Make Ahead Christmas Food: The Cook's Calendar From October to Christmas Eve

By Arthur Hodgson, Hamper Packing Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.

Most of Christmas lunch can be made or bought before December. Relishes, chutneys and pickles want a month in the jar. Shortbread, crackers, nuts and bon bons keep for months unopened. Pastry cases, glazes and cured fish sit happily in the cupboard or the fridge. Only seafood, salad leaves, dairy and the ham itself belong to the final few days.

What follows is a cook's calendar rather than a shopping list: what to do in October, what belongs to November, which jobs suit the first fortnight of December, and the short list that cannot be touched until Christmas Eve. Nearly everything in the first two months comes out of one place, the pantry range, and then sits in a cupboard doing nothing until you need it.

I pack hampers for a living, in a warehouse in Corio, Victoria. From the packing bench the shape of an Australian Christmas is hard to miss. November is steady. Then the middle of December arrives all at once, and it lands on the fortnight the calendar says you should be spending in the kitchen rather than in a queue. The fix is not to do more. It is to do the same work earlier, in the order the food itself dictates.

Sort the food by how long it keeps

Every make ahead decision comes down to one question, and it is not whether a dish tastes better on the day. It is how long the thing holds. There are three answers, and they map neatly onto three months.

• Months, sealed. Crackers, biscuits, shortbread, chocolate, nuts, mustards, chutneys, relishes, marinades, pastry cases, bon bons. Bought once in October, then forgotten about.
• A fortnight to a season, made. Relish and chutney you bottle yourself, pastry and stock in the freezer, spiced nuts, home cured salmon, custard bases and dressings. November and December work, in that order.
• Hours. Prawns, oysters, leaves, whipped cream, anything dressed or filled. The last two days, and not one day earlier.

Sorted that way, Christmas stops being one enormous December and becomes three small months. For the shape of the meal itself, course by course, here is what Australians actually put on the Christmas table.

October: the shop you do once, and the jars that need time

October is for the shelf stable half of Christmas. Waiting gains you nothing and costs you two things. Festive ranges are produced once for the season and are not restocked when they sell through, and the good designs go first.

A sensible October order covers the board and the bench. Crackers in a plain and a fruited version, a tin of biscuits for the bench, nuts, chocolate, and the gourmet condiments that live beside the ham. Crackerthins at $3.49 a pack are the neutral base you want under a strong cheese, and quince and almond seed crisps at $6.95 hold their shape under a soft washed rind. Bon bons belong to this order too, and it helps to know what is actually inside a Christmas bon bon before you commit to six of them.

October is also when you make anything that improves with keeping. A tomato relish bottled now is a better thing at Christmas than one made in the third week of December, because the vinegar needs four to six weeks to stop shouting. Our old fashioned tomato relish gives you an overnight salted version and a same day one, for when the tomatoes are ready before you are. If a spring weekend over a preserving pan is not the plan, Fighting Furys tomato relish at $12.95 has already done the waiting for you.

November: the freezer, the butcher and the post

November is when the cooking starts, and most of it goes straight into the freezer. Sweet and savoury shortcrust, rolled flat and wrapped, keeps three months and thaws in an hour. So do breadcrumbs, chicken stock and pastry offcuts. A semifreddo or an ice cream made now keeps a month in a sealed tub, which takes the whole dessert course off the December list.

Two November jobs are not cooking at all. The first is the ham. Butchers take orders from early November and whole legs sell out, so book the size you need and collect it in the last week. How much ham per person settles the arithmetic before you ring. We do not sell ham, only the things that go on it and beside it, which is worth knowing before you plan the shopping.

The second is the post. Australia Post confirms its Christmas dates in October, and interstate parcels always close earlier than local ones, so treat the middle of December as the practical limit rather than the deadline. Christmas hampers ordered in November arrive without drama; the same order placed on 15 December is a different experience for everybody involved. Hampers start at $59.95, shipping is free on orders over $100, every box is packed by hand here in Corio, and anything ordered before 12pm on a weekday leaves us the same day.

The first two weeks of December: the glaze, the nuts and the cheese order

This fortnight is for jobs with a two week shelf life, and for the last comfortable ordering window. Spiced or candied nuts made now hold a fortnight in an airtight jar, which puts them at their best on the day rather than stale by it. Toast the nuts for the salads. Order the cheese for collection in the last week, and buy any shelf stable thing you have somehow not bought yet.

Sort the ham glaze in this window as well, or buy one that needs no making. Ottolenghi Smokey Honey Marinade at $22.95 goes on straight from the jar with no reduction step, and the caraway and chipotle in it stop the sugar taking over. Beside the ham you want Dijon mustard, cranberry sauce and a fruit chutney such as Bill's Spicy Pear Chutney, all of which have been in the cupboard since October.

Plan the grazing board now rather than on the morning. Work out how many cheeses, how much cured meat and how many crackers you need, then order the shelf stable half now. Our Christmas charcuterie board has the quantities and the order of assembly.

How long each thing actually keeps

These are the numbers worth writing on the calendar. They assume sealed jars, clean containers and a fridge genuinely at 4°C.

20 to 23 December: assembly, not cooking

The fourth week is the fridge week. Anything that keeps four or five days belongs here, not a day sooner: the custard base for the trifle, the dressings, the aioli, the dip. Cure your own salmon now if you enjoy the job: 48 hours under salt, sugar and dill, then wrapped tight and sliced as you need it. Collect the cheese, let it settle a few days, then give it an hour on the bench. Cook the starchy salad the day before and dress it while it is still warm. Bake the pavlova base on the 22nd or 23rd and leave it undressed in an airtight container.

Canapes are what people leave too late and then abandon. Bought pastry cases solve it. Confiletas mini savoury pastry cases at $9.95 for twelve sit in the cupboard from October, and the filling can be made two days ahead. Smoked salmon tartlets with lemon and dill are twelve one bite canapes in fifteen minutes, no oven. Fill them within the hour of serving.

Christmas Eve and the morning itself

The final list should be short enough to hold in your head. Buy the seafood on the 23rd or 24th, keep it cold on the way home, and eat it that day. Glaze the ham in the morning. Dress the leaves at the table. Whip the cream and finish the pavlova half an hour before it goes out, not at breakfast.

Five things resist every make ahead trick:

• Prawns and oysters. Bought and eaten the same day.
• Dressed leaves. A working life of about ten minutes.
• Filled pastry. Crisp for an hour, soft after two.
• Finished pavlova. The base keeps two days; once cream touches it the clock starts.
• Avocado, banana and cut mango. All brown, none wait.

Common questions

What Christmas food can I buy in October?

Anything shelf stable. Crackers, biscuits, shortbread, chocolate, nuts, mustards, chutneys, relishes, pastry cases and bon bons will all still be sealed in December. Festive ranges are made once for the season and not restocked, so October is about availability as much as calm.

What can I prepare a week before Christmas?

Plenty. Custard bases, dressings, dips and aioli hold four to five days. Home cured salmon holds five days after a 48 hour cure. Cheese is better for a few days settling in the fridge. What you cannot do a week out is buy seafood, dress a salad or whip cream.

How long does shelf stable Christmas food keep?

Unopened jars of chutney, mustard, relish and marinade keep for months in a cupboard. Once opened, most labels ask for four to six weeks in the fridge. Sealed crackers and biscuits also keep for months but go soft days after opening, so buy small packs.

When should I order Christmas food online?

October and November for anything shelf stable, and as soon as you have the addresses for anything posted. Australia Post confirms its Christmas cut off dates in October, and interstate parcels close earlier than local ones, so aim for mid December at the latest.

Put the shelf stable half of Christmas in a cupboard while it is still spring and December becomes a shorter list. Start with the pantry range and the Christmas range, keep the last two days for the prawns, and let the jars do the waiting.