StuffingsWhether you take Nigella up on her unusual Gingerbread stuffing - great with turkey - or have a go at Sophie Grigson's heady port and cranberry pan-fried stuffing, here's our selection of stuffings made with lemon zest, pine nuts, chestnuts, bacon, clementines, apricots, apples and prunes among other ingredients. Start with a sausage meat or breadcrumb base and mix and match your favourite fruits, herbs and booze.  We recommend you pan-fry or roast your stuffing separately, but if you do want to stuff a bird with it, then stuff the neck-end. Weigh the stuffing and add it to the weight of the bird to calculate the overall cooking time (an unstuffed bird will take less time). We've provided meat-based and vegetarian recipes below. Vegetarian stuffing can make a great centre-piece for a vegetarian Christmas dinner. If you really like the look of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's chestnut and prune stuffing though, you can remove the turkey liver from the recipe for a veggie version. Meat stuffings
Vegetarian stuffings
Gravy and Yorkshire puddings It's all about the art of reduction. Combine the meaty juices from your roasted meat and deglaze the pan with a spot of red wine, white wine or port. Caramelised onions can add a richer note to your gravy and can be particularly useful for a vegetarian version. Gravy was almost designed to be drizzled over a perfectly cooked Yorkshire pudding. Make sure you get the oil or dripping very hot in the roasting tin (or bun tin if you're going for individual Yorkies) before you add the batter - this will ensure it puffs up beautifully. Make a gluten-free version with rice flour and tapioca flour.
Sauces In the run-up to Christmas, you should be able to get fresh cranberries from the larger supermarkets. Armed with a bag of fresh cranberries, you'll really see the difference between homemade cranberry sauce and bought sauce. Make a large amount of the cranberry sauce and freeze it in batches - one for the Christmas dinner table and a few more servings to go with cold turkey and hams on Boxing Day. Cumberland sauce and piccalilli are also great served cold with cold meats the next day - do buy the best quality redcurrant jelly you can for the Cumberland sauce. Editor's tipYou can make bread sauce a day or two in advance. Pour it into a bowl to cool completely, cover the surface with cling film and store in the fridge. Reheat thoroughly before serving. Both Nigella Lawson's and Marcus Wareing's bread sauce recipes are made with milk infused with a clove-studded onion, though Nigella adds a little mace and Marcus stirs in a dollop of English mustard for a deeper flavour. Either recipe is a worthy addition to your Christmas repertoire if you're one of the households that can't serve turkey without a richly flavoured bread sauce.
Perfect potatoes Christmas lunch needs potatoes - whether mashed, roasted or sliced and slathered in cream for the decadence that is Dauphinoise potatoes. For either mashed or Dauphinoise potatoes, make sure you use a floury variety of tattie, such as Russet, King Edward, Maris Piper, Pentland Squire or Desiree. As for roast potatoes, seek out a waxy variety like Cara, Wilja or Pentland Dell. Patrick Williams adds extra flavour with garlic and thyme - rosemary would work well here too.
Spruced up sprouts Banish memories of overcooked school dinners at Christmas and forget about those boiled watery sprouts you were made to eat. Boil or steam sprouts and toss them in butter, herbs, sweated onion and cooked bacon. Or add chopped chestnuts (vacuum-packed ones are useful here) or a handful or hazelnuts, walnuts or pine nuts to stir-fried sprouts. Richard Corrigan's recipe adds a generous glug of cream for even more indulgence this Christmas.
Other vegetables Who isn't a fan of roasted parsnips? Choose from Antony Worrall Thompson's old-fashioned method, where he roasts them with dripping or try Nigella's maple-flavoured modern version. We're also keen on slow-cooked red cabbage - you can add a handful of sultanas or raisins to Patrick Williams' recipe below. Buttered carrots, turnip gratin and a selection or roasted roots also make worthy vegetable sides.
And finally... Many people wouldn't consider a Christmas table complete without the meaty punch of chipolata sausages wrapped in crisp bacon. If you can't find cocktail chipolatas, cut a sausage into thirds before wrapping each piece of sausage in bacon. You can secure the bacon with a cocktail stick if need be. Or just wrap full-size sausages in bacon as Phil Vickery does:
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