Stop Stressing! We Have All Your Holiday Dinner Prep Questions Covered

Welcome to Hotline Rewind, the weekly series where we gather up your questions from the week (and pepper in some from the Hotline archives) about a specific topic.

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The combination of anxiety and excitement that comes with prepping and cooking for holiday dinners is almost addicting. Which is probably why, when we put out an ask for questions all about holiday dinner plans, ya’ll did not disappoint! I hope the answers below can help instill you with confidence while you create a flawless holiday spread.

How do I save thin gravy?

This is a recurring nightmare: Using all of your carefully gathered drippings and lovingly crafted stock in your gravy, only to underestimate how much roux that was necessary. No need to panic though! A slurry of 1 part water to 1 part starch (corn, potato, or tapioca) can save a runny sauce. Add in the slurry little by little to start, and let simmer between each addition. The true thickening power of a slurry is unlocked by heat.

Honestly, I’ll sometimes forgo roux entirely and thicken my gravy solely with a slurry. You lose the richness of butter-toasted flour, but you do speed up the process and the flavor of the drippings become the focus.

What should I make for Christmas breakfast?

Full disclosure: I’ve never made or had a Christmas breakfast, but when the surrounding meals tend to be pretty involved, I want low stress and low mess. So I’m doing oven breakfast: things like Baked Challah French Toast and our Chick Pea, Spinach and Chorizo Frittata. I love being able to assemble or fully bake things the day before and reheat that morning.

I’m also into the idea of putting those things out with a bit of fruit salad, a stack of plates, and some forks. Then folks can wander in the kitchen and grab a bit of food when they need a break from opening presents.

What vegetables go with Ham?

Something to cut the salty richness! You can go high acid with things like vinegary greens or a chicory salad with a citrus dressing. Or you could go sweet, like with glazed carrots or roasted bell peppers.

How long can things sit on the counter after cooking, before serving?

Generally, if you want your sides to be actually warm when you eat, they can be out on the counter for 30 to 35 minutes, which conveniently is also the time it takes to rest big proteins like turkey or prime rib.

Now, if we’re talking max time things can be left out, we’re looking at 3 to 4 hours. Any longer and you’re entering what food industry folks call the “danger zone,” when you run the risk of picking up food-based pathogens and bacteria. So chuck your stuff in the oven or fridge, because you definitely don’t want to be known as the person who hosted the holiday where everyone got sick.

How Do You Cook Prime Rib?

Prime rib can seem super intimidating, mostly because it’s a big investment in a single piece of meat (as much as $30/lb). But I do have a low stress, pretty reliable process that will help you through it.

Go with a reverse sear. Here’s how to do it with one disclaimer: If you’re buying dry-aged beef (you should), you can skip step 1.

1. For 3 to 5 days, leave the roast in your fridge on a rack, rib side down. You can wrap it with cheesecloth if this grosses you out. You’re not mimicking dry aging as much as you’re thoroughly drying out the roast in order to improve the crust.
2. Remove from the fridge an hour before roasting and season however you like (I suggest 1 tsp of salt per pound). And place in a roasting pan, bone side down.
3. Roast at 250ºF until the center reaches rare (125ºF) or mid rare (130ºF), about 4 hours.
4. Remove and rest for 30 minutes while you preheat your oven to its highest temperature (around 500ºF).
5. Return to oven, in the same pan, and roast until you’ve developed a nicely browned crust, around 8 to 10 minutes.

Why Is My Canned Cranberry Sauce Upside Down?

So this is super fascinating to me. Ocean Spray engineered a process to can their sauce upside down in order to create an air bubble between the can and the bottom of the cranberry “tube”. This produces a vacuum seal that causes the sauce to grip to the sides of the can. When you swipe the sides with a butter knife, you break the seal and the sauce slides out cleanly.

It’s a pretty ingenious solution. And if we didn’t have it, we’d be digging sauce out of the can with a spoon. Instead, now you can portion out our cranberry sauce into perfect little coins that I find super endearing.

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Have more holiday entertaining questions? Ask away on our Hotline or drop us a line at 1 (877)-52-HOTLINE.