Questions?
Did You Say “Turducken?”
Did you say “Turducken?”
If the polar bear sculpted out of snow-capped lard, the stunning displays of carved ice and food intertwined in chorus and the fact that many of our featured entrees are from local farmers and ranchers doesn’t entice you join us for our Grand Christmas Dinner Buffet, maybe the Turducken will seal the deal.
What is a Turducken you ask? While the inventor of this masterpiece is still up for debate, it is a very traditional dish. And whether you have tasted the Turducken yourself or heard about it from John Madden during his football game broadcasts, Chef Baskin and his team will have their own version of it. When I asked Chef Baskin what the Lone Mountain Ranch version of the Turducken is, he replied “it’s a turkey, stuffed with goose, stuffed with duck, stuffed with pheasant. All of the birds are from a Montana Hutterite farm and it is all boneless.” Enough said.
Here are some history highlights from Wikipedia about the Turducken masterpiece:
· In his 1807 Almanach des Gourmands, gastronomist Grimod de La Reynière presented his rôti sans pareil ("roast without equal")—a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an ortolan bunting and a garden warbler—although he states that, since similar roasts were produced by ancient Romans, the rôti sans pareil was not entirely novel. The final bird is very small but large enough to hold just an olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds.
· A November 2005 National Geographic article by Calvin Trillin traced the American origins of the dish to "Hebert's Specialty Meats" in Maurice, Louisiana, although readers immediately noted that the concept for the dish itself is centuries old. Hebert's has been commercially producing turduckens since 1985, when an unknown local farmer brought in his own birds and asked Hebert's to prepare them in that manner. The company prepares around 5,000 turduckens per week around Thanksgiving time.
· American football commentator John Madden popularized turducken during a football game broadcast. While announcing for CBS Sports, he displayed a turducken and began carving it. He promoted it again on Fox Sports by awarding a turducken to players on the winning team of the Thanksgiving Bowl. On the November 9, 2008 broadcast of NBC Sunday Night Football, Madden responded to a fan's sign reading "JOHN MADDEN, BRING BACK TURDUCKEN" by calling his fixation with turducken "a thing of the past," stating that he would return to a traditional turkey for subsequent Thanksgivings.
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