Plan a meal
Plan backwards from the moment you want to eat, across every dish, not one calculator at a time.
2 calculators in this section
Why backwards planning works
Roast dinners go wrong because everything needs the oven at once. Starting from the serving time and working back shows you the crunch points while you can still do something about them.
Resting windows are useful space
A joint resting for half an hour frees the oven at exactly the point the potatoes need high heat. The synchroniser treats a rest as usable oven time rather than dead time, which is often the difference between a plan that works and one that does not.
When the plan says no
If two dishes need the oven at temperatures that do not overlap, or the serving time is simply too soon, you will be told plainly, with the earliest realistic time. Set your kitchen up first (one oven or two, air fryer, microwave, hob) because the plan is built around the appliances you actually have.
Questions and answers
Common questions about planning a meal
How do I build a full meal plan on this site?
Work out each dish's timings on its own calculator, add each one to My Meal, then go to the Meal Synchroniser to see them lined up against your serving time and sort out any clashes.
What's the difference between Target Finish Time and the Meal Synchroniser?
Target Finish Time works backwards from a serving time for one dish. The Meal Synchroniser does the same for a whole meal of dishes added from My Meal, and additionally checks for oven and appliance clashes between them.
What happens when two dishes in my meal need different oven temperatures?
The planner flags it rather than guessing. With two ovens it can often put one dish in each; with one oven it suggests cooking them one after the other, using resting time to change the temperature, or choosing a later time.
Is resting time included in a meal plan's timings?
Yes, resting is scheduled as a genuine stage in the timeline, so a dish is planned to finish resting by the time it needs to be served, not just to leave the oven by then.
What if my planned meal cannot be ready in time?
The plan will say so clearly and offer the earliest time it can realistically be ready, or let you start cooking anyway once you have acknowledged it will be late.
Do I need two ovens to use the Meal Synchroniser?
No, one oven is fine. Set your kitchen appliances in the tool so it knows what you actually have; it will flag any clash that a single oven cannot resolve and suggest a workaround.
What is Cooking Mode for?
Once a meal plan is feasible, Cooking Mode walks through the schedule step by step so you know what to do at each moment, rather than having to keep re-reading the full timeline.
Guidance
Guides for this section
- How to Make a Roast Dinner Finish at the Same TimeWork backwards from the time you want to eat, use the resting window for everything that needs a hot oven, and stop two dishes wanting different temperatures.