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In the freezer department tonight, I noticed a mid-sized Turkey priced at a mere $101.71

On closer inspection, the label says "the ultimate holiday food - a Turkey stuffed with a chicken and a duck, and sausage meat". The brand name on this wonder food ? TURDUCKEN

I had my first bite of a turducken in the early 60's in South Arkansas. One of the trombone players in my HS band had just moved up from NOLA and his dad made what I was told was a NOLA tradition. I hadn't thought about that in years but I remember I didn't like it. But to be fair my taste was several hours after the feast.

MikeW wrote:In the freezer department tonight, I noticed a mid-sized Turkey priced at a mere $101.71

On closer inspection, the label says "the ultimate holiday food - a Turkey stuffed with a chicken and a duck, and sausage meat". The brand name on this wonder food ? TURDUCKEN

Not sure if I would buy such a thing prepared. All three birds are well known to have possible e. coli and salmonella problems so I wouldn't want to buy something that had not been frozen since processing and that I did not thaw myself.

A friend of mine prepared one for Christmas dinner last year. Edible but I wasn't very impressed with it.

You know, I never thought of googling this beast ?

I guess I was still reeling from coming face to face with a product that was actually labeled TURD - UCKEN, which struck me as a new record of some kind for a marketing masterstroke (or mis-cue).

It didn't come into focus until my wife suggested TUR - DUCK - EN

I floated this as a thought for the Christmas menu, but the DUCK = YUCK vote was overpowering.

EDIT: Upon googling, I find the recommended cooking method is to oven-roast the turducken at 225F for 9 hours. Sounds to me like a new version of Russian roulette by salmonella poisoning. I did find a slightly safer-sounding method which says cook the chicken first, then wrap it in the de-boned duck and cook that, then wrap it in the de-boned turkey and cook the whole thing. I tried de-boning a chicken once - not one of my major skills - so I guess I'll just give it a miss.

I don't eat much meat, but I happen to dislike ducks while finding their flesh rather irresistible, so once in a while I'll eat one. The duck has got to be the fattest of poultry, and I suppose that's its role in this spectacle. The turkey ought to be wrapped in bacon to complete the concept.

Anyway, get it to 167°F for 10 minutes and there won't be any salmonella left, so 225 for 9 hours ought to be enough, but stick a thermometer in far enough to sample the duck temperature if you have any doubts. I'm not an expert meat cook, but personally it doesn't sound to me like the best way to get good tasting duck.

I guess when dry-cooking it in the oven that long, you can say goodbye to moist, flavorfull white meat on the turkey. In fact, I suspect the dark meat might eventually end up the same way...

If it doesn't, I'll have some with mashed potatoes and corn- YUM!!!