Mary Berry broadens out from baking to share her unflappable approach to festive entertaining. Here she sets the scene with her tips and shortcuts for a stress-free day...

By Lydia Slater

For a gentle show, The Great British Bake Off is packed with drama.
We’ve seen cakes crashing to the floor, pastry going up in smoke and competitors bleeding or sobbing as their dreams fall as flat as their soufflés.
Amid all the emotion and kitchen chaos, Mary Berry alone remains calm and unflappable.
So who better to have at your side for Christmas dinner – which for most of us is the most emotionally fraught meal of the year?

Even at 77 years of age, Mary Berry remains unflappable cooking her Christmas dinner and now she is here to help you

‘People get into such a state about the Christmas meal,’ she says. ‘And there’s absolutely no need to. Tell yourself it’s just a big roast chicken and you’ll be fine. I love making Christmas dinner, and I wouldn’t ever want anyone else to do it for me.’
We’re sitting in the kitchen of her Buckinghamshire home, where Mary, 77, has just finished a dry run of Christmas dinner for Weekend.
Inside the Aga a turkey is roasting, with sprigs of thyme and lemon slices under its skin, while a huge pile of star-topped mince pies adorns the kitchen table.
The hostess herself is looking relaxed and elegant, and there’s not a single dirty pan in the sink.

 

Organisation, it’s clear, is the key to a Mary Christmas. ‘You need to be organised if you’re going to enjoy yourself,’ she agrees. ‘I can’t relax until I’ve sat down with a big sheet of paper and worked out who’s coming – I’m normally catering for about 12 people – and what I’m going to serve. Then I decide what I can make ahead of time and what I need to order ahead of time. Then I cease worrying.’
Mary has been a TV cook since the 1970s when she was appearing on Judith Chalmers’ show Good Afternoon!
‘Judith gave me one of the best pieces of advice I ever got: she told me to forget about the audience and imagine I was talking to one person who was doing the ironing. If I wasn’t making it all fun, she’d change channels.’

Mary has written over 70 cookery books and has captured the nation's heart again on Great British Bake Off

She’s also written more than 70 cookery books, so she was already something of a national treasure even before joining Bake Off in 2010.
She’s been married to Paul, a retired bookseller, since 1966, and they have two children, Annabel, 41, who runs Mary Berry & Daughter salad dressings, and  Thomas, 44, a tree surgeon. Another son, William, died in a car accident at the age of 19.
Those years of experience have taught Mary to start preparing the Christmas meal weeks in advance. The Christmas pudding and cake are normally made in November, and whenever she has a spare minute she whips up a batch of mince pies and freezes them.
Though she has her own recipe for delicious mincemeat – featured on our recipe cards – if Mary’s really busy she buys ready-made but gives it a home-made twist. ‘I add some apple purée,’ she says. ‘My family don’t like their mince pies too spicy, and it makes the mixture go further.’
The day before Christmas Eve Mary starts making her traditional Christmas Day trifle – the recipe, along with those for the turkey and mince pies, is among those featured on our recipe cards.
‘The trifle tastes better if it’s allowed a bit of time to mature. I just put it in the fridge with some clingfilm over the top, and add the whipped cream and flaked almonds on Christmas Day.’
And on Christmas Eve, the cooking is in full swing. First, she prepares her rum sauce and brandy butter to accompany the Christmas pudding.
These can both be done in a matter of minutes as our recipe card on Monday shows – Mary chills the rum sauce but leaves the brandy butter at room temperature to keep it soft. Then she prepares her stuffing – some she cooks alongside the bird, the rest she stuffs in the neck end of the turkey – and trims her sprouts, leaving them in a plastic bag in the fridge. ‘I usually cut them in half so they cook quicker.’
She even starts on the gravy, using a stock made from the turkey giblets. ‘It’s a bit messy – you need to strain it – so it’s better not to try and do it on the day. Then on Christmas Day all I have to do is strain off the fat from the turkey juices in the tin and add them to the stock I’ve made the day before.’
Perhaps most controversially, she also likes to pre-cook her roast potatoes and parsnips almost to completion, before taking them out and leaving them somewhere cool. 

Mary says it is impossible to cook everything from scratch on Christmas day and she has a dry run in preparation

‘It’s impossible to cook everything from scratch on Christmas Day because you need different oven temperatures for the turkey and the potatoes,’ she explains.

Mary’s Christmas  Day Timetable

Timings are based on a 6.5kg (14lb) turkey, using an ordinary domestic oven.

7.40am Take the turkey out of the fridge to allow it to reach room temperature. Arrange the oven shelves so the turkey will fit.

8.10am Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7.

8.40am Put the turkey in the oven for 40 minutes, loosely wrapped in foil.

9.20am Reduce the oven temperature to  160°C/fan 140°C/gas 3 and cook for a further 3½ hours, basting now and again.

10am Prepare the smoked salmon canapés, cover with clingfilm and keep in the fridge. Whip cream for the trifle and layer it on.

12.55pm Start re-steaming the Christmas pudding. Warm plates and serving dishes if you have a hot plate.

1pm Fold back the foil on the turkey and turn up the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7 for the last 30 minutes to crisp the skin. If you have a double oven, cook sausages wrapped in bacon in the second oven at 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5 for 45 minutes until crisp. If you don’t have a double oven, cook them with the potatoes and parsnips (see below), checking regularly and removing when they’re golden brown.

1.20pm Take the turkey out of the oven and test to make sure it’s cooked. You can leave it to relax, loosely covered in foil and a towel, for 30 minutes before carving. Re-roast the pre-cooked potatoes at 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. Serve the salmon canapés.

1.40pm Re-roast the pre-cooked parsnips  by putting them into the hot oven with the potatoes. Make your gravy using the method on page 73 of today’s magazine.

1.50pm Cook the sprouts, drain and put  in a serving dish. Carve the turkey. Put all  the trimmings into warm serving dishes.

2pm Check the level of the water your Christmas pudding is steaming in before you sit down for the main course. When you’re ready to serve the puddings, reheat the rum sauce, beating well, and scatter toasted, flaked almonds onto the trifle.

All this pre-preparation requires a decent amount of fridge space, of course. ‘But if it’s cold outside you can put things – but not meat – in a closed box and leave it on the back seat of the car if you’ve got a garage, or outside as long as animals can’t get at it.’
But Christmas Eve isn’t just about cooking. It’s also the day she finalises her table plan and even lays the table. ‘I’m fortunate because we have a separate dining room so I can lay it a day early.’
She’ll also create a table decoration from fresh holly and evergreens, some from her own garden. Creating the place cards, however, is a job she delegates to her grandchildren – her son Tom’s twin daughters Abby and Grace, ten, and her daughter Annabel’s three children Louis, seven, Hobie, five, and Atalanta, nearly two.
‘They draw pictures of us doing things we enjoy – Grandpa playing golf, or me holding a rolling pin,’ she laughs.
Traditionally, the family sits down to a giant fish pie on Christmas Eve that Mary has made well ahead of time and frozen – next Saturday’s recipe card will show you how she makes it. Then the younger generation might go to Midnight Mass, but Mary is usually in bed by then. After all, she has a big day ahead.
On Christmas Day, Mary likes to get to the 8am church service. ‘It’s peaceful and there aren’t too many people there.’ When she gets back home, she puts the turkey on. What kind does she get? ‘I like Kelly Bronze. They’re delicious and they cook quickly.’
Then she whips the cream and puts it on the trifle before rustling up the smoked salmon canapés, which are featured on Friday’s recipe card. Finally, she puts the plates on to warm in the Aga. Warm plates are vital, she says.
‘A good tip, if you don’t have spare oven space, is to put the plates on a quick dishwasher cycle so they’re ready five minutes before you want to eat,’ she says.
Mary checks to see if her turkey is done by piercing the thickest part of the thigh joint with a knife and making sure the juices run clear. Today’s first free recipe card tells you exactly how to tell when your turkey is done. ‘I like to have my turkey cooked at least half an hour before lunch,’ she says.
‘Leave it alone to rest loosely covered in foil and it will stay perfectly hot.’ Meanwhile, she turns up the heat for the potatoes and parsnips, scooping out any excess fat from their pan before putting them in. (Her other tip for perfect roast potatoes is to cut each one into eighths rather than quarters – ‘more corners means they’re beautifully crunchy’.)
The family dresses up for Christmas dinner, which they usually have around 2pm. Paul is in charge of the wine, Tom usually carves the bird and Mary’s daughter-in-law Sarah brings the crackers. ‘We read out the jokes religiously. And I have some pointy elf hats we always put on.’
After turkey, Christmas pudding and trifle, it’s time for presents. What’s Mary hoping for this year? ‘I would like an iPad – I’m told I need one, though I don’t tweet or do any of those things,’ she says. ‘I’m quite looking forward to learning how to use one.’
Then the children and the dogs are let out into the garden to work off their spare energy. Meanwhile, Mary is tackling the washing-up with the help of whoever has stayed inside. ‘It’s quite fun when we all do it together,’ she says.
In the Berry household, supper on Christmas Day is also a special affair. Mary makes open sandwiches with cold turkey mixed with mayonnaise and mango chutney, pickled herrings with crème fraîche and herbs, smoked salmon or the remains of the stuffing and sausages.
‘I make a huge tray of them ,’ she says. These are eaten, with mince pies and trifle, before the family retreats to the sitting room to play traditional parlour games like charades.
‘But the food isn’t the be-all and end-all,’ insists Mary, somewhat surprisingly. ‘Having your family around you is what it’s about. So if there were to be a culinary disaster, the only important thing to remember is not to get terribly upset about it.’

All photography by Dan Kennedy