Turducken: Thanksgiving's Best Bird

When Thanksgiving Day rolls around every cook wants to add a few new recipes to go along with the favorities. What better way to spice up the Thanksgiving holiday than with a Turducken. Exploding in popularity since the late 1990's, the Turducken is a holiday staple in the South and gaining popularity throughout the U.S.

Turducken - What is It?

Turducken is turkey stuffed with duck stuffed with chicken - all stuffed with stuffing. Well, there is a little more to it than that - but not much. Once you get the Turducken picture in your mind you're halfway there to creating your own - or deciding if you'd rather just order one.

For those who enjoy Turducken, the consensus is once you've tasted this unique Thanksgiving offering, you'll never return to plain old turkey.

Who Created Turducken?

Famous cajun-creole chef extraordinaire Paul Prudhomme is often credited with creating the Turducken. But National Geographic magazine traced the roots of this now famous bird(s) to Maurice, Louisiana and "Hebert's Specialty Meats," a company that has been producing and selling the Turducken since 1985.

None other than NFL football commentator John Madden champions the Turducken as his favorite Thanksgiving bird of choice. He has been known to order multiples for the Thanksgiving football gameday crew.

While the origination of the Turducken may be claimed by cooks in Louisiana, the idea of stuffing birds with other birds goes back even further. In 1832, the Charleston, South Carolina diary of John B. Grimball discusses the stuffing of a peacock or turkey with a goose, stuffed with a capon, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a guinea hen, stuffed with a quail, stuffed with a dove.

Continue to research and you will find links to deboning and stuffing various birds and animals as far back as the 14th century - proving the Turducken rather tame by comparison.

How to Make Turducken

If you are interested in attempting a Turducken all by yourself for Thanksgiving, extensive guidance and instructions can be found by clicking on Making a Turducken at FabulousFoods.com. Here the originators, Sammy and Trey Hebert, outline the entire process including the deboning of the turkey, duck, and chicken.

The deboning is what makes the entire Turducken recipe possible. And, unless you are quite skilled in the kitchen, deboning is not something you should attempt for your first Turducken. Find a butcher who will carry out this process for you. However, viewing the steps outlined by Sammy and Trey Hebert will provide you with the knowledge you need to guide a butcher who is unfamiliar with the procedure.

Once you have the birds deboned, it is a simple matter to stuff and cook the birds. If you have cooked a Thanksgiving turkey, then you can cook a Turducken. You will need a meat thermometer and continuous attention to baste and rebaste to make sure that your Turducken doesn't dry out.

Turducken Stuffing

There are two schools of thought when preparing stuffing for a Turducken. The original cajun/creole style is to use different stuffings for each layer. This usually involves typical cajun/creole seasonings and andouille sausage, crawfish, oysters, cornbread and more.

The second school of thought is to find one stuffing that complements all birds and to use it in every layer. According to fans of this style of stuffing a Turducken, this lets the flavors of each meat shine through.

We won't point out that it also simplifies the recipe and reduces your time in the kitchen.

A recipe for Thanksgiving Turducken with a single stuffing can be found here. Additional Turducken stuffings for traditional, cajun and southwestern flavors can be found here.

Turducken Recipes

If you're brave enough to try deboning the birds yourself, you'll need to know what sizes you'll need for your Turducken recipe. Cyndi Allison at Suite101.com provides some guidance in her article that you can find by clicking here.

In addition to the recipe links listed in the other sections of this article, here are a few more to help you on your Turducken adventure. The Gumbopages.com lists a thorough Turducken recipe here complete with tools needed, dressings, seasoning, and gravy recipes.

The Gumbopages article also lists some places to order authentic Turducken - just in case you lose your nerve.

Sources:

Turducken, wikipedia.com

Hebert's Speciality Meats Web Site

Calvin Trillin, "Turducken Town," NationalGeographic.com

Cheri Sicard, "Making a Turducken with Sammy and Trey Hebert," FabulousFoods.com

Amanda Hesser, "Turkey Finds Its Inner Duck," The New York Times, nytimes.com

Elizabeth Catalanotto, "It's all in the stuffing: a Turducken Christmas," Buzzle.com

Cyndi Allison, "This Southern Turducken Recipe is a Creole Holiday Favorite" Suite101.com

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Turducken, GumboPages.com