Christmas Recipes and Food Ideas

Turkey timings, cheese boards and biscuits that keep their legs on.

Christmas dinner is the one meal of the year everyone has an opinion on.

Usually while you're holding a very hot tray.

So this is where we keep our Christmas recipes, food ideas and anything else festive that's actually useful.

The Christmas dinner timer works your whole day backwards from the moment you sit down, so the turkey and the roast potatoes finish together for once.

A proper pudding wants making weeks ahead, so the one everyone stirs and nobody tells about is ready now. Erin has already made her wish. It was a decree.

Not a turkey family? A pork shoulder with 4,500 years of Christmas parties behind it goes in low and comes out falling apart. Aaron checked it with three thermometers. They agreed. He didn't.

There's a cheese board guide for the bit after, when everyone swears they're full and then polishes off a whole Stilton.

More goes up between now and Boxing Day.

Bookmark it. Or don't, and turn up on Christmas Eve in a mild panic. The kettle's on.

6 festive bits and counting. Newest: Slow Roast Pork Shoulder - Britain's First Christmas Do

Christmas recipes sketch: chilli Oliver and pizza Isaac pull a cracker while toast Erin carries the turkey — Aaron said he was just 'checking' the gingerbread.

Every Christmas recipe we've got

Crackling roast pork at Stonehenge: chilli Oliver carves while toast Erin claims the first piece

Updated 2 November 2026 11 min read

Slow Roast Pork Shoulder - Britain's First Christmas Do

Britain's first big midwinter party was a pig roast near Stonehenge. Here's the modern version: low and slow, then a blast for proper crackling.

Homemade Christmas pudding with a blue flame and holly, chilli Oliver presenting it, toast Erin claiming the first slice

Updated 2 November 2026 13 min read

Christmas Pudding Recipe - Everyone Stirs, Everyone Wishes, Nobody Tells

Soak the fruit overnight, let everyone stir and wish, steam for six hours, then wrap it up until Christmas and reheat it for two. One pudding for 8, with an...

Cream whipped for vanilla ice cream by chilli Oliver, holding the vanilla, as jacket potato Aaron hugs a boxed machine

Updated 1 November 2026 12 min read

How to Make Homemade Ice Cream - No Machine, No Churning, No Nonsense

Three ingredients, no machine, no churning: whipped double cream folded into condensed milk and vanilla, frozen into a smooth, scoopable tub. Plus how to scoop it like a pro and...

Gingerbread men iced with white smiles and buttons on a cooling rack, toast Erin pinching one, chilli Oliver watching

Updated 1 November 2026 11 min read

Gingerbread Men Recipe - Biscuits That Keep Their Legs On

Crisp-edged, properly spiced biscuits from a golden syrup dough, rolled to an even thickness and chilled so every man keeps his arms and legs. Plus icing that pipes neatly and...

Cheese board ideas: four cheeses, grapes and apple on a bamboo board, toast Erin, chilli Oliver and jacket potato Aaron

Updated 1 November 2026 12 min read

Cheese Board Ideas - How to Build One People Actually Fight Over

Three or four cheeses - a hard, a soft, a blue and a wildcard - about 100g a head, out of the fridge an hour early. Cut so everyone gets...

Chilli character in a cracker crown holding up a kitchen timer next to a roast turkey, the jacket potato character ticking a checklist

Updated 1 November 2026 5 min read

The Christmas Dinner Timer: Your Whole Day, Worked Out

Tell it how big your turkey is and when you want to eat. The Christmas Dinner Timer works backwards and gives you the whole day, from defrosting to gravy, with...