The 'What bird?' debate seems to get more heated every Christmas. The goose versus turkey brigades have long been entrenched, lobbing grenades of abuse at each other, like balls of highly seasoned stuffing. And now there' s a third faction, eschewing either of these domesticated fowl in favour of game - a partridge per person, for example, with all the trimmings, of course.
Personally, I've long had my feet firmly in the goose camp - such rich, satisfying meat compared to the bland, white, empty pith-like flesh of the turkey breast. There, I've said it. Nevertheless, I understand that in some households, turkeys are Christmas, and Christmas is turkeys...
So, to bring peace and goodwill to all men, women and children, especially those with festive kitchen responsibilities, I offer a recipe that is not only a democratic solution to this age-old problem, but also, I believe, one of the most spectacular and delicious roasts you can lay before your loved ones at yuletide, or any tide, come to that. I guarantee the plaudits you get from this will last for months. Or at least until the Bond film starts...
My crowd-pleasing trick is obvious enough: why not cook a goose inside a turkey? And why not bung a few well-chosen game birds inside of that? Such a spectacular multi-bird roast was a popular medieval conceit - we did a 10-bird version for our River Cottage Medieval Christmas banquet last year, and it went down an absolute storm.
You don't need to be a brilliant butcher or a qualified surgeon either. Ray, the River Cottage butcher, and I have devised a version of this dish that allows rank amateurs with limited knife and butchery skills to enjoy near-guaranteed first-time success. The secret is that you can happily dispense with the complicated boning-out procedure on all but the outside bird (a turkey) - and this you can ask your butcher to do for you. All you need to do is de-breast the other birds, then whittle as much of the other meat off the carcass as you can, and add it to the stuffing.
Here's how it all works:
You need a whole free-range turkey (not a monster, 10-12kg is about the right size) and a whole goose (6-7kg). And then a selection of eight to 10 smaller birds, all plucked and drawn (ie oven ready). You don't need all the smaller birds to be different - you could use, say, three pheasants and five pigeons.
So choose from the following: farmed duck, mallard, guinea fowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon, woodcock. Please do not use very high or well-hung game birds, as they will contaminate the subtle flavours of the other birds.
Boning the turkey
If you fancy your knife skills, you can try boning out the turkey yourself. You only need to remove the breast and backbone (ie the central skeletal frame of the bird). Leave the wings and drumsticks on, as they give vital balance and structure to the roast, which would otherwise be an enormous round sausage!
You start by making a long, straight cut down the back of the bird from the neck to the parson's nose. Then start to peel back the skin either side of the cut. Pop out the thigh joints from each side of the carcass and then use the point of a very sharp knife to cut the meat away from the back and breast, as close as possible to the bone. Do a little at a time, alternating from one side of the carcass to the other until you come to the ridge of the breastbone.
This is where you have to be careful not to cut through the skin, as you slice along the ridge, so that the whole main frame of the carcass is released. Carefully ease this out, nicking any sinews that still connect it to the rest of the bird. You now have a big empty bag of a bird, albeit with legs, wings and breasts attached. Think of it as a suitcase that needs filling, then stitching up.
Preparing the other birds
Slice the breasts off all the other birds (again, you could ask a butcher to do this), as close to the breastbone as possible, to maximise the meat. Peel off the skin. Then put all the breasts to one side. Now take a small, sharp knife and cut as much worthwhile meat as you can from the legs, wings and the rest of the carcass. Trim or tear out any stringy-looking sinews, and coarsely chop the meat. Put this chopped meat in a separate pile. Joint or tear up what's left of the carcasses, and place in a large roasting tin. Roast in a hot oven for 15 minutes. They'll then make great stock, which can be strained, perked up with a good slosh of red wine, and reduced, by boiling hard, to a fantastic intense sauce.
Making a forcemeat stuffing
A good stuffing, and plenty of it, is vital to fill all the gaps between the breasts, and keep them all nicely lubricated. So, take at least a kilo of well-fatted coarsely ground free-range pork (half shoulder meat, half belly is good). Finely chop 250g unsmoked streaky bacon, and add that too. Add all the chopped meat from the other birds, 100g fresh breadcrumbs, 200g each of chopped cooked chestnuts and chopped raw dessert apples (Coxes are good). Add a slosh of brandy and port, and 100ml red wine. Season with 15g salt, plus black pepper, fresh chopped sage and a good pinch of mace.
Rebuilding the bird
Lay the boned-out turkey breast-side (and outside) down, inside facing up. Start by pressing a good layer of the stuffing around the inside of the bird. Now take the two largest breasts (ie from the goose), and place them roughly in the middle. Cover them with a bit more stuffing. From here on, there is no set pattern for arranging the remaining bird breasts and stuffing inside the boned-out bird. You just have to feel your way, and do the best job you can.
When you feel like the bird is fairly well-stuffed, bring the two cut sides together over the stuffing, to see if they will come together nicely. In the end you need to be able to sew the two edges together (with strong butcher's string and a stout darning needle), ideally with a nice overlapping blanket stitch. It should be fairly full and tight, but not bursting. Assess how much more of the breasts and stuffing may be required and proceed accordingly.
When you have stitched up the bird, turn it over, breast up again, stitched back side down, and place it in its roasting tin. A certain amount of massaging may now be required to bring it to a nice shape, so that the breast is again plump and rounded, and the legs and wings stand out nice and symmetrical.
Cooking the bird
The biggest battle is to prevent the breast meat of the turkey drying out. So, smear the skin of the bird thickly with soft butter or, better still, rendered fat saved from the goose. Then cover the breast with streaky bacon, and wrap a single layer of giant tin foil over it. Place in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for a good hour. Then turn the temperature down to 150°C, and cook for another four to six hours, depending on the size of the bird. By far the best and safest way to test that the meat is done is to stick a meat probe into the very centre of the roast. When the temperature reads 70°C, the roast is cooked. Baste the bird regularly throughout the cooking, and remove the foil for the last hour or so, to brown and crisp up the skin.
Carving...
... is, of course, a complete doddle. There are no bones!
· For a longer version of this recipe, and a short video clip showing how we made the 10-bird roast for the River Cottage Medieval Christmas banquet, go to www.rivercottage.net
