# I'm making a Turducken

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 24, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109 "2005-12-24T21:01:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/1 "2005-12-24T21:01:49Z")

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Tomorrow’s Christmas dinner is a Turducken. This is a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken. In between the turkey and the duck is cornbread dressing. In between the duck and the chicken is sausage dressing. Stuffing the chicken is shrimp dressing.

The whole thing is cooked for 9 hours or so, served with Eggplant-sweetpotato gravy, mashed potato/corn cakes and homemade flaky biscuits.

For desert is homemade apple pie, a la mode.  
I’m following this recipe:

[http://www.chefpaul.com/turducken.html](http://www.chefpaul.com/turducken.html)  
I have so far deboned the birds, made the corn bread, sausage dressing, cornbread dressing.

This is turning out to be a surprisingly epic undertaking.

Tonight, when I get home I must make the shrimp dressing and tomorrow morning I must put the whole thing together and bake it’s ass.  
What do you think?

Anybody else attempting anything special?

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### Author: ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/2 "2005-12-24T21:11:51Z")

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> [@Scylla](#):
>
> Tomorrow’s Christmas dinner is a Turducken. This is a deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken. In between the turkey and the duck is cornbread dressing. In between the duck and the chicken is sausage dressing. Stuffing the chicken is shrimp dressing.
> 
> The whole thing is cooked for 9 hours or so, served with Eggplant-sweetpotato gravy, mashed potato/corn cakes and homemade flaky biscuits.
> 
> For desert is homemade apple pie, a la mode.  
> I’m following this recipe:
> 
> [http://www.chefpaul.com/turducken.html](http://www.chefpaul.com/turducken.html)  
> I have so far deboned the birds, made the corn bread, sausage dressing, cornbread dressing.
> 
> This is turning out to be a surprisingly epic undertaking.
> 
> Tonight, when I get home I must make the shrimp dressing and tomorrow morning I must put the whole thing together and bake it’s ass.  
> What do you think?
> 
> Anybody else attempting anything special?

This sounds great! What time you figure it’s gonna be ready? 😃  
I admire your ambition for this in reading the reciepe. I’d never even heard of this.  
Have a great Christmas day and greater dinner. And thanks for the tip on this.

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### Author: ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/3 "2005-12-24T21:22:30Z")

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I have to admit I’m selfishly divided on this project. On one hand, it would be a culinary marvel that the entire family may remember fondly for years.

OTOH, it could go really, really badly and you’ll scribe another Instant Classic.

Seriously, I’m kinda torn here. ☹

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### Author: ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/4 "2005-12-24T22:09:31Z")

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You can get them mail order from a number of places.

This site is the one that the Wall Street Journal ranked #1, from what I understand: [http://www.cajungrocer.com/](http://www.cajungrocer.com/)

Let us know how it turns out!!

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### Author: ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/5 "2005-12-24T22:14:41Z")

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Alternately, you could have a butcher do the deboning for you, and proceed from there. If Paula Deen from the Food Network can take that shortcut, so can you. 🙂

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### Author: ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/6 "2005-12-24T22:20:52Z")

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> [@Ferret Herder](#):
>
> Alternately, you could have a butcher do the deboning for you, and proceed from there. If Paula Deen from the Food Network can take that shortcut, so can you. 🙂

It’s tough to find a good butcher in a lot of areas. Denise, I don’t know if you remember when our hometown had its own butcher? I believe he closed up shop in the early 70’s.

Gonna be up for the holidays, **Ferret Herder**?

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### Author: ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/7 "2005-12-24T22:25:00Z")

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> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#):
>
> It’s tough to find a good butcher in a lot of areas. Denise, I don’t know if you remember when our hometown had its own butcher? I believe he closed up shop in the early 70’s.
> 
> Gonna be up for the holidays, **Ferret Herder**?

There’s that one on the north side of (the big) town, isn’t there? Though they’re more of a brats/sausage specialist, now that I think of it.

I’ll actually be up in that neck of the woods the weekend before MLK Day; spending this Christmas with the inlaws.

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### Author: ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/8 "2005-12-25T00:30:18Z")

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I’ve heard about the chicken in a turkey thing, but this one sounds like something I might hear about from my fellow manic friends. 🆒

Good luck, it all sounds overwhelming to me but very yummy!

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### Author: ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/9 "2005-12-25T01:26:28Z")

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I wondered where you were getting the calories to fuel these marathon jaunts of yours. Now I know.

Shrimp dessing? Given how quickly seafood goes bad will that keep OK as a leftover?

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### Author: ![Adoptamom\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Adoptamom\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adoptamom_II)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/10 "2005-12-25T01:40:53Z")

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We had a turducken once for either Christmas or Thanksgiving … I forget which one. We live in cajun country, purchased it from a place that had “rave” reviews for their preparation of this dish. I’m sorry to report that none of us cared for it much. I hope your experience is a better one.

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### Author: ![wonder9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c57346/32.png) [@wonder9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonder9)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/11 "2005-12-25T02:00:35Z")

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My 19 year old son made a Turducken for a group of friends at Northeastern University. It may have affected his grades for the semester.  
It took one full day to prepare. It took 16 hours to cook. He and his friends took two hour shifts, starting at 3:00am, to baste it.  
It fed 30 hungry college students.

It. was. an. event.

Anyway, he said it was great. Huge amounts of work and he says he can’t look at a bird now without imagining how to debone it. But it was certainly a high point of the year for him.

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### Author: ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/12 "2005-12-25T02:32:04Z")

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I made one without the stuffing last year. IMHO, the high fat content of the duck ruined the whole thing, it all tasted like duck. Next time I’m going to stuff the chicken with some cornish hen breasts then put that in the turkey.

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### Author: ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/13 "2005-12-25T02:50:29Z")

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For a minute there, just glancing at the title, I thought the OP was making some kind of cannibalistic meal out of **Tuckerfan**. I’m glad to know that’s not the case.

Stranger

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### Author: ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/14 "2005-12-25T03:56:54Z")

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> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#):
>
> You can get them mail order from a number of places.

Some grocery stores carry them, too. We got ours–a [Cajun Specialty Meats](http://www.cajunspecialtymeats.com/) product–from [Harris Teeter](http://www.harristeeter.com/) and had our Christmas dinner tonight. It cooked in just over 4 hours.

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### Author: ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/15 "2005-12-25T04:28:53Z")

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> [@Stranger On A Train](#):
>
> For a minute there, just glancing at the title, I thought the OP was making some kind of cannibalistic meal out of **Tuckerfan**. I’m glad to know that’s not the case.
> 
> Stranger

You too, eh? Actually, I thought it said “Tuckerden”, and that he was going to kidnap poor ol’ **Tuckerfan** and lock him up in the basement or something…

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### Author: ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/16 "2005-12-25T04:32:22Z")

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> [@racer72](#):
>
> I made one without the stuffing last year. IMHO, the high fat content of the duck ruined the whole thing, it all tasted like duck. Next time I’m going to stuff the chicken with some cornish hen breasts then put that in the turkey.

Part of the purpose of the stuffing is to soak up the juices, so that might have something to do with it. With this bird I’m making, I’ve trimmed all the excess skin and fat that I can to avoid this situation.  
Just finished with the Shrimp stuffing, so I’m all ready to assemble tomorrow morning.

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### Author: ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/17 "2005-12-25T05:31:46Z")

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> [@TheLoadedDog](#):
>
> You too, eh? Actually, I thought it said “Tuckerden”, and that he was going to kidnap poor ol’ **Tuckerfan** and lock him up in the basement or something…

“It rubs the lotion on its skin and puts it in the basket.”

Stranger

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### Author: ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/18 "2005-12-25T05:43:38Z")

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Couldn’t they have come up with a better name for those things?

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### Author: ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/19 "2005-12-25T13:32:20Z")

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> [@Rysdad](#):
>
> Couldn’t they have come up with a better name for those things?

They needed something to compete with the badly-named vegan product “Tofurkey” I guess.

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### Author: ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2005, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109/20 "2005-12-25T13:41:09Z")

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[Amusing turducken thread from 2004.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4913921#post4913921) Just ignore posts 81 & 82 if you get that far.

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-making-a-turducken/337109.md?page=2)
