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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Liz tells me she uses a blanket stitch for bird-sewing. She has sewn at least ten that I've observed. I had no idea what that was, but acted like, okay, of course, then desperately Googled it and found this page. Whew, I'd really hate to look like an ignoranus. 8:22:23 PM    comment []

In the heat of turducken frenzy, I neglected to mention that I got 5 bags of manioc flour from Sendexnet yesterday. To my best efforts, this is the only place to get it online in the USA. I'll be doing some trial recipes using manioc flour, especially as breading (as good as Panko? Who knows?), maybe starting with some okra tomorrow. Maybe noodles coated with toasted manioc instead of bread crumbs...everything's a nail when there's a new hammer in the tool chest. 5:59:47 PM    comment []

Cross-dressing. I'm modifying the NYT recipe, which itself is a variation on the Paul Prudhomme recipe, which uses multiple dressings. The giblets won't be ready, so I'm using more sausage and adding toasted pine nuts and macadamias. I'm making more than enough because the dressing usually runs out with these people. It has to thoroughly chill before assembling the turducken - it goes unsaid in all recipes that this is how botulism risk is minimized. That's probably not something people want to hear in an otherwise mouth-watering creation. But I'll say it - it's gotta be below 40F before it's safe to stuff. If everything stays below 40F until roasting time, nobody will die from eating it! 5:01:46 PM    comment []

I was wrong. The turkey put up the best fight and caused me to invoke the f-word (I'm not bashful about using it, I just don't want Google to return me doing that with my turducken. We're just friends) for the only time so far in this project. That happened when I realized I had cut through the skin along the lower backbone. The whole process was tedious. Time boning turkey: 1 hour, 10 minutes,,,yeah, yeah, "boning turkey", I know, the Googlers seeking fowl acts are already here. Time to start the dressing and call Liz to see if she will help me stitch the thing together this evening.  1:51:21 PM    comment []

Needle in a haystack. At some point, I knew I was going to need a trussing needle, you know, a bent heavy-duty needle for sewing up your bird. Found that at the fourth store, asking at the checkout as I was about to get 2 trussing kits (basically skewers that you pull together with twine in a shoelace pattern) but asked. "Oh yes," said Linda (if her nametag was correct), and led me over to some ceramic jars, in front of the knife section, all filled with long pointy things that didn't fit anywhere else. I never would have found them. I bought one and skedaddled, the stores are filling up. One last stop. At least for now, at the Harris Teeter in the strip mall behind the nearly abandoned University Mall where the kitchen store was. There I selected a 13-pound turkey and carried it to checkout. It cost just a quarter more than the duck. Boning will begin soon, then the worst is done. Reference: It took me longer to find a trussing needle than to bone two birds. 12:17:36 PM    comment []

The point of no return...I picked up a fresh duckling just over an hour ago, now it is boned and in a bag in the fridge. It was more difficult that the chicken. The bones are more delicate, there's more cartilage, and I'm not as familiar with the bone structure. The bones are simmering for stock. Now out to find an unfrozen 10-12 pound turkey. 9:55:01 AM    comment []

Nagging thoughts: The Salon article about how easy it would be to fire a SAM at an airliner. The warnings about imminent "spectacular" terrorist attacks. The day before Thanksgiving is the busiest for air travel. Turducken seems like a bacterial breeding ground. Nearly perfect for both salmonella and clostridium botulinum. 190F or 250F, two recommended temperatures, keep the inner birds in the 40F-140F danger zone for a long time. There is temptation to prepare ahead. Did Osama plant that NYT article? 2:43:49 AM    comment []

Okay...no problem that I boned the chicken intact. It wasn't that difficult and it was good experience, but most of the turducken recipes suggest quartering the inner birds anyway to get a better distribution of the three distinct meats. So why bother? The turkey is on the outside so make that look good. The rest is just glorified stuffing. 2:24:05 AM    comment []

Google knows turducken best. A voice of experience recipe from Lynn Garry Salmon is high on the hit parade and it should be. It's practical, one of the first things it says is to start well ahead because it will take 12 or 13 hours at 190F. Uh-oh, that sounds like a perfect temperature for the Bradley Smoker. Thanksgiving dinner will be at my place this year. Liz is moved into her new apartment, but surrounded by unmarked boxes. She has no idea where anything is. Her oldest son is a relapsed vegetarian, so turducken will be okay, just no pork or beef or anything forbidden by whatever religion he has this week His younger brother is a true omnivore. He'll eat the table if you spill gravy on it. If I can find an unfrozen duckling tomorrow morning this project would be perfect. Project = good. I was starting to settle into a deep holiday funk. Even sitting here typing away at the computer, one of my favorite pastimes, was becoming tedious...slowly typing individual letters with my right index finger, deliberately misspelling easy words, getting visual tracking on every keystroke, right side, left side, like watching tennis. Fading away = bad. The thought of a real project straightened me right out, typing with both hands, good posture, occasional facial expressions. That does it. One way or the other I'll have to fix something, might as well make something special. It all depends on the duck. 1:34:21 AM    comment []