How to Time a Meal for a Dinner Party or Holiday
If you have never hosted a dinner party or large meal before, it can be rather nerve-wracking, especially if you have a main dish and several side dishes to serve at the same time. You may have simple meals down pat, but for more complicated meals, it's good to have a plan. Here is how I do it:
Once I have selected the menu and gone over each recipe, I make a timeline. sometimes it's in a spreadsheet, sometimes just on a sheet of paper, but it helps me to be able to do what needs to be done without thinking too much about what's next.
I always start with mealtime and work backward. If I don't know what time we will eat, mealtime is "0:00", and I use increments of 5, 15, or 30 minutes. If a meal takes multiple days of prep, I add those days as well. Five minutes before mealtime is "- 0:05," thirty minutes before mealtime is "- 0:30," and so on. When I have all the tasks laid out then I can add the actual times based on when the actual mealtime is.
A simple timeline would look like this:
Lasagna needs to rest for 30 minutes before eating. If you forget this, you might cause hungry people to be waiting around to eat. If you were going to serve appetizers, then you want to factor this timing in to the timeline as well: you might want more time between people arriving and eating. With everything planned out in a timeline, I know exactly what I have to do so I am not rushing around at the last minute. If I am making a complicated dinner, then I might have columns for each dish, or each piece of equipment that is being used (oven, stovetop, electric roaster, etc.) and what temperature they need to be. This is quite helpful when you have different dishes you may need to cook or warm through at different temperatures.
For complicated meals, like Thanksgiving, I write the timeline twice: once backwards, like above, and again in order top-down so anyone can follow along with me if they want to. When someone asks "Can I help?" I know exactly what they can do! Writing a meal timeline also makes it very apparent when you are going to have problems. You might need to go back and choose something else to make, make something ahead of time, or ask someone to bring a dish.
As creative as cooking is, it's also important to be organized about it, or it can lead to a lot of frustration. I developed this method out of failures, so I hope it is helpful! Happy cooking.
- Annabelle
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