It is especially hard this season to stay on any kind of diet… because, in the end… the conversation always goes back to food.
My eldest daughter Kristin had a party for the army women… mostly spouses I believe… in any event… it sounded all too evil… chocolate fondue, cheese fondue… mimosas! I know this was only the beginning!
Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
I have always disliked the bland and often overcooked turkey that is often prepared during the holiday season … even by good cooks. I am particularly talking about the flavorless white meat. My grandmother first helped me address this issue by doing what she called ‘self basting’… that is … simply … taking the stuffed turkey and placing it on it’s breasts… wing and back side up. The fat and juices then keep the white meat moist… or so it seemed.
This made a measurable improvement… but I still didn’t like white meat.
Then we started preparing… ‘turduckens’! This is where you debone the turkey and stuff it with a duck and inside the duck with a chicken! And all of the meat is surrounded and stuffed with stuffing! The white meat became very falvorful and moist and the transfer of flavors from the stuffing to the meat was …. exquisite!
However, there was still a problem.
Allow me to offer this short analogy, some folks like Paella with all the bones and shells… but I don’t like to work that hard to enjoy my food… I shell everything first. As for ‘turducken’, I don’t like the skin left on the duck and chicken!
So…. this is what we finally decided to try this year: we are going to debone the turkey as before… but strip the duck & chicken of meat and add them to the stuffing mix directly…. intuitively it sounds like a wonderful idea… so we’ll see how it goes. After all, we only use one type of stuffing for our turducken.
Now, as you know there are some ‘leftovers’… I don’t have any suggestions for the skin… but the livers… aaaah… here’s an idea for an inexpensive pate’ that may just work out for you! The rest? It’s okay for a gravy base.
Moose for President.. a Turducken in every pot!
Roger Freberg
It really doesn’t seem all that long ago… but I know that Karen wasn’t but a couple of years old… old enough to know the ‘truth’ about the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa…. that they were all “real” just as YOU or ME!