How do I time a roast dinner so everything is ready together?

A roast is a timing problem, not a cooking problem. Every component is straightforward alone; the difficulty is that they finish at different times. The resting meat is what makes it solvable, because it gives you a free half hour of oven space and attention.

What you'll need

• Oven
• Meat thermometer
• Timer (optional)
• Paper and pen (optional)

Step by step

1. Write the serving time at the top of a piece of paper.Then work backwards. This sounds excessive and it is the single thing that makes a roast calm rather than frantic.
2. Calculate the meat time first and add the rest.Everything else fits around it. Use a thermometer rather than time alone — 74°C for poultry, and by preference for beef and lamb.
3. Note that the meat rests for 20-30 minutes.This is not dead time. It is when the oven is free at a higher temperature and your attention is available.
4. Parboil the potatoes early, well before they are needed.They can sit drained and roughed up for an hour. Doing this in advance removes a whole job from the critical period.
5. Put potatoes in for the last 45-60 minutes of the meat's time.They then finish during the rest, when the oven can be turned up with no meat in it.
6. Make the gravy during the rest, using the meat juices.This is exactly why the rest exists in the schedule. The roasting tin, some flour and stock, five minutes.
7. Cook the green vegetables last, in the final 5-10 minutes.They take the least time and suffer most from waiting. Have them prepped in pans of cold water ready to go on.
8. Warm the plates and serving dishes during the rest.Cold plates take a roast dinner from hot to lukewarm within a minute.

Tips

• Almost everything can be prepared the day before: potatoes peeled in water, vegetables trimmed, stuffing made, table laid.
• If something is running late, the meat can rest for longer — up to 45 minutes loosely covered — with no harm. It is the flexible element.
• Yorkshire puddings need a very hot oven, which is exactly what you have during the rest. Cook them then, not alongside the meat.

Common mistakes

• Not resting the meat — The juices run out onto the board instead of staying in the meat, and you lose the half hour of oven and attention the schedule needs.
• Starting the green vegetables early to be safe — They are the fastest component and the one that suffers most from waiting. They go on last.
• Cooking everything at the meat's temperature — Roast potatoes need a much hotter oven than most joints. Doing them during the rest, at high heat, is what makes them crisp.

Questions people ask