# Turducken

Turducken, also called the Three Bird Roast, is a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck stuffed inside a deboned turkey, closely tied to American Thanksgiving. The dish was claimed by a Louisiana butcher in the late 20th century, but a 2012 BuzzFeed instructional video and a wave of imitators like the Cthurkey and the lamb-pig-cow pushed it into internet novelty-food lore.

## Origin
The exact origin of the turducken is contested, but Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana claims to have invented it after a customer walked in with three birds and asked for a custom roast[1]. The dish spread through Cajun cooking circles for years before mainstream internet audiences picked it up.

The meme-side origin is cleaner. On November 16th, 2012, the BuzzFeedFood YouTube channel posted "How to Make a Turducken," with butcher Armande Ferrante walking viewers through the deboning and nesting process[5]. That video pulled in over a million views and became the go-to explainer link whenever the dish came up around the holidays[2].

- **Platform:** Louisiana butcher shop (dish origin) / YouTube (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2012

## Overview
Turducken, also known as the Three Bird Roast, is a portmanteau of turkey, duck and chicken, built by deboning all three birds and nesting them with stuffing between the layers[1]. The cut shows three concentric rings of meat, which is most of the appeal, since slicing a turducken for a Thanksgiving table looks like a cursed anatomy diagram[2].

The format travels well as a meme because the recipe invites one-upmanship. Once BuzzFeed Food's butcher broke down the technique for a mass YouTube audience, imitators started piling on more and weirder animals, from octopus-stuffed turkeys to a lamb inside a pig inside a cow[3][4]. PETA even countered with a tofu-only version called Tofucken, keeping the joke alive from the opposite side of the dinner table[2].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Turducken?
Turducken, also called the Three Bird Roast, is a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck stuffed inside a deboned turkey, typically served at Thanksgiving[2].

### Where did Turducken come from?
Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice, Louisiana claims to have built the first one after a customer brought in the three birds and asked for a custom roast[1].

### What does Turducken mean?
The name is a portmanteau of turkey, duck and chicken, which also matches the layered structure of the dish[2].

### How do you use Turducken?
People make it as a Thanksgiving centerpiece, and the format spawned stranger copycats like the Cthurkey, a crab-and-octopus-stuffed turkey posted by @damana in 2013[6].

### Is Turducken still popular?
It's a classic holiday novelty that keeps resurfacing through food-YouTube bits, including Jon Tron's 2017 'Turducken Chef' video with roughly 4.7 million views within a year[2].

## References
1. [https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/11/on-the-trail-of-the-turducken/546674/](<https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/11/on-the-trail-of-the-turducken/546674/>)
2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/turducken](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/turducken>)
3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Turducken](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Turducken>)
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/2t4tks/move_over_turducken_a_lamb_stuffed_inside_a_pig/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/2t4tks/move_over_turducken_a_lamb_stuffed_inside_a_pig/>)
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRT1WQXqdCw](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRT1WQXqdCw>)
6. [https://twitter.com/damana/status/412528192797151232](<https://twitter.com/damana/status/412528192797151232>)
7. [http://gothamist.com/2013/12/16/cthuken.php](<http://gothamist.com/2013/12/16/cthuken.php>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/turducken
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