Christmas dinner à la geek

Back in the old days, the Christmas turkey was lovingly cooked by an experienced parent with a recipe handed down from generation to generation. Which always resulted in over-boiled sprouts, dry turkey and gravy made with granules.

Nowadays, however, you just need to tool up with some tech for perfect results – so here's our guide to cooking Christmas dinner, à la geek.

Preparation

Failing to prepare, as they say, is preparing to fail. Once you've located your turkey (use 450g of turkey per person as a guide), check how long it takes to cook on the packaging and then factor in 30 to 60 minutes to let it sit before carving. If you've thrown the packaging out, check the weight of the bird using this Joseph Joseph Triscale – a good kitchen is a tidy kitchen, and this scale will fold neatly away. When seasoning your food and veg, this digital spoon measure will ensure you don't overdo it on the salt. Set your tablet in the Belkin Kitchen stand, dial up a cooking app like Jamie's Recipes (and pick up the Festive Feasts in-app purchase) and you're ready to cook up a storm.

Slicing and dicing

A turkey on its own is a pretty dull affair – and so is chopping up veg. To lessen the pain, slice and dice with a professional chef's knife – something from the Japanese Knife Company, for example, which uses the same forging techniques as samurai swords to create its blades. Their super-sharp cutting edges won't disrupt the food's cellular structure when you're slicing – which means no more tears when chopping onions.

If you can't afford to shell out top dollar for a chef's knife, then you could try a pair of Onion Goggles – just don't expect anyone to take you seriously. Finally, you'll need a chopping board unless you want to shred your kitchen sides – check out our favourite geek-inspired designs here.

Get your timings right

After all this effort, you don't want your turkey drying out while the carrots are still boiling away. Your best bet? Get yourself this Telephoto Kitchen Timer to keep tabs on time and then check whether the turkey is done with the iGrill accessory and app – iGrill serves up specific cooking times based on the turkey's weight. If you stick to a schedule, nobody will have to endure cold sprouts – and you can enjoy a sherry or two.

Keeping it sweet

Assuming your guests aren't stuffed with turkey and trimmings, it's time for dessert. One surefire way to wow is by using a chocolate printer to print out everyone's favourite designs. Your guests will want coffee, too – so spare yourself the effort of faffing about with a French press with a Philips Saeco Xelsis Digital ID coffee machine – it reads your fingerprint to prep your favourite coffee.