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Well, I did it. One hour Wednesday morning to bone the turkey (Aaron's fresh-killed), duck and chicken (leaving the legs and wings on the turkey), all meat was then bagged and back in the refrigerator, bones cooking in a stockpot.
I made a basic bread/apple stuffing Wednesday night.
Thursday morning, it took under a half hour to put this together. Since I was working with a small (12#) turkey, I used less stuffing than would be needed with a larger bird. I laid the turkey open on the counter, sewed the bottom of the skin closed until the meat was in an oval shape. Then I patted a layer of stuffing, laid the duck on top (skin side down), more stuffing, then laid on the chicken and more stuffing. I continued sewing up, pulling the sides of the turkey up and together.
The first problem came when I turned it over to put in my V-rack. This is a very limp mass without a skeleton, so it sagged between the struts of the rack (picture the waistband of your panty hose). I fixed this with a layer of heavy duty foil poked with holes for the juices to flow through.
I trussed the legs together and ran the twine under and over the bird to shape it.
I soaked a piece of cheesecloth in a stick of margarine and draped over the turducken.
Since this was a smaller bird, I used a 225°F oven (convection oven) and a Polder thermometer in the center. It reached 165°F in 6-1/2 hours, then with the oven turned off, went to 175°F and back down to 170°F by the time we had dinner. I basted twice during the last hour of roasting, no added liquids to pan.
To serve, I cut this in half down the middle, removed the leg and wing and sliced across. It was fantastic! Juicy, done to perfection and definitely not fatty. We had the second half with more company for Shabbat dinner.
Posted by Sharon Kuritzky
Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A