How to time a meal

Building the timeline

1. Write down the time you want to serve. Everything else is measured back from it.
2. List every component, with how long it takes and — separately — how long it can happily wait once done.
3. Find the longest thing, and count backwards from serving time to get its start time. That is when cooking begins.
4. Slot the rest in backwards, latest first. Anything that cannot wait goes closest to the serving time.
5. Mark the oven conflicts. This is where most plans fail — three dishes at three temperatures, one oven.
6. Mark the hob conflicts too. Four rings is fewer than it sounds when two are big pans.
7. Write the whole thing out as clock times, not durations, and stick it on a cupboard door.

What waits, and what does not

Waits happily

Braises, stews, soups, roast meat resting, gravy, sauces held warm, mashed potato over hot water, most vegetables held in a low oven.

Waits a little

Roast potatoes (10 minutes, and they soften), roasted vegetables, rice covered off the heat, steamed greens.

Does not wait at all

Anything fried, pasta, risotto, soufflé, scrambled eggs, steamed fish, green vegetables you want bright, Yorkshire puddings.

Better made ahead

Stews, ragùs, soups, most desserts, stock, pastry, gravy base, marinades, dressings.

Better at the last second

Salad, anything dressed, herbs, fried garnishes.

Practical tactics

• Cook things ahead and reheat. Roast potatoes can be parboiled and roughed up the day before. Vegetables can be blanched and refreshed, then finished in butter in two minutes.
• Use the resting time. A joint resting for 25 minutes is 25 minutes of free oven and full attention for everything else. Plan around it deliberately.
• Choose a menu with one hard thing, not three. A starter that is assembled cold and a dessert made yesterday leaves you free for the main.
• Warm the plates. A dish that has waited five minutes on a hot plate is fine; on a cold plate it is not.
• Do the washing up as you go, or at least clear the surfaces. Space is a resource and it runs out.
• Prepare everything before you start cooking. See mise en place — this is the single largest reduction in stress available.

A worked example: a roast for six

Serving at 2pm. The chicken takes 90 minutes plus a 20-minute rest, so it goes in at 12:10 and comes out at 1:40. Roast potatoes take an hour at the same temperature, so they go in at 12:40 — but they want a hotter oven for the last stretch, which is exactly what the resting period provides.

So: 11:30 peel and parboil the potatoes, shake them, leave them to dry. 12:00 prepare the chicken. 12:10 chicken in. 12:40 potatoes in. 1:15 prepare the vegetables, lay the table. 1:40 chicken out to rest, oven up to 220°C, potatoes moved to the top. 1:45 make the gravy in the tin. 1:50 cook the greens. 1:55 carve. 2:00 serve.

Written down it is obvious. Held in your head at 1:30 it is not, and that is the entire argument for writing it down.

Common questions