Going live effective immediately – and open right through to Christmas Eve, JB and I are on duty to answer your Christmas cooking questions. ✨Welcome to our Christmas Cooking Hotline!!✨
JB and I are on call!
I’m so excited to be doing this! I’ve had the idea of a Christmas cooking hotline bubbling away in my mind for years, but I always hesitated because I worried it would be too much to handle on my own.
But now that JB is part of the face of RecipeTin and it’s not just me, there’s two of us here to answer your questions. So for the first time ever, we’re opening up a hotline for Christmas cooking questions, bringing together home-cook practicality and actual proper chef experience (JB!), which means more ideas and better problem-solving for you!
So drop your question in the comments section below and we will answer as many as we can (we need to sleep, and we have some other work things to finish!). Ask anything you want, like:
Can I make this ahead, freeze it, or reheat it?
What can I substitute if I can’t find an ingredient?
How do I scale recipes up or down?
Help, something’s going wrong – how do I fix it?
Menu planning, timing, or oven logistics chaos 😅
Even though our last day of work is this Friday, JB has generously agreed to continue helping me with questions right through to Christmas Eve. Thank you JB, you’re the best.
And now…. the Christmas Cooking Hotline is now officially open. So drop your questions below and we’ll jump in to help wherever we can, because Christmas cooking is much more fun with backup! 🎄 – Nagi x
PS Few out-takes from today’s little Christmas shooting session. We know how to cook better than taking selfies. Promise. 😅
PPS Who nailed The Wink? 😉
Life of Dozer
My favourite Dozer Christmas outfit.
Though to be honest, Santa spends most of his time like this:
Which I’m sure is Santa after a few too many Christmas wines. This has absolutely nothing to do with his ride – or the stable hand who saddled up his ride. 😂
What is your absolute must-have menu item every Christmas?
Hi Nagi, I just wanted to say thank you for your recipe ‘homemade gourmet crackers’.
So easy, no rolling required! Taste terrific but subtle enough as a carriage for cheese, dips etc.
no reply needed. Just wanted to say thanks. 😋
Hi Nagi,
Merry Christmas!! Long time lover of your recipes, my husband and I refer to you as “consult the queen of food”.
I am making your never ending pavlova for two Christmas gatherings this year. Last night I tried to make it with pasteurised egg whites from a carton in the fridge section at Woolies. The meringue deflated when I slowly added the sugar and never whipped up. Are there any secrets to making meringue with the pre-separated egg whites or is it not possible? I was trying to save having to deal with so many spare egg yolks.
I am making your Prawn Mango Avocado Summer Salad. I have some gluten free relatives so the rissoni is out (can’t find GF anywhere). I tried black rice as a substitute, wasn’t quite right. Do you have any suggestions? Any other small gf pasta? I thought maybe wild rice.
Merry Chrissie to all of you. You all do an amazing job.
Hello everyone, it’s Nagi here! Just wanted to say thanks for your patience – JB and I will continue to spend more time working through comment responses until Christmas Eve. Yesterday was our last day in the office and our whole team was at RTM doing a deep clean then we had a team lunch to say Merry Christmas to each other! So we didn’t get much time on the questions yesterday. I will be back on it late morning today then each day through to Christmas Eve! – N xx
Hi, I am intending to cook a turkey this year, but take the leg and thigh off and stuff them.
If i do this, do I calaculate the cooking time of the turkey based on the weight of the raw turkey legless and thighless-?
if i was to stuff the turkey do i reweigh and base cooking time on that?
thanks,
any feedback or comments gratefully accepted.
Love you recipes and your generosity.
Rebecca
I’m in Italy and wish to create a glaze for a Christmas ham. Can’t get mustard powder for my old recipe. Do you have suggestions for a simple glaze? Thankyou so much,
Glenice
Hi Nagi and JB. I love this hotline! I’m reading all the wonderful questions that have been raised so far!
My question is, what Christmas desserts would you suggest that are egg free? Or are there any substitutes for the eggs that will be as good as using eggs?
What is a nice chicken thigh/breast marinade. Suitable flavour to pair when serving alongside most salads.
Hi there
I am cooking a slightly larger turkey (14lb) and you helpfully advised the increased times overall, but how does this break down? Do I increase the time at each stage proportionately or is there just one part of the process when I extend the time? Would love your thoughts! V excited to try dry brining for first time! Christmas greetings from Ireland.
I am making your fast soaked fruit Christmas cake with 855 gm fruit – the recipe calls for a 21-2 cm round cake pan – I am making them in cardboard gift boxes (done it before) with several layers of baking paper that is removed before presentation.
my question is how should I adjust the cooking time for the mixture?
Thank you both for all the information through the years – I have followed you since 2012 and rarely ever look anywhere else for a recipe. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
I’ve just made the Chicken Fricaisse and the butter burnt. Is it best to discard the burnt butter before adding the mushrooms and onions or keep going?
I love a glazed ham but have never seen instructions how to best store it.
Do you still store in ham bag?
What is the best way to cook two beef tenderloins cut into two pieces and tied for 20 people
In the Notes to the Pumpkin Soup recipe, the alternative of 2 cans pumpkin puree is offered. What size of cans, please?
I’m in Canada and turn to your recipes first – so reliable and “do-able” – many, many thanks!
Good
I’m making Potatoes el gratin for Christmas dinner at my sons place your website says it can be made ahead of time and reheated please elaborate I want it to be perfect
Hey there! I’m excited to request your recipe for vanilla banana cupcakes. I’m confident that I can create something delicious from it, and I can’t wait to get started. Keep up the fantastic work—thank you!
Hi Nagi, JB and Dozer,
I’ve been using RecipeTinEats for years and last Christmas I made a gingerbread house with my son using your Gingerbread Boxes & Mason Jars recipe. It turned out wonderfully, but it was a little bit floury. I used the quantities for 6 boxes to have enough gingerbread construction dough and we want to do it again this year, but I’d like to improve. I looked up the mass of 1.5 cups of honey last year (510g) but when looking it up again this year, I realised that every source I could find was using American cups and this could possible be why the gingerbread seemed a bit too floury. I see someone did ask 5 years ago for the metric conversion of the ingredients in the comments but no-one replied. Please let me know which cups you use – American or UK/Australian, and if you use the latter (which I’ve always assumed and why I like your recipes soooooo much because I live in South Africa) please let me know how many grams of honey is that? I can use cups to measure out when baking, but I would prefer to weigh but we experience frequent and unplanned water cuts that can last for days in our area so additional sticky dishes around such a cooking- and baking-intense time of year are a nightmare, plus knowing the actual weight I need ensures that I can buy enough ingredients.
Thank you in advance and wishing you the merriest of Christmases,
Tamlyn
I love the Christmas hotline – what a great idea!
Here is my question: We Germans are big on fondue Chinoise for the holiday season. It is a very social meal and perfect to fill our long dark cold winter nights. However, we all know the dish by now, so I am wondering if you have one or two amazing secret dipping sauce recipes to glam up the tenderloin bites?
Help is very much wanted. :))) Thank you so much.