Turducken for Thanksgiving or Christmas

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At $250, five birds will have you stuffed

19th December 2007, 7:15 WST

Don't agonise over whether to cook duck, chicken, quail or spatchcock

for Christmas — have all of them stuffed inside your turkey.

The Quintet, packed with four different types of birds wrapped inside

each other, has become the thing to carve this year.

At nearly 9kg, it is three times heavier than normal oven-ready birds,

leaving its supermarket friends looking like mere featherweights.

With a $250 price tag for the roasted version, the decadent offering

is WA's most expensive Christmas turkey, according to Mondo Butcher's

Vince Garreffa.

A decade ago, when Mr Garreffa nabbed the idea from a British

cookbook, he was lucky to sell 100. But now with the higher demand for

quality meats and more experimental cuts, he made 500 of the

remarkable birds and was amazed to watch each one fly off the shelf.

He said roast suckling pigs had also been a top seller this year at

$500 each.

" The bird looks a million dollars, " Mr Garreffa said. " It's probably

the most expensive one in town — it's so beautiful, it makes me proud

just looking at it. "

He attributes the Quintet's surge in popularity to a recent TV series

featuring British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who lovingly

created a 10-layered bird.

He has flown several Quintets to the country's finest restaurants this

year, including the award-winning Vue de monde in Melbourne and Neil

's Rockpool in Sydney where they will feature as a table

centrepiece for private functions.

Unlike the usual dreary turkey, his extravagant creation feeds 25

people and is stuffed with organic rice crumbs and appetising chunks

of veal, mushroom and pinenuts.

Added flourishes include Italian glazed cherries oozing from the

centre. Carving is a doddle because the birds are deboned.

" Ten years ago we started with the chicken, duck and turkey but then

we upgraded with two extra birds and cherries in the centre to make it

that bit more special, " Mr Garreffa said.

The recipe dates back to Tudor times but was fairly popular in the

n era in England.

In America, a three-bird roast of turkey stuffed with duck stuffed

with chicken is served at Thanksgiving and is called a turducken.

KATIE HAMPSON

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