Trying A New Recipe For Christmas? Here's The Best Approach To Minimize Failure

There's nothing worse than finding a new recipe you think will be a hit on Christmas until you start preparing it the night before (or worse, the day of) and Murphy's law rears its ugly head — what can go wrong, will go wrong. You misread 5 pounds of onions for 5 single onions, you roll out a perfect from-scratch pie crust only to realize you don't own a pie pan, you accidentally set the prime rib to broil instead of bake, and now your guests get beef jerky — yes, I have committed all of the above Christmas cooking crimes. But if there's one thing I've learned from my festive fails it's to always test a new recipe at least once before serving it to a crowd.

It may sound like overkill to spend extra time and money on testing a new recipe, especially during the holidays; but in the long run, practicing will save you so much stress come the day of. Whether or not a new recipe challenges your cooking or baking skills, it's still a good insurance policy to give it a practice run. You won't believe the number of times Ina Garten tests a recipe before it goes into one of he cookbooks and the same is true for restaurant chefs before they add new dishes to a menu. As a bonus, if the dish is a hit, you now have a tried-and-true recipe to add to your cooking arsenal for next year's holiday season, another festive gathering, or simply just because.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas — earlier if your schedule tends to get hectic — set aside time for a "recipe rehearsal." A few hours one day is plenty if you're testing one or two dishes. For more, span your recipe testing over the course of several days. Even though most recipes list their total cook time, give yourself an extra 30 minutes to an hour since first attempts almost always take longer than projected. It's also helpful to start a timer the moment you begin gathering ingredients and stop it once the dish is plated. This helps you track how long it actually took, see if you can streamline the process on a second run (if necessary), and estimate how long the dish will take on Christmas Day.

Jot down notes that might help you improve the next round: preparation steps to adjust, ingredient shortcuts or changes, tweaks to cook and bake times, and plating ideas or garnish options. If you're open to it, ask others to taste your test batches; outside opinions often highlight small things you may overlook. If you're open to it, ask others to taste your test batches; outside opinions often highlight small things you may overlook.

One of the biggest perks of testing a recipe early is discovering whether it's actually right for your holiday table. If it's not what you imagined for whatever reason, you'll still have time to return to the drawing board (or Pinterest board) and choose something new, ideally landing on a recipe that becomes a keeper with a little practice.