Turducken Is For Sissies

Turducken is all the rage, right now.

For those who think making one is a production number worthy of C.B. DeMille, I thought I'd post one of Hannah Glasse's recipes (would have been called a reciept back then). Ms Glasse wrote the first edition of her iconic The Art of Cookery Made Plain And Simple in 1745.

Back then, the long es was used in all instances but for the sake of clarity I've cleaned that up.

To make a Yorkshire Christmas Pie


First make a good standing crust , let the wall and bottom be very thick; bone a turkey, a goose, a fowl, a partridge, and a pigeon; season them all very well, take half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of black pepper, all beat fine together, two large spoonfuls of salt, and then mix them together; open the fowls all down the back, and bone them; first the pigeon, then the partridge; cover them; then the fowl, then the goose, and then the turkey, which must be large; season them all well first, and lay them in the crust, so as it will look only like a whole turkey; then have a hare ready cased and wiped with a clean cloth; cut it to pieces, that is, joint it; season it, and lay it as close as you can on one side; on the other side woodcocks, moor game, and what sort of wild fowl you can get; season them well, and lay them close; put at least four pounds of butter into the pie, then lay on your lid, which must be a very thick one, and let it be well baked; it must have a very hot oven, and will take at least four hours.


Ms Glasse notes, by the way, that “Thefe pies are often fent to London in a box, as prefents; therefore the walls muft be well built.”

I would think so!

Before rushing out to bake one of these be warned. The crust for one of them will take a bushel of flour. But, if anyone really wants the recipe…….

 

Turducken is a three-layered dish that, if I recall correctly, Paul Prudhomme introduced several years ago. The TV chefs have all touted it the past two years or so, and everybody now wants to try their hand at it. Even some supermarkets are selling them.

It's a boned chicken, inside a boned duck, inside a boned turkey---thus TURkey, DUCk, chicKEN. They layers are separated by some sort of pate and seasonings.

But that's only three birds. Hannah Glasse's recipe has five, layered together and reshaped like a turkey, plus the assorted side meats. And it's all baked in a pieshell, unlike a turducken, which isn't.

BTW, in the 1796 edition of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple, she does, at least for this recipe, spell it "pie" and "Christmas." Something I always found interesting is that "Art" in the title lacks the final "e" in all editions (depending on authority cited, there were either 5 or 8 of them in total).

Given the spellings in the recipe, and the light hand with spices, I would guess that it doesn't predate the 1700s; or if it does, not by much.

 

Petals, because the TV chefs keep talking about it (and sometimes making it) turducken is in demand all through the U.S. Specialty mail-order houses offer it, and some supermarkets actually stock it. The Fresh Market, for instance, has it for U$6.45/pound.

That's the where.

Why? I dunno. It's never appealed to me, personally, and I've got better things to do with my time than bone and layer several different birds. I always figured the dish existed primarily for TV chefs who wanted to show-off their knife skills.

Speaking of TV chefs, at least one would probably enjoy Hannah Glasse's pie. I'm sure as soon as Paula Deen saw put at least four pounds of butter into the pie, she'd be on board.

 

and why, oh why, did they name it after an austrian ski resort?

Maybe it's the Tyrolean hat used as a garnish?

 

I was just being smart with the spellynges, and you';re right, "pye" would be way before the 1700s, probably (?) medieval. Do you know that cookbook done by 3 french medieval historians and cooks? very nice. Redon, Sabban and Serventi- i have it in italian but might be translated into english too.

I'm not familiar with that book, Siduri. But that doesn't mean much. My expertise, such as it is, is with 17-19th foodways, primarily North Ameican and the cuisines that influenced them. Naturally there is some cross-over and carry-over from previous eras.

One thing about writers in those days: consistency of spelling was not one of their strong points. The same word, in the same document, might be spelled a half-dozen or more ways. Even the same recipe might have several spelling variations.

 

My knife skills aren't up to it though.

It's more time consuming than anything else, Phil.

You ever spatchcocked a bird? Full deboning is just the next logical step. The real trick is to not cut through the skin when working on the legs, cuz that's what holds it all together once you cut through the ball joint.

 

I dunno, Mary. Hard to call a technique that's been around several hundreds of years a fad.

The turducken, and Yorkshire Christmas pie, might be rather ornate versions of the idea. But, at base, they both consist of wrapping a protein, inside a protein, etc.

Seems to me, a Scotch egg and Hannah's Christmas pie are merely differences of degree, not differences of kind.