Turducken
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A turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are stuffed, sometimes with a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.
The result is a fairly solid layered poultry dish, suitable for cooking by braising, roasting, grilling, or barbecuing. The turducken is not suitable for deep frying Cajun style (to deep fry poultry, the body cavity must be hollow to cook evenly).
Claims that Cajun-creole fusion chef Paul Prudhomme created this dish as part of the festival Duvall Days in Duvall, Washington in 1983[citation needed] are unverified. A November 2005 National Geographic article by Calvin Trillin traced the American origins of the dish to "Hebert's Specialty Meats" in Maurice, Louisiana. They have been commercially producing turduckens since 1985, when an unknown local farmer brought in his own birds and asked Hebert's to prepare them in the now-familiar style. The company prepares around 5,000 turduckens per week around Thanksgiving time.[1]
Turducken is often associated with the "do-it-yourself" outdoor food culture also associated with barbecueing and shrimp boils, although some people now serve it in place of the traditional roasted turkey at the Thanksgiving meal. As their popularity has spread from Louisiana to the rest of the Deep South and beyond, they have become available through specialty stores in urban areas or by mail order.
The popularity of turducken is mostly limited to the United States and Eastern Canada.
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[edit] Variations
In the United Kingdom, a turducken is a type of ballotine called a "multi-bird roast."
An alternative is using a Goose instead of a Turkey, resulting in a Gooducken.
The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the early 19th century (originally called a Rôti Sans Pareil, or "Roast without equal") - a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. [2] The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. This dish probably could not be legally recreated in the modern era as many of the listed birds are now protected species. [1].
[edit] Cultural references
John Madden, noted NFL analyst, popularized the turducken on air during his announcing for CBS and later Fox by awarding a turducken to players on the winning team for the Thanksgiving Bowl (usually Dallas or Detroit). On the November 9, 2008 broadcast of NBC Sunday Night Football, Madden responded to a fan's sign reading "JOHN MADDEN, BRING BACK TURDUCKEN" by calling his fixation with turducken "a thing of the past," stating that he would return to a traditional turkey for successive Thanksgivings.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Hesser, Amanda. "Turkey Finds Its Inner Duck (and Chicken)", The New York Times, November 20, 2002. Accessed November 21, 2007.
- ^ Cardelli (1829). Manuel du cuisinier et de la cuisinière. http://cuisine.evasions.be/cuisine_1829/cuisind4.htm#_VPINDEXENTRY_701.
- ^ NBC Sunday Night Football, November 9, 2008
