Meal Synchroniser
Add dishes from any of our cooking time calculators, choose when you want to eat, and get one plan for the whole meal.
We use this to work out appliance space and to spot clashes between dishes.
Your dishes (0)
My Meal is empty. Work out a cooking time for each dish, then choose “Add to My Meal” and come back here to line the timings up.
Reference and detail
Oven clashes
If two dishes need very different oven temperatures at the same time, we say so rather than quietly changing a temperature to make the plan look tidy. You decide how to solve it.
Cooking Mode
Once you are happy with the plan, Cooking Mode shows one step at a time in large text and keeps your screen awake while you cook.
Questions and answers
Questions about the Meal Synchroniser
How do I add a dish to the Meal Synchroniser?
Work out the cooking time for a dish on its own calculator first (chicken, a roast, a side, anything with a cooking time on this site), then choose "Add to My Meal" on that page. It appears in My Meal here, ready to be timed against the others.
What happens if two dishes in my meal need different oven temperatures at the same time?
The planner flags it as a clash rather than quietly picking one. If your kitchen has two ovens, it will suggest putting one dish in the second oven.
With one oven, it suggests cooking the dishes one after the other, using the first dish's resting time to bring the oven to a new temperature for the second, or choosing a later serving time. It will not push a dish outside the temperature range its recipe allows just to make the timings fit.
Does the Meal Synchroniser account for resting time?
Yes, resting is scheduled as a real stage in the timeline, not treated as spare time you can borrow from. A dish's resting window is built into when it needs to come out of the oven so it is ready, not just cooked, at serving time.
What if there isn't enough time to have the meal ready by my chosen serving time?
The planner tells you the meal is not feasible, shows how many minutes short you are, and gives you the earliest realistic serving time. You can either move to that time with one tap or confirm you understand and start cooking anyway.
Does it matter whether I have one oven or two?
Yes, select your kitchen setup above the meal list. With one oven, dishes needing different temperatures at the same time are flagged as something to resolve; with two ovens, the planner can spread them across both and resolve some clashes automatically.
What is Cooking Mode?
Cooking Mode is a step-by-step view of the same schedule, showing what to do right now rather than the whole timeline at once. It starts once your plan is feasible, or once you have confirmed you want to start a plan that is already running late.
Guidance
Read the full guide
- 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.