The Five Days of Turducken

This recipe for a Turducken (a chicken, inside a duck, inside a turkey) is based upon that of the famous New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme.  In this recipe I have substituted two Cornish game hens for the chicken and used two ducks.  In the past I have also used squabs.  In addition to the three birds, this recipe also contains three different stuffings: one made of spicy andouille sausage, one made with cornbread and ground up turkey gizzards, and finally an oyster dressing.

Although this recipe does not necessarily need five days to make, having to work to buy the ingredients cuts into prep time.  However, two unexpected snow days at the Kent Washington School District did make the task a little less hectic.

Certainly one of the key cooking concepts for making a dish with as many steps as this one is the French term “mies en place” or everything in its place.  What this translates into is – prepare all of your ingredients and assemble all that you need before you start cooking.  Since all three stuffing recipes called for the use of the Cajun “trinity” (equal parts green bell pepper, onion, and celery), quite a while was spent cutting and dicing large quantities of each of these.

Here we go:

Day One: Saturday

I baked cornbread for the cornbread stuffing.  We always make more than we need because the outside edges are an especially good snack when covered with butter from France.

Day Two: Sunday


The end result of all that cutting and dicing.

 

Making the cornbread stuffing.
Cooking the ground up turkey gizzards.

Assembling all of the components.

Baking the cornbread stuffing.

Day Three: Monday

Making the andouille sausage stuffing.

Deboning two ducks.

Deboning the ducks and game hens requires the right tools and no lapses of attention.  First you need a very sharp “boning knife.”  This knife has a semi flexible blade that allows you to cut very close to and around bones.  You start with a slit down the back of the bird and follow down each side of the back and breast bones.  The ducks and game hens have all of the bones removed because they are inside of the turkey.  For the turkey you leave in the long bone of the leg and the wings to keep the appearance of an intact bird.  Finally, a word about attention.  A very sharp knife in very close proximity to five fingers can equal deboning of the medical kind.  The slightest lapse of attention can result in an unexpected pause in the cooking routine for a trip to the emergency room.

Two issues of food safety are also important to mention at this point: cross contamination and the temperature danger zone.  Especially with fowl, constantly wash your hands, tools, and prep area.  Touching something with unwashed turkey or chicken hands can result in food poisoning for yourself and your guests.  Nothing spoils the memory of a wonderful evening with family and/or friends like 48 hours in the bathroom.

Second, everything must be kept cold.  When hazardous foods remain within the temperature danger zone (between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit), potentially nasty little bacteria can multiply, once again causing you to take up residence in the bathroom.  So only take out of the refrigerator what you are working on and quickly cool down everything when you have finished working with it or cooking it.

Debone two game hens.

Day Four: Tuesday.

Making the Oyster Stuffing.

Deboning the Turkey. 

It is good to start honing your skills with the ducks and hens since slight errors in deboning are hidden within the turkey.  However, the turkey is far less forgiving.  Any tears in the skin will be seen, resulting in it looking like the loser in a knife fight.  In fact, the hardest part of deboning the turkey is when just about all is done.  The final step is severing the connection of the ridge of the breast bone to the breast skin.  This paper thin connection must be very carefully cut by holding your knife tight against the breast bone and sliding it from front to back.  An error here would result in torn skin right down the middle of the breast.

Half the turkey breast deboned.

What to do with all those bones?  The turkey and hen bones were roasted in the oven, placed in a stock pot with carrot, leek, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns.  It was then covered with water, and over the course of several hours very flavorful turkey stock appeared.  The duck bones were frozen for later making duck stock.

Day Five: Wednesday.

Today is the assembly and the cooking of the Turducken.  As you will see, it truly takes a village to assemble one.



Step One:  After salting and peppering the turkey spread out a layer of andouille sausage stuffing.



Step Two:  Place the two deboned ducks on top of the turkey.

Step Three: Place the cornbread and gizzard stuffing on top of the ducks.

Step Four:  After next placing the two game hens, layer the oyster dressing on top.

Step 5:  Here’s where it takes a village.  Our neighbors Paul and Laurie came over to help hold the Turducken in its proper shape so I could sew the back closed.  While Laurie took pictures, Louise and Paul held the bird as I, armed with a 10 inch trussing needle with butcher’s twine, began the suturing process.

The proud parents of an assembled Turducken.

Oh, did I mention that it weighted 33 pounds when finished?

 

The Turducken went into the oven at 12:00 midnight on Wednesday/Thursday.  Not just any oven, but a Rational SCC 61 SelfCooking Center.  This oven is capable of using a combination of precisely controlled heat and humidity to bake or steam anything, while keeping the food moist and never overcooked.  We had to have ours shipped from Germany configured in single-phase electrical rather than the typical restaurant required three-phase electrical, so it could be installed in our home.  Don’t look for one at Sears.  Although the choice between a Rational oven or a Volkswagen took a few minutes, I sort of knew which way I was going to lean before I started the deliberation.

The Turducken cooked at 190 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 percent humidity to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  Don’t worry, the carry over cooking (the internal temperature continues to rise even after you remove something from the oven), took it to over 165 degrees.  The total time in the oven was 10 hours, followed by hot holding it until we headed south for Thanksgiving dinner.

Our new Northwest tradition is to have Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Bill and Vreni.  Their daughter along with her business partner own Helsing Junction Farm, the CSA that we get our organic produce and fruit from.  The typical guests vary from year to year, but in addition to their family, Selma and Mark the owners of Bone Dry Ridge (where we get our meat from each year) are always in attendance.  So we wrapped the Turducken in several layers of foil, put it in a cooler and dove the 83 miles to Rochester, Washington.

The Turducken is a deceiver.  It looks like a regular turkey, but the unknowing are always surprised when a knife cuts right through the center of the bird without encountering any obstacles.  Here, Bill and Vreni inspect the bird when it comes out of the cooler.

Although Bill seems to resist being called a Chef, he did own the Village Smithy Restaurant in Glencoe, Illinois.  He has an amazing ability to put together wonderful combinations of food, often by walking out of his house and cutting or pulling vegetables right out of the ground.  As always, he made a fantastic array of side dishes (potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and two kinds of cranberry sauces), as well as pumpkin pies.

Let the slicing begin.

Seconds and thirds were had by all.  However, a not insignificant amount of leftover Turducken came back to Renton with us.  On Friday Laurie and Paul invited us for dinner at their house, adding in their invitation that it was OK if we bring the left over Turducken.  Our neighbor Greg, and three teenage boys also helped to polish off the remainder of this venture.

Finally, when all was said and done, the few dregs of Turducken left on the platter and some cooked out carrot and giblets from making the turkey stock were strained out, who comes to the rescue to help clean up?  None other than Danechka the kitchen dog.

Our First Kitchen Blog

We came to the northwest with the idea of changing our lifestyle.  Coming from Chicago where I worked as a Pediatric Neuropsychologist, I had the opportunity one day to cut back my practice and take several classes from Chef Patrick Chabert who, upon arriving from France, worked at the famed Le Francais restaurant for 17 years before starting a cooking school.  These classes turned into seven years of two day per week of learning, assisting, and later teaching cooking classes.  Also in Chicago is the French Pastry School which brings famous pastry chefs from France to teach.  Several of the classes that I took along the way included those from Chef Christene Ferber (France's premier jam and jelly maker), Chef Albert Adria, and Chef Pascal Caffet.  Topping off my experiences was the opportunity to have several lessons on bread making in our wood-fired pizza oven from Chef Jorie Downer, who along with Chef William Leaman from Seattle's Bakery Nouveau won the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie.  Travels to most of the regions in France have also honed our palettes for fine regional cuisines.

Upon moving, Louise (my trusty Sous Chef) and I have sought out the fine products that the Northwest has to offer.  We now belong to the Helsing Junction Farm CSA from which we get wonderful organic produce, including mushrooms and local fruits.  We also purchase free-range lamb, pork, and beef from Bone Dry Ridge.  With these organic products in hand, along with a fair amount of products from France (e.g., Valrhona chocolates and Patis France almond paste), we set off on a cooking adventure.

Over time we hope to share with you aspects of our kitchen, recipes, and dinners that we share with our friends.

Our first adventure will be the step-by-step process of making a Thanksgiving Turduckhen (a hen inside a duck inside a turkey with three different dressings).

Stay tuned.  Below is our puppy chef, Danechka.