We’ll soon all be striving to complete the biggest cooking challenge of the year- but million will fail to perfect the Christmas dinner this year, a study has found. Research revealed around four out of ten people who have cooked a Christmas dinner in the past are yet to pull off the ideal feast.
The study of 2,000 adults also found it takes an average of seven or eight dinners before one can master the festive meal.
The research, carried out by TV channel Food Network UK, also found 55% of respondents said they had learned from mistakes they made last year.
Common errors include cooking far too much of everything, serving the cardinal sin of lumpy gravy, struggling to fit all the food in the oven and getting the timings right.
Nick Thorogood, of the Food Network, said:
“Cooking the Christmas dinner is no mean feat, especially if you are doing it for the first time.”
“The research reveals the common mistakes are fairly universal but encouragingly nothing that can’t be easily rectified.
“Even the most competent cooks suffer from setbacks every now and then.”
One in twenty Brits said they often suffer with a dry turkey, but a brilliantly festive 5% said they drink too much as they go along, with the food suffering as a result.
Two thirds said it was always mucking up the timings that threw them off course.
For 45% of families, cooking and preparing the dinner is a team effort, with both Mum and Dad mucking in.
But 29% admitted they have to struggle alone, and just over one in ten said their Mum mucks in.
But the good news is, two thirds of adults said their dinners were getting better each year.
The poll found 20% of people who host the family dinner said they feel under the most pressure from their Mum- but a quarter said it was their other half who expected the best results.
Thankfully, only one in twenty said they had received complaints over the food they had served on Christmas Day.
Perhaps because nearly half said their family wouldn’t dare complain after all the effort that had gone in to the dinner.
Despite this, a confident 40% said they can whip-up a Christmas lunch with their eyes shut, but a third said they have to rely on lots of lists and notes dotted around the kitchen.
A very honest 37% of those questioned said they don’t think their dinners will ever be as good as good old mum’s.
