We were smart in a couple of ways this year: first, we ordered the poultry well in advance and paid to have the (20lb) turkey, duck, and chicken deboned by the butcher. Our acquaintances who did the deboning in previous years weren't participating, and neither of us felt up to the challenge of spending a couple of hours with a very sharp knife to prep the birds! Second, we got a couple of packs of turkey lacers, which made sewing the thing back up again significantly easier!
The whole process takes about 3 days, the way Mike does it. He picked up the meat from the butcher and covered all 3 birds in a large sterilite bin with a few gallons of brine (kosher salt and water, basically). The bin went in the fridge and the birds brined for about a day.
Mmm... brine and raw poultry:
During that day, Mike slaved over a hot stove to produce the 3 stuffings we layered between the birds. The cornbread/chowder with fresh cilantro, black beans and spices was a big hit, though the (turkey) sausage stuffing and rice pilaf with cranberries were also very good!
That evening, we had our "build party" with a few interested friends. Julia, Kelly and Jamie had no idea what to expect, but I think everybody had a good time.
Mike and Julia getting ready to lay out the turkey:
A bit ghastly, but soon it will be very yummy:
The cornbread/chowder stuffing goes first as Kelly and Jamie look on:
Now for the duck, which had fallen apart into chunks in the brine but still worked out:
On with the turkey sausage stuffing, followed by the chicken:
And then the cranberry rice pilaf:
Messy hands! Maybe next year I'll gank some lab gloves before the big day...
A beautiful sight, all the layers in place:
And now the reason why we need 5 people for this part of the process: one to take pictures while the other four roll the stack up and sew it closed! Previous iterations took much longer than this year, since they involved actually sewing the turkey meat together with a large needle and cooking twine. The poultry lacers cut it down to less than 15 minutes and held it all together amazingly well!
All laced up and ready to rest in the fridge until tomorrow. We barely lost any stuffing, to boot:
Okay, maybe a tad overstuffed, but a later step will take care of the gap in the closure:
We used a clean cutting board to heft the frankenbird into the roasting pan:
I love how demure it looks sitting in the pan with its ankles crossed.
And here is Mike's favorite little secret! A grand total of 3 pounds of thick bacon layered over the surface of the bird... This prevents the skin from taking too much heat and drying out, and simultaneously provides its own juices to keep the meat extremely tender. Since the thing is in the oven for about 12 hours, it's either this or continuous basting all day long:
Totally protected:
The whole thing went into the fridge for the night, and build team was congratulated on a job well done and dismissed. We were planning on serving the following evening at 6pm, so Mike and I were up at 5:45 the next morning to fire up the oven and get it started. The poultry has to reach 165° to be safe for consumption, so we estimated 12 hours and 220° would get it there.
Here's a few hours in, with the bacon starting to crisp nicely:
And we've made it, just in the nick of time because the guests will begin arriving very soon:
Here's the whole thing out of the oven:
In one last step, we peel off the bacon and start carving the bird-roll. Last year the bacon wrapping was basically inedible because it had been baked rock-hard (along with the wings and less meaty parts of the drumsticks), but this year's slices were thicker, fattier and held up much better:
We had somewhere close to 25 people in our apartment to share in the feast (and bring side dishes and desserts) and the portions worked out just about perfectly! The only problem is that it was such a hit, we'll have to be careful about invitations for next year... everyone who tried it last weekend are already looking forward to the next one, and folks who couldn't make it heard such rave reviews about it that they can't wait to try it now, too!
Yum!
