Big Meal Cooking Timeline Planner

Who this is for

Every dish ready at the same moment. Enter the serving time and your own cooking and resting times, and the planner works back to when each dish has to start.

Anyone cooking a roast, a holiday dinner or any meal with several dishes that all need to reach the table hot and together.

What this helps you track

• The start time for every dish and task, counted back from serving
• Which dishes need the oven, hob or microwave, and at what temperature
• Where two dishes want the oven at once, so a clash can be planned round
• The longest lead time, which sets when cooking has to begin
• Jobs that can be done the day before

How to use it

1. Write the meal, the date, the serving time as an hour and minute, your oven's shelves and who is cooking.
2. List every dish and task with where it cooks, the temperature and your own cooking and resting times in minutes.
3. The minutes before serving and the start hour and minute are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, add cooking and resting time and count back from serving.
4. Read down the start times for dishes sharing the oven and tick clash where temperatures or shelves conflict, then move one to the hob or the day before.
5. Tick the day-before jobs as you do them and tick each dish done on the day.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Where do the cooking times come from?

From your recipes, the packaging or your own experience of your oven. The planner supplies no times or temperatures; it only counts back from serving using the minutes you enter.

Why is serving time entered as an hour and a minute?

So the start time can be calculated. Enter the hour on the 24-hour clock, for example 13 for one in the afternoon, and the minute separately. Start times come out the same way.

What is an oven clash?

Two dishes that need the oven at the same time but at different temperatures, or more dishes than you have shelves. Spotting it on paper leaves time to move one dish to the hob, cook it earlier or reheat it.

Does resting time count before serving?

Yes. A joint that rests after cooking has to come out of the oven that much earlier, so resting minutes are added to cooking minutes when counting back.