A Thanksgiving Mulligan – Turducken Take 2
Monday, December 1st, 2008The first Turducken – I cooked for about five and a half hours. Took it out of the oven to have room to cook a regular turkey (most of my family just isn’t as into experimenting as I am). My well calibrated eye figured the Turducken was done, but then I talked with Bob. He said it needed to be in at least 7 – 8 hours. I plugged the meat thermometer in there. It said – 160 degrees. The cookbook for the turkey said 180 degrees, so I fired up the BBQ Grill and tossed the Turducken out there. Put the teenager in charge and went out for a walk in the woods with the other guests. Came back to a big tale of woe – the oven bag had melted on the Turducken in the grill. GROSS. The beast was petrified – but the internal temperature was 180. The dog didn’t even want it.
I didn’t want to wait a whole year to try this again. Bob agreed to assemble another Turducken in his grocery store’s butchery. This time, I cooked it at 300 degrees, and only until the meat thermometer read 165 internally. It took five and a half hours. I let it sit for about an hour and a half – the internal temperature stayed at 165. Seeing that it was a full four days after thanksgiving, and I needed some help eating this masterpiece, I invited Bob, his wife and a couple other friends over for Thanksgiving 2.0. A far superior feast than Thanksgiving 1.0.
If you can take Mulligans in golf, why not for thanksgiving? Plus this was a good way to integrate lessons learned on my Turkey day project. NOW, I know how to cook a Turducken.