How to time a big dinner so every dish is ready at once

1. Work backward from the moment you eat

Write down dinner time first, then place every dish so it's ready then — as late as it can start, not as early. A dish that finishes at 3:10 for a 5:00 dinner has to be kept warm for almost two hours; one that finishes at 4:55 is hot. For each dish you need five numbers: hands-on prep, cooking time, what it cooks in (and at what temperature), any resting time, and how long it can wait once it's ready.

2. The dishes that can't wait go last

Once you know how long each dish can wait, sort by it. Rolls and Yorkshire puddings should come straight from the oven; they get the last minutes before dinner. Stuffing and casseroles hold for half an hour; cranberry sauce for an hour or more. Placing the least flexible dishes first means the flexible ones fill in around them — which is how three oven temperatures can share one oven.

3. One oven, one temperature

Dishes can share an oven when their temperatures match (within about 5°F, so 350°F and 180°C count as the same) and there's room. When they don't match, one has to follow the other, with time to change the oven between them: about a minute per 10°F, at least 5 minutes. A turkey or big roast usually fills the oven alone, but its rest is a free half hour for the sides. More in cooking at different oven temperatures.

4. Count your burners and appliances

Four burners means four pans at once, and a big stockpot may take two. Slow cookers, air fryers and pressure cookers are extra capacity that doesn't touch the oven — worth using for anything that can go in them.

5. One pair of hands

The step most schedules forget. If the stuffing and the potatoes both need 20 minutes of prep before 3:40, you can't do both at 3:20. Lay prep out one job at a time and move the earlier ones back. In the Christmas dinner below, the prep steps fall like this, never overlapping:

• 12:25 PM — Turkey (20 min hands-on)
• 3:40 PM — Stuffing (20 min hands-on)
• 4:10 PM — Mashed Potatoes (20 min hands-on)
• 4:30 PM — Gravy (5 min hands-on)
• 4:35 PM — Dinner Rolls (5 min hands-on)
• 4:40 PM — Green Beans (10 min hands-on)

When it doesn't fit

Sometimes the kitchen genuinely can't do everything at once: two dishes need one oven at different temperatures in the same half hour, or there are five pans and four burners. The honest answer is to say which dishes clash and what would fix it, not to quietly shuffle food until something ends up cold. The planner tries moving each dish involved earlier, five minutes at a time, replans the whole meal each time, and only suggests a change that clears the clash without leaving any dish waiting more than 45 minutes beyond what it can hold. If nothing works, it says so — and suggests more equipment or a different time.

On the day: when something runs late

A plan on paper can't change when the turkey needs another 15 minutes. The iPhone app can. Dishes already cooking stay where they are; only the steps that share equipment with the late dish move. If dinner itself can't be on time, it offers the earliest time that works — or lets you keep the time and tells you which dishes will be behind.