Roast Dinner Timing Planner

Christmas dinner is not a cooking problem, it is a scheduling one: six things that take different times, one oven, and a fixed moment when everything has to be on the table. People do this on the back of an envelope and get it wrong the same way every time — they forget that the meat has to rest, and that the rest is exactly when the roast potatoes want the oven.

Serving at

When it all has to be on the table.

What you are roasting

Weight in kilograms

Between 0.3 and 12.

How you want it

Oven shelves

Between 1 and 4. Two ovens? Count both.

Start at 09:35 to serve at 14:00 — 4h 25m from first thing to the table.

At	Do this	Detail
09:35	Turkey in the oven	5kg at 180°C for 3h 40m (cooked through)
13:00	Roast potatoes	60 minutes at 200°C
13:15	Turkey resting	45 minutes under foil — the oven is free for the roasting tins
13:20	Roast parsnips	40 minutes at 200°C
13:45	Gravy	15 minutes on the hob
13:48	Sprouts	12 minutes on the hob
14:00	Serve

✓ Nothing finishes after it is needed — 6 steps, every one finishing by the time you serve
✓ The rest sits between the oven and the carving — 45 minutes of rest, starting the moment the turkey comes out
✓ The cooking time follows from the weight — 5kg at 40 minutes a kilogram plus 20, adjusted for cooked through
✓ The oven is never asked to hold more than it has shelves for — checked minute by minute against 3 shelves
✓ The steps are in the order you do them — first thing to start is turkey in the oven, 4h 25m before you serve

Times are the usual published guides for weight and cut. They are a schedule, not a food safety promise — check the meat is cooked through before serving.

What this generator does

Works the meat's cooking time out from its weight and cut, subtracts everything backwards from the serving time, and checks how many dishes want the oven at once.

How to use this tool

Say when you want to serve.
Choose what you are roasting, its weight and how you want it done.
Tick everything else that is going, and say how many oven shelves you have.
Read the times off the list, earliest first.

Understanding the controls

Serving at: The moment it all has to be on the table. Everything else is measured backwards from here, so this is the only fixed point.
What you are roasting: Beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey or a nut roast. Each has its own minutes per kilogram, oven temperature and resting time.
Weight in kilograms: The weight of the joint or bird. Cooking time is the weight times the minutes per kilogram plus a fixed extra, which is how the published guides are written.
How you want it: Rare through to well done where the cut allows it, which adds or takes minutes per kilogram. Pork, chicken and turkey are cooked through and have no choice.
Oven shelves: How many trays the oven really holds. If everything wants the oven at once the page says so rather than pretending it fits — count both ovens if you have two.
What else is going: The trimmings, each with its own time. The oven ones are checked against your shelves; the hob ones are not.

Common use cases

Christmas dinner, where six things have to land at once
A Sunday roast planned round a specific time
Working out when to put the bird in for a one o'clock lunch
Seeing whether everything actually fits in the oven at once
Knowing how long the meat needs to rest and what to do meanwhile

How this generator works

The meat's time comes from its weight and the published minutes per kilogram for that cut and doneness. Everything is then laid out backwards from the serving time: the meat leaves the oven when its rest begins, and each side dish starts its own cooking time before serving. The schedule is then replayed forwards to check it: nothing may finish after it is needed, the rest must sit exactly between the oven and the carving, the cooking time must still follow from the weight, and the oven is counted minute by minute against the shelves you have — which is how you find out before the day that the potatoes and the parsnips and the pigs in blankets do not all fit.

Randomness and fairness

Nothing is random. The same weight and serving time always give the same plan.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Limitations and good to know

These are the usual published timings for weight and cut, which is a schedule and not a food safety promise — check the meat is cooked through.
Ovens vary, fan ovens run hotter, and a cold joint straight from the fridge takes longer.
Resting times are the conventional ones; a very large bird wants longer.
Stuffing inside a bird changes the timing and is not modelled.

Privacy and your data

The schedule is worked out in your browser. No times, weights or menus are transmitted or stored.