How to deliver Christmas. Rose Prince, Telegraph Food Writer and author of 'The New English Table' talks about how to make Christmas 2008 one to really remember.
It used to be that to pull off a great Christmas meal you needed the organisational skills of a general, the catering skills of a navy cook, the wallet of a king and a large fleet of helpers. Those last few days of shopping before the Christmas Eve deadline, spent either standing in a supermarket queue a street long, or buzzing from butcher to baker to grocer to deli like a paddle steamer, collecting ever heavier bags.
Once unpacked, the anxiety starts. How long will the turkey need in the oven? Will the stuffing ever cook? Will there be enough? Of course in the end there was far too much and meals with turkey leftovers continued into the New Year. Not that there is anything wrong with leftovers, but there is something wrong when Christmas is a time for cooks to dread.
But it need not absorbs quite so much effort, time or money. The major change to take place in the last decade has been the success of mail order, or home delivery (most foods can not be put through the post.) For a while it seemed as if mail order would never take off. Deliveries frequently went astray, couriers were reluctant to take chilled goods and the same refrigerated foods, undelivered, ended up rotting on warehouse shelves.
Shoppers did not give up, however, and now vans whizz all over Britain delivering vegetable boxes, fresh meat and even fresh fish, deli items, chocolates, even charcoal to grill the meat over. It has also played a major part in revitalising farming, too. Farmers who once sold their livestock direct to wholesalers and through markets are now finishing and butchering their own, before selling direct to private customers, delivering to the doorstep. They often, crucially, offer good value for money and at the same time it has boosted their incomes.
And it is all encompassing, with producers located in remote areas like the Highlands and Island, the Welsh Mountains, Lake District or Exmoor able to take part in this new wave of shopping. Many also report how much they enjoy dealing directly with the person that ultimately tastes what they have grown, reared or cooked.
But what does it mean to Christmas? Shopping for Christmas food by mail order obviously cuts the stress of visiting busy shops and high streets close to Christmas. No waiting in the queue for the car park, no standing in line only to be told the one thing you really wanted is sold out.
If you book your deliveries all for one period, a morning or afternoon close to Christmas, you can spend a satisfying time unpacking everything, getting your ducks in a row, as it were. And because online shopping or home delivery companies include so many artisans and specialists, there is a wide choice of rare breed meats, hand made cheeses, traditionally made bread and other extraordinary items that supermarkets can not have access to.
Many offer helpful services. At Christmas they will prepare homemade stuffing, even provide real gravy and bread sauce. Some are one stop shops (see listing) – and can send literally everything you need including a time plan for preparing it all.
I prefer to order only raw materials for the Christmas meal, and spend a happy afternoon in the kitchen on Christmas Eve, doing the preparation including peeling and parboiling potatoes so it is a matter of simply putting everything in the pan on Christmas Day. I turn on the radio as I work, hum to the King’s College Choir (badly) and open a bottle of champagne. As for the rest of Christmas food? Well that is what online stores selling good charcuterie, smoked salmon, cheesemongers and bakers are for. My philosophy is this, cook the meal, and after that you earn the right to enjoy everyone else’s efforts.
One-stop Christmas Shops
Riverford Organic Farm Shop (Devon)
Last orders: 17th Dec
Christmas turkeys, grown slowly at high altitude at Frenchbeer Farm on the edge of Dartmoor; geese from Totnes, homemade stuffing, puds, cheese, bread, and plenty of vegetables, fruits, apple juices and wines. All you need under one roof.
Walsingham Farms Shop (Norfolk)
Local delivery, last order date 17th December
Norfolk Bronze and Black turkeys, stuffings, vegetables are grown within 30 miles of the shop, cakes, fish sourced from day boats on the Norfolk coast and much more.
Weeton’s (Yorkshire)
For Christmas there is a three bird roast, a boned and trussed turkey stuffed with a boned duck stuffed with a boned pheasant with homemade stuffing; Stand Pie made with Yorkshire game and fruit, sloe gin truffles, Swaledale and Berwick Edge cheeses, cream, sauces, hand made sausages made, vegetables, salad and smoked fish.
The Store (Scotland)
Beef is grass fed Aberdeen Angus, reared on the shops own farm, turkeys are from England, ready to stuff with ‘Aberdeen Oatmeal Stuffing,’ a mix of Grampian oatmeal, suet, onion and pepper. Gravy, stock and bread sauce also available, local vegetables, Carrolls heritage potatoes, chickens from Linda Dick in the borders, a range of homemade sticky puddings and much more.
Melrose & Morgan (London)
Ask for “Christmas in a box” – giving the number of guests and M&M will do the rest. They calculate the size of the turkey, the pudding, the quantity of potatoes etc, give you cooking instructions and a time table. Also in the box, soup, artisan cheeses, goosefat, pickled fruit, homemade stuffing, bread sauce and more.
Clarke’s (London)
Closes 22nd December
Sally Clarke’s well edited shop sells perfect Christmas cakes, artisan breads, juicy gooey cakes, hand rolled chocolate truffles, farmhouse cheeses and hand made oatcakes, ginger bread, savoury tarts, stolen and pan forte.
The Ginger Pig (London)
Last orders – [call Paul Hughes]
Not quite a one stop shop but it is in such a good shopping street it is forgivable. Mature, Longhorn beef, hung for 4 weeks; broad breasted, free range Bronze turkeys, hung for up to 2 weeks for flavour then dry-plucked; chickens as large as capons. Paul Hughes makes outstanding potted meats, sausage rolls, pies and terrines including duck and pistachio, chicken liver, oxtail or ham and parsley. Stuffing is also available along with sausages and sausage meat. Mince pies are also excellent – for cheeses, breads, dairy food and cakes, pop next door to la Fromagerie.
You can find the rest of Rose Prince's Top Christmas producer recommendations by clicking here.
Try some of Rose's Christmas Recipes: