The 12 cooking conundrums of Christmas lunch – and how chefs would answer them

To cross or not to cross your sprouts with a knife? Should you cook your veg the day before? And what’s the optimum time to sit down for your main meal to ensure maximum feasting throughout the day? Leading chefs give Emma Henderson their top tips for cracking Christmas dinner

The bird is the word: find out how professional chefs tackle turkey, and what they do with the leftovers (Getty)

If you’re cooking Christmas dinner for the first time this year, the No 1 rule is... don’t fret.

But it’s easy to say that before the relatives arrive and the chaos begins. Before you’re inundated with unsolicited opinions on how to do this and how not to do that. Before the oven is full with an oversized hunk of meat and all the overdone vegetables anyone could ever want. Before every surface is covered with used pots, pans, utensils, open bottles, and anything else that was just hours ago neatly packed away in the cupboard.

Everyone has their little tricks that are discovered and perfected over the years; tips that have been mastered through experimenting or, more likely, lessons learnt when it goes wrong. From something as simple as ensuring everything is actually cooked to shunning the trendy goose fat for roast potatoes, there’s an awful lot that newbies and seasoned Christmas cooks alike can benefit from.