Dinner planning · United Kingdom
Sunday roast timeline planner
Work back from serving time to plan your roast, resting and sides, including Yorkshire puddings in a hotter oven.
A little help in the kitchen
How to use it
Choose your serving date, time and time zone on the UK or Australian page.
Enter the roast's recipe cooking time, rest and oven temperature. Choose conventional or fan and enter all dish temperatures for that oven type. Tool 1 can supply a cooking time when its official country timetable covers your roast; otherwise use your recipe.
Edit the Yorkshire puddings example, or add your own oven, hob or cold sides. Add oven sides in cooking order; the last is planned to finish at serving time.
Set a heat-up allowance before hotter sides. Ten minutes is an editable example, not a measured oven heating rate. Allow enough time for your appliance and recipe, including any instruction to heat the pudding tin or fat.
Choose Calculate timeline. Resolve warnings before cooking and check the official food safety guidance. Start timers when you begin each task; save, share, print or download the calendar.
How it works
Roast out = serving time minus rest. Roast in = roast out minus cook time. Preheat starts 20 minutes before the first oven task. These calculations use elapsed minutes in your selected time zone, including earlier dates and daylight saving changes.
Oven sides are planned backwards in list order, allowing the entered heat-up minutes whenever the next dish needs a higher temperature. A side hotter than the roast always waits until the roast is out and its heat-up allowance has elapsed. Hob and cold tasks finish independently at serving time.
Serving time, roast cooking time and rest stay fixed. If a hotter side cannot fit, its oven slot moves later and a warning gives its finish time and minutes late. The serving marker becomes a target, not a promise that all dishes are ready. Edit the menu or timings to resolve it. Other overlapping oven tasks at different temperatures also warn.
The UK result shows approximate gas marks and a fan or conventional equivalent from the oven converter. Fan estimates use its specified 20°C adjustment; follow your recipe and oven maker when their settings differ. Entered temperatures are preserved, and out-of-chart gas settings are not guessed. Oven capacity, cooling time and safe hot holding are separate checks.
The food thermometer check is separate from the oven setting and the cooking timer. For a UK roast cooked through, keep the centre at 70°C or above for 2 minutes, following Food Standards Agency guidance. Whole beef and lamb can be pink when properly seared outside; rolled joints must be cooked through. The Australian check uses FSANZ's published 75°C meat guidance. Cooking times still come from an official roast timetable or your own recipe.
Frequently asked questions
When do Yorkshire puddings go in?
In the 1pm example, take the beef out and turn the oven up at 12:30, then put the puddings in at 12:40 for 20 minutes. Use the cooking duration and oven setting from your own recipe; a hotter side waits until the roast is out.
How long does roast beef rest?
Enter the rest specified by your recipe. The worked example uses 30 minutes as an editable input. The planner subtracts that from serving time; it does not recommend a new rest duration.
What gas mark is a hot oven?
The UK result shows an approximate gas mark for your entered setting when it falls within the sourced chart. For the conventional 220°C example it shows Gas Mark 7 and a 200°C fan estimate. Follow your oven maker's instructions; conversions do not change cooking time.
How do I time roast potatoes with the meat?
Add potatoes with their own recipe duration and temperature, then choose their position among the oven sides. Different-temperature overlaps warn. If their oven is hotter than the roast's, they wait until the roast is out, even if that makes them late.
Can I make gravy while the meat rests?
Add gravy as a hob task with your recipe's duration. Hob tasks finish at serving time independently of the oven slots. Check that you have the hob space, ingredients and roast juices available when needed.
What if my sides cannot fit, and can I save the plan?
The serving target and roast rest do not change automatically. Late sides show a warning with their finish time; adjust your plan before cooking. Save locally, share settings in a link, print/save PDF, or download one calendar event per step. Timers reset on reload or recalculation.
