overnight. They’ll taste just as good and you’ll have time to relax and enjoy a well- deserved Bucks Fizz!

10. Stand guard!

With so many wonderful smells wafting through the kitchen, everyone will want to take a sneak peek. To keep that precious heat in the oven where it belongs, you’ll need to stand guard over you range cooker!

Best of luck range cooker owners and Merry Christmas!

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