The ten-bird roast
by SINEAD McINTYRE, Daily Mail
Whatever bird you serve up for Christmas, someone is sure to cry fowl.
Because it's hard to satisfy everyone's taste in poultry... until now, that is.
For one cook has come up with a spectacular solution to the seasonal dinner dilemma.
Take one 18lb turkey... and stuff it with nine other birds.
The ten-bird roast is being championed by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has deemed it "one of the most spectacular and delicious roasts you can lay before your loved ones at Yuletide".
The turkey is stuffed with a goose, duck, mallard, guinea fowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon and woodcock.
Would you eat the ten-in-one bird? Tell us using the reader comments link at the bottom of the page...
However the roast, which weighs 22lb when cooked, contains around 10,000 calories, compared to the 3,000 calories of the average turkey. It also carries a hefty £160 price tag and takes over nine hours to prepare and cook.
Yesterday Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said: "It is the perfect dish as it has the benefit of offering the two favourite Christmas birds together.
"And once you've taken the decision to do that, you may as well take it one step further and add some others.
"This is a spectacular and celebratory dish and it's the time of year when people have a lot of time on their hands to prepare something like this.
"It is worth it because it is absolutely delicious."
Medieval banquet
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall's huge dish is a simpler form of an early 19th century French royal feast that consisted of 17 birds - from a bustard, one of the largest species of European bird, down to a garden warbler.
He came up with it for the Christmas special of his successful Channel 4 River Cottage series - which goes out tonight and shows him cooking a medieval banquet for friends.
The roast feeds around 30 people and as well as the ten birds, also includes stuffing made from 2lb of sausage meat and half a pound of streaky bacon along with sage, port and red wine.
Back-to-basics approach
On the show, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall is shown laying out the birds on a table. He then bones the turkey, leaving the wings and drumsticks on, and slices the breasts off the other birds.
With the turkey a hollowed-out shell, a layer of stuffing is placed around the inside and the breasts of the goose are added.
Alternative layers of stuffing and breasts from the other birds are all placed inside the turkey until no more will fit and it is then sewn up with some butcher's thread and a darning needle before being cooked for four hours.
Multi-bird roasts are not a new concept. They were popular throughout medieval times and well into the 19th century, but their popularity faltered when turkeys became fashionable in the 20th century. Gooduckens - a goose stuffed with a duck and a chicken, have recently come back into favour, with suppliers now selling more than double the amount they were two years ago.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall has become known for his earthy, back-to-basics approach to cooking.
Born in London, but raised in Gloucestershire, he did not train professionally as a cook, but instead studied at Oxford and did conservation work in Africa.
Back in England, he joined the River Café in London as a sous chef. In 1997, he found River Cottage in Dorset and three TV series were filmed there. He is a keen supporter of the organic movement.
by SINEAD McINTYRE, Daily Mail
Whatever bird you serve up for Christmas, someone is sure to cry fowl.
Because it's hard to satisfy everyone's taste in poultry... until now, that is.
For one cook has come up with a spectacular solution to the seasonal dinner dilemma.
Take one 18lb turkey... and stuff it with nine other birds.
The ten-bird roast is being championed by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has deemed it "one of the most spectacular and delicious roasts you can lay before your loved ones at Yuletide".
The turkey is stuffed with a goose, duck, mallard, guinea fowl, chicken, pheasant, partridge, pigeon and woodcock.
Would you eat the ten-in-one bird? Tell us using the reader comments link at the bottom of the page...
However the roast, which weighs 22lb when cooked, contains around 10,000 calories, compared to the 3,000 calories of the average turkey. It also carries a hefty £160 price tag and takes over nine hours to prepare and cook.
Yesterday Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said: "It is the perfect dish as it has the benefit of offering the two favourite Christmas birds together.
"And once you've taken the decision to do that, you may as well take it one step further and add some others.
"This is a spectacular and celebratory dish and it's the time of year when people have a lot of time on their hands to prepare something like this.
"It is worth it because it is absolutely delicious."
Medieval banquet
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall's huge dish is a simpler form of an early 19th century French royal feast that consisted of 17 birds - from a bustard, one of the largest species of European bird, down to a garden warbler.
He came up with it for the Christmas special of his successful Channel 4 River Cottage series - which goes out tonight and shows him cooking a medieval banquet for friends.
The roast feeds around 30 people and as well as the ten birds, also includes stuffing made from 2lb of sausage meat and half a pound of streaky bacon along with sage, port and red wine.
Back-to-basics approach
On the show, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall is shown laying out the birds on a table. He then bones the turkey, leaving the wings and drumsticks on, and slices the breasts off the other birds.
With the turkey a hollowed-out shell, a layer of stuffing is placed around the inside and the breasts of the goose are added.
Alternative layers of stuffing and breasts from the other birds are all placed inside the turkey until no more will fit and it is then sewn up with some butcher's thread and a darning needle before being cooked for four hours.
Multi-bird roasts are not a new concept. They were popular throughout medieval times and well into the 19th century, but their popularity faltered when turkeys became fashionable in the 20th century. Gooduckens - a goose stuffed with a duck and a chicken, have recently come back into favour, with suppliers now selling more than double the amount they were two years ago.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall has become known for his earthy, back-to-basics approach to cooking.
Born in London, but raised in Gloucestershire, he did not train professionally as a cook, but instead studied at Oxford and did conservation work in Africa.
Back in England, he joined the River Café in London as a sous chef. In 1997, he found River Cottage in Dorset and three TV series were filmed there. He is a keen supporter of the organic movement.
