Turducken

This Thanksgiving, I thought I knew what I was going to eat, you know, the regulars: turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, a dinner role, and a piece of pumpkin pie. While your family members may be a little more surprising, the food of Thanksgiving will be the same year in and year out. This Thanksgiving though, one of my culinary dreams was unexpectedly realized, my aunt made a Turducken.

I have wanted to try Turducken since I first hear about it a few years ago. There is something completely novel about stuffing two birds inside of another bird, and filling that with stuffing. I have tried in vain a couple of times to convince my family to make Turducken, but since many of them subscribe to a vegetarian lifestyle, that was a hard sell. So I thought I would have to wait to try Turducken until a friend's family took pity on me or until the time came that I would have to make a large meal for many people, an event still many years off.

My aunt ordered it off the internet, and I regret not asking the website so that I could investigate the stuffing that came in the bird(s). I believe it was a traditional stuffing of offal, bread and nuts. The meats were not immediately distinguishable, which was funny, as we were all sitting around the table asking, wait, which one is that? After a few taste tests we were able to determine what was duck and what was turkey, but the chicken remained elusive, and no one is really sure there was a chicken in there at all. The tastes of the meats and the stuffing melded together through the long cooking process. The duck did not taste exactly like duck, and the turkey tasted a little different too, but in any case, it was delicious.

The Turducken was a truly a dream realized, so this Thanksgiving, I was thankful for my extended family who love a good gastronomic adventure.

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