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
I got my turducken this afternoon.
At the poultry shop this morning, after talking with several assistants, they pointed me to the butcher who does the deboning. The fresh ducks hadn't arrived yet. They were waiting for the birds to come in at noon. So I chose my chicken, a small 3 lb bird, and the turkey, a 17.5 lb bird. The butcher deboned them while I did the rest of my shopping in the market.
When I came back at 12:10, I asked a man carting boxes around if the ducks had come in. He pointed to the glass case. The ducks looked huge, not the 5 lb bird the butcher said they would be. I asked him to find me a duck. He said, "Already did it."
A woman pulled out a duck from somewhere and weighed it. It was just under 5 lbs. The butcher deboned that and set the whole thing on his table. He called to his fellow butchers and said, "See this? It's a turkey, with a duck inside, with a chicken inside, all debone. It all in one now." The other cutters and choppers all nodded and muttered their appreciation of the butcher's work.
The turducken had no legs. The butcher said, "It's all meat here. When you serve this, you cut across to get all three kinds of meat. The legs will be in the way if I don't take them out. Takes less time to cook." He then wrapped up the turducken in a bag, and in a separate much larger bag, he put in the bones for soup.
As he carried the two bags to the cash, he stopped at every staff and customer to point out he had prepared a turducken. At least four other customers followed us to the cash. He explained what he had done, "This is a turkey with a duck inside, with a chicken inside. They're all one now. All deboned."
The customers oohed and aahed. To my surprise, two of the women piped up and said, "You're doing one of those? Did you hear the program on CBC? Did you see it on Breakfast television? How exciting." The butcher beamed with pride. We had quite a ruckus talking about how to prepare and cook the birds.
"It'll take 12 hours to cook," said one of the women.
12 hours? I read it takes nine. I guess it depends on the size of the birds. But to be safe, let's say 10 hours. I want to serve the turducken at 4:00 pm. So it has to come out of the oven at 3:30 to sit for 30 minutes. That means I have to put the bird in the oven at 5:30 a.m.
Oh my god.
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3 comments:
I knew it! Didn't I ask about the legs? Still, I don't see why the turkey couldn't keep it's legs. It will look like an odd mutant turkey without legs, not to mention the fact that it's growing a duck and a chicken inside.
Did you get to keep all the legs? Can we stick the legs and wings onto a ham and make a 6 legged turduckenham?
Are you going to have to cover it with tin foil to prevent drying or keep basting it for hours? I can't see how baking something for that long not dry out. It'll be a challenge.
JB - I haven't peeked into the bones bag to see if what the legs look like. But if you want to assemble a 6-legged creature, please do so and take it home for some quality time together.
Lardo - The birds are cooked at 225F. Some instructions say no basting needed. Some say baste once or twice if you want. The birds won't dry out because of the duck fat inside the turkey. The duck and chicken skins won't go rubbery, they will go tender, so says the butcher.
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