I'll have the ham

December 17, 2007 12:56 PM

"It serves 125, takes eight hours to cook and is stuffed with 12 different birds..." [via Cynical-C]
posted by Chrysostom (43 comments total)

mmm gamey.
posted by milarepa at 1:04 PM on December 17, 2007

I am adding the accidental portmanteau word industrialducksized to my vocabulary.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:07 PM on December 17, 2007

Alton Brown says, "Stuffing is evil."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:07 PM on December 17, 2007

If you smash the names of all the birds together, you get a turoosbarbguinmallpousquapartsquapheaaylesducken, which sounds a lot like one of those really long, unpronounceable names in North Wales or someplace.
posted by turaho at 1:07 PM on December 17, 2007

Obligatory Red vs. Blue
posted by lekvar at 1:08 PM on December 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

First and last use of the tag "Aylesburyduck"? Until next year when the 21-bird roast is, uh, stuffed.
posted by artifarce at 1:09 PM on December 17, 2007

That puts my lobster stuffed with tacos to shame.
posted by Koko at 1:10 PM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yes, but do you get to wear a towel over your head when you eat it?
posted by longdaysjourney at 1:12 PM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Cool Papa Bell writes "Alton Brown says, 'Stuffing is evil.'"

Except, from the article:

"It was very moist and had an interesting mix of textures and flavours. All the citrus stuffings cut through the strong gamey flavours really well."

Maybe the stuffing is necessary.
posted by krinklyfig at 1:14 PM on December 17, 2007

That should be "napkin", not towel, sigh.
posted by longdaysjourney at 1:14 PM on December 17, 2007

no fewer than 48 birds of 12 different species

Yeah, but none of them are endangered species. Bor-ring.
posted by Nelson at 1:16 PM on December 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

Ask post
posted by milkrate at 1:22 PM on December 17, 2007

Previously
posted by Pollomacho at 1:24 PM on December 17, 2007

This explains the dodo and the passenger pigeon.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:25 PM on December 17, 2007

Sjoberg, too.
posted by cortex at 1:29 PM on December 17, 2007

Bread and circuses, my friends. Whence the Visigoths?
posted by junebug at 1:30 PM on December 17, 2007

I've often wondered what happened to the Ask guy. rorycberger, did it work?!
posted by jamesonandwater at 1:30 PM on December 17, 2007

"It serves 125, takes eight hours to cook and is stuffed with 12 different birds..."

Pterarchteoptcondovulturducken?
posted by nanojath at 1:33 PM on December 17, 2007

Yes, but do you get to wear a towel over your head when you eat it?

Ha! When reading the FPP I, too, first thought of the recent This American Life segment on eating ortolan. That episode included a number of other stories related to eating fowl and birds during the holidays.
posted by ericb at 1:36 PM on December 17, 2007

I'd go for a porkbacon. That's pork with bacon in it.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:40 PM on December 17, 2007

So basically, it's an Aylesbury duck inside a chicken inside a pheasant inside a pigeon squab inside a partridge inside a quail inside a poussin inside a mallard inside a guinea fowl inside Cthulhu inside a barbary duck inside a good inside a turkey?

er, wait
posted by davejay at 1:40 PM on December 17, 2007

This is nothing without a Pterodactyl to cap it off at the end.
posted by phyrewerx at 1:50 PM on December 17, 2007

I've heard that the animal-within-an-animal stuffing business originated with the Romans; they had something that involved 5+ levels of stuffing, beginning with a whole cow and working down to a small game bird, all roasted together on a spit. (Which strikes me as a recipe for either food poisoning or charred meat, but I wouldn't put it past them.)

I think the source for it that's frequently mentioned is the Satyricon of Petronius. I can't find in the text in a quick glance (so it may be apocryphal) but this blog post mentions it as "a cow stuffed with a lamb stuffed with a pig stuffed with a rooster stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a thrush".
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:51 PM on December 17, 2007

I'm still trying to figure out a stuffing system that starts with a pigeon and ends with blue whale.

I tend to get confused right about the time I get to buffalo.
posted by flaterik at 2:05 PM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I suddenly remembered why I'm a vegetarian.
posted by serazin at 2:14 PM on December 17, 2007

Can someone set this recipe to the tune of Chad Gadya?
posted by Challahtronix at 2:15 PM on December 17, 2007

the world of gastronomy has expanded so much since i was a kid. have any notable american chefs/food writers ever done anything with rodents?
posted by bruce at 2:19 PM on December 17, 2007

Uncultured swine! In my family, we cook up a dish consisting of a wren, stuffed inside a chicken, stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey, stuffed inside a gorilla, stuffed inside a great white shark.

In the wren's belly is a single almond. We delight in eating the almond and discarding the rest. The flavor is exquisite.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:21 PM on December 17, 2007 [16 favorites]

In the wren's belly is a single almond. We delight in eating the almond and discarding the rest. The flavor is exquisite.

-spit take-

hilarious.
posted by prototype_octavius at 2:30 PM on December 17, 2007

Turducken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon (whatever that ...thing... is)
posted by norm at 2:36 PM on December 17, 2007

Here is the world record: a Bedouin stuffed roasted camel. (supposedly)
posted by mkb at 2:57 PM on December 17, 2007

I do know someone who had a four bird one for Christmas once... not very successful I seem to remember.
And unless you're real careful about cooking it, it's a Salmonella Special.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:03 PM on December 17, 2007

Here is the world record: a Bedouin stuffed roasted camel. (supposedly)
posted by mkb at 5:57 PM on December 17 [+] [!]

How do you get the Bedouin in there?
posted by availablelight at 3:09 PM on December 17, 2007

I hear it tastes just like chicken.
posted by grumpy at 3:54 PM on December 17, 2007

When do we get around to stuffing a pig into a cow? Go for the gusto, dammit.
posted by doctor_negative at 4:05 PM on December 17, 2007

Oh great, now I'm hungry for duck... it's such a lovely food, but eating too much of it will make your heart explode, I'm sure of it. Have you ever seen fat runoff from a duck sausage? You could run a diesel engine off that stuff.

This dish includes *four* ducks AND a goose. It must be an orgasmic feast.
posted by clevershark at 4:45 PM on December 17, 2007

Thats a dish fit for a decadent monarch. Does anyone know if vultures are good... to eat that is. One shit on my truck last week and I know where it lives.
posted by Huplescat at 6:33 PM on December 17, 2007

How do you get the Bedouin in there?
posted by availablelight at 3:09 PM on December 17 [+] [!]

Practice?
posted by bowmaniac at 7:40 PM on December 17, 2007

...stuffing a pig into a cow...

Steerporken?
posted by TedW at 8:38 PM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Amateurs.

They didn't even triple stuff the drumstick and wings!

It's not that hard; and the triple-bird drumsticks and wings are even tastier than the stuffed thoraxes (thoraxii?).
posted by porpoise at 10:08 PM on December 17, 2007

In certain parts of the UK, a 12 bird roast can mean something rather different.
posted by rhymer at 2:46 AM on December 18, 2007

Brings gluttony to a whole new level.
posted by Dave Faris at 4:39 AM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Brings gluttony to a whole new level.

You know, that's what I was kind of getting at with my dodo & passenger pigeon comment, but upon further reflection, I'm not sure that's fair. If you indeed serve 125 with the dish, it's probably not particularly gluttonous. 48 birds for 125 people is probably about right (although the article doesn't spell out how many of each bird are involved, so you can't say for sure). The dish has 50,000 calories, but that's only 400 calories per person.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:35 AM on December 18, 2007