Joe's parents, Helen and Edwin, have often recounted stories of their fabulous new year's eve dinner parties or what they called their "last suppers". Edwin (probably in a smoking jacket) satisfying the cerebal crowd with his "5 part gin to 1 part vermouth" martinis and Helen serving a feast, that in the seventies was only associated with 5 star French restuarants. The night would end only when guests were found passed out in the bathroom, faces pressed against the cold tile floor.
No doubt these soirees came to be known as the "last suppers" because of their sheer decadence and debauchery. I am sure it was often the case that the following morning (or afternoon) guests would crawl out of their beds, probably in their previous evening's attire, and think they wouldn't survive new year's day and if they did, revise their new year's resolution never to touch Gin again...at least not for another year!
Damn it! I wanted to host one of these parties. I wanted my own new year's eve Last Supper!
If we were to do this right we needed a suitably decadent dish. Something people had only heard about. Something even the gastronomes had never eaten before and something so excessive there would be talk all over town. Joe and I would out do ourselves and create a feast for 14 people. One that would lure our guests from other more traditional new year's eve celebrations, to our place for a culinary adventure. The dish? The menu's piece d'resistance? A grand Turducken, a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey with sausage and bread stuffing sitting between the layers.
Even though there was some room for improvement, the result was excellent. Everybody was suitably impressed. The birds were tasty, moist (surprising considering it was in the oven for 12 hours) and well marbled. While Joe's Kir Royales didn't match Edwin's martinis for sophistication they were apropos, and started the night's celebration nicely.
The night continued well after desserts. Joe and Nina played piano. Frank sang songs from the musicals Oklahoma, Sound of Music and Hair in no particular order. Unfortunately, no one passed out. We can only try again next year to attain the standard set by Helen and Edwin.
The entire feast's menu:
Hor'dourves
- parmesan 'frico' cups with herbed goat cheese
- crostini with creme fraiche and smoked salmon
- crostini with creme fraiche and salmon roe
Appetizer
- Butternut squash soup with ginger shrimp
Main Meal
- Turducken with classic gravy
- Joey's smooth & fluffy potato mash
- Carrot "tiles" & parsnip rounds
Dessert Selection
- Creme caramel
- Home made chocolate cake with mocha butter cream
- Vanilla pound cake
- Peppermint meringues
- Callebaut chocolate truffles dusted in cocoa
- Soft nougat with pistachio and dried cherries
While the Turducen sounds excessive, this dish wasn't that hard to prepare. I made a modified version of
The result was excellent and I learned a few things for next time. For one thing the Turkey needed to be more than 12 pounds to easily fit the duck and chicken inside. Something closer to 18-20 pounds would have allowed plenty of room for the duck, chicken and some extra stuffing. The 12 pounder I had, almost needed a shoehorn to fit the other birds inside.
The second lesson was the technique of placing the birds inside each other. Instead of layering each of turkey, stuffing, duck, stuffing, chicken, stuffing and then bringing it all together to stitch it a la Turduckenstein, it would have been easier to roll the chicken first around stuffing, then roll the duck and stuffing around the chicken and then place all of this on the turkey before sewing it up neatly. The later would have produced a more even (and aesthetic) distribution of meats when cut for presentation.
Posted by dvenuto at January 02, 2003 11:01 PMTurducen. can you make this in a conventional oven or do you need some sort of mamouth set up?
Posted by: remy on July 17, 2003 05:47 PMAlso, is there room for anything else in this baby? quail perhaps? One other point. How does the skin on the duck and chicken fair. I assume that it won't be as crispy as when they are cooked individually. I want to be the first to make one in the U.K. I have a special occasion on the horizon. I will let you know how it goes. Remy
Posted by: remy on July 17, 2003 05:56 PMRemy
You can make this in a normal convection oven once you remove enough shelves to fit the big bird in. Given that it will take all day to cook, any other dishes you plan on serving need to either be cold or cooked on the stove prepared in advance.
I suppose you could put a quail inside the chicken. The skin of the inside birds won't be crispy since it is kept moist by the surounding layers of meat and fat.
Let me know how it goes.
Posted by: Domenic on July 21, 2003 08:09 AMHello again, I had a real good time preparing turduken and everyone that sampled it thought it was spectacular!! Thankyou for the insparation and feed back. Alas, I did not add a quail, this would have been a little extreme for a first timer, however it won't be the last time I cook this amazing dish, so who knows what I will achieve on a second attempt. Bye for now.
Kind regards
Remy
Posted by: Remy on September 11, 2003 10:13 AM