Turducken or not to turducken?

Over the past several years, Kenji Alt, the science guru at Serious Eats, has tackled the intriguing problem of how to cook the perfect turducken. In The Food Lab: How to Make the Perfect Turducken, he gives us the benefit of all that experience. For those of you who aren’t aware of this Cajun dish, Kenji describes it thusly:

“Ever since I was a wee little cook ripping up my first chives, burning my first steaks, and toughening up my first squid, I’d dreamt of poultry-stuffed-poultry-stuffed-poultry. The idea of a Turducken – a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey – is just so damn appealing. How could three such glorious birds not taste all the more glorious together?”

We’re certain that our non-U.S. members – and more than a few of our U.S. members – may regard this dish more as a testimony to U.S. exuberance than a real recipe, and maybe just a little less than subtle.  And the dish is truly problematic. (We speak from experience; Kenji and the writer used to work together and we shared the unstatisfactory turducken tasting he describes experiencing in 2007.)  But, like him, we feel the sheer fun of the dish does demand attention, so kudos to him for not giving up on the challenge.

So did he succeed? Well, he started trying in 2007 and now, in 2012, he finally can state: “With that final tweak in place, I finally had it. This year, my Thanksgiving table is going to be graced with the ultimate Thanksgiving roast. A three-bird, four-beast, hedonistic extravaganza that not only looks and sounds impressive, but eats better than any turkey, duck, or chicken you’ve ever had.”

We’ll let you read how he did it and we’d also like to send on our congratulations!