3 bird roast

[Tigerrr]

I cant see a thread on Xmas menus so here is mine for a start.
We are doing lunch for 9 this year on Xmas day and having grinched last year I want to do it right. We have best friends family coming over which is great.
Over thge years we've done everything for Xmas lunch (except a veg or fish based meal), with varying degrees of success:
Ducks have been good but small
Geese - very hard to get right, and deceptively small in the end.
Turkeys of various types, and basically once you are into the bronze or breed types etc mostly they taste like nice turkey. Whole birds are OK, boned & rolled is better in my book (carve easy and slice to the last morsel), and crowns are a bit sad.
Beef - while lovely makes it feel like just a dinner.
Ham - is for boxing day really I think.
One year my mum bought a live turkey and that wont be repeated.
So this year we are having a 3 bird roast.
Prices vary wildly, depending on whether the birds in question were personal friends of the butchers etc, but in the end I got fed up and ordered online from Adlington, based on reviews (Icelands apparently tastes like soap which is not what one wants). It arrives tomorrow by truck and is a boned turkey with a duck and a pheasant inside it, plus stuffing, in its own poly coolbox. I have a sneaky suspicion I probably ought to have just bought one from M&S or Waitrose, or the fancy butchers on Chiswick High Rd but somehow the internet beckoned with the romance of buying direct from the farm...
As long as it fits in the oven, and doesnt go off before the day - got to keep it in the shed so a cold snap would be good - I hope for a triumph. After last years woeful performancxe by mrs tiger, involving too much bubbly at the outset,  poor oven control and a mostly raw bird with subsequent 3 hour delay between starter and main (by which time all were somewhat overserved) - I am taking control of the cooking.
Day starts with big walk, bird having been ovened.
Menu -  :
Champagne (Bolli vintage grand anee) and gifts malarky standing around.
Oysters, smoked salmon, smoked eel,  ratte potato with horseradish and shallots. Sancerre. (all prepped day before)Crackesr and hats.
Foie gras on brioche, onion marmalade. Sweet white bordeaux. (all prepped day before)
3 bird roast with trimmings and Xmas vegs.
Puds - Xmas, trifle, ice cream, chocolatte mousse. Finish the bubbly. Game of charades or similar.  (All prepped - Xmas pud done in microwave - nobody likes it anyway but its fun to set it on fire)
Cheese - Brie, vacherin, roquefort, stilton. Port.
Sofa. to lie on not to eat.

Music will be a selection of Xmas tunes on Ipad, leading gently into some gentle classical to ease the digestion.

I will report back on the success of the venture.

[Feanor]

Oh, and I'd hoped from the thread title this was going to involve the 'smutty' part of the forum's charter.
Oh, well.  Back to work, then..

[rogerzilla]

Me too, and I was thinking that six gentlemen would be required to do the stuffing.

[pcolbeck]

I have a hankering to try our local game dealers Yorkshire pot which is a six bird roast a quail, a partridge, a pheasant, a duck, a chicken and a goose..

[Titan]

The eagle has landed.
It is a sort of huge mutant thing. A meat balloon with legs at the back but no other animal features. In  a box with freezer things. By measure it will fit in the oven but for the time being in the shed. It's not something one wants to look at. I suspect in 100 years this is what turkeys will actually look like.
I think it may take a week to eat.

[pcolbeck]

I think it may take a week to eat.

Yeah that's what I thought and since Mrs Pcolbeck and Master Pcolbeck aren't the world most voracious carnivorous that's why I haven't got round to trying a Yorkshire Pot yet. I will have to invite a big gang of hungry friends for tea one day and do it though.

[Julian]

The eagle has landed.

I'm not entirely sure you're meant to eat those.

[perpetual dan]

We have a big bag of meat in the fridge: lamb for 25th and beef for when Mrs Dan's Mum is down on 27th. In between there will be salmon at my folks' place. Instead of the one joint of beef we ordered we have two smaller ones, which means we can do pink and not pink easily and left-overs a plenty. A brace of home-made puddings and some better than usual Burgandy mark it as Christmas dinners. None of us is a fan of fizz*. Cheese, biscuits and port will follow for us, and chocolate log for the kids. Miss Dan the Younger eats dates all year round, so there's some of them as well.

* Although for those here looking for smut it has been known to find its way to the bedroom to good effect.

[Titan]

The 3 bird monster was a great success, exceedingly tasty and combined the best qualities of all 3 birds for a much more flavoured meat, courtesy of tasty duck and game pheasant. Plus it carved in very neat slices all the way, with no waste.
I'd do it again but maybe one of the smaller ones as we've still got a lot left, after 2 big gatherings.

[Tigerrr]

Finally saw off the last of the 3 bird last night - into the dog.

[Exit Stage Left]

I have a hankering to try our local game dealers Yorkshire pot which is a six bird roast a quail, a partridge, a pheasant, a duck, a chicken and a goose..

I associate Derek Fox with getting wood.

http://www.derekfoxtimber.co.uk/

[Gaston Lagaffe]

I associate Derek Fox with getting wood.

Oh err missus.....


Whatever floats your boat