See:
December 4 - In Pursuit of Turducken
December 22 - Pride of Turducken
December 24 - Adventure with Turducken
December 25 - Fun with Turducken
December 26 - Christmas Eve with Turkducken
December 27 - Boxing Day with Turkducken
January 31 - Turducken at Large
A turducken is a set of three deboned whole birds - a turkey stuff with a small duck, stuffed with a smaller chicken. In between each bird is a layer of stuffing. Apparently, it's an American specialty, originating from the deep south.
That's what I want to make this Christmas.
I described this dish to some friends yesterday. In unison, they went, Eewww, raising objections like, But the duck and chicken skins inside the turkey would be rubbery, But the duck fat is really really fattening, Why do you need three birds at Christmas? All good concerns. None of which entered my consciousness when I heard about the concept.
I have called several butchers to see how they can make the assembly of the birds easier for me. To my surprise, every butchers I spoke to knew what a turducken is. When I described what I wanted to a young man, assuming he was too young to know anything, he came back with, You're talking about a turducken. I guess turducken is common butcher parlance these days.
The three birds can cost up to $150, if you don't want to do any work. One butcher will do everything for you, including the stuffing. You just place the order over the phone, pick up the assembled package, go home and stick it in the oven. But I don't like that. Why not go all the way and get Swiss Chalet take out? I want do make my own stuffing. I want to choose the birds and handle them, but not too much. It's the dirty work of deboning the birds I want to get rid of.
I have found a butcher who will meet my needs. This butcher is in our former immigrant, former bohemian, currently chic Kensington Market. I go in to choose the birds. They debone them while I wait. That way, I can still make my own stuffing to go between the birds and tie up the ensemble myself. I calculate the whole thing will cost about $75. Now I just wait till Christmas week and hope that butcher has all the birds in stock. Fuck the fat.
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7 comments:
I'll stick with haggis, puleeese.
Mmmm, haggis.
Can't you de-skin the chicken and duck before they're stuffed into the turkey?
I shall find out about deboning and deskinning. I'll consult with my recipe more thoroughly.
Can you somehow arrange to have a live Turkey swallow a duck that ate a chicken?
And if you're feeling a little more adventurous, there's always....
Whole Stuffed Camel
In a cookbook called International Cuisine, presented by California Home Economics Teachers, 1983 (ISBN 0-89626-051-8), you will find:
Stuffed Camel
1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
60 eggs
12 kilos rice
2 kilos pine nuts
2 kilos almonds
1 kilo pistachio nuts
110 gallons water
5 pounds black pepper
Salt to taste
Skin, trim and clean camel (once you get over the hump), lamb and chicken. Boil until tender. Cook rice until fluffy. Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice. Hard boil eggs and peel. Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice. Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens. Add more rice. Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice. Broil over large charcoal pit until brown. Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice. Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts. Serves friendly crowd of 80-100.
Shararazod Eboli Home Economist, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
I tried that on the weekend. But the silly duck spat up chicken feathers and wouldn't hold still for the turkey. Our backyard is such a mess now.
Think sticky rice would work as well in the camel recipe?
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