Tillamook Test Kitchen: Cheesy Turducken
Inspiration for this Tillamook Test Kitchen came from the turducken. What’s a turducken you ask? Well, it’s essentially a three-bird roast (made of turkey, duck, and chicken) where they are all stuffed together and cooked. It was a daunting thought for us to add cheese to this particular dish, so here’s our cheesy twist with cheese, meat, and veggies.
The first test: Cheesex3
Cheese, on cheese, on cheese. Tasty, but hard to keep together.
Okay, let’s be realistic, you can’t really stuff cheese, in cheese, in cheese and cook it, so instead we decided to layer it, cold. I took half a loaf of Pepper Jack Cheese and layered it with Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Muenster Cheese slices. To be honest, all the cheese tasted wonderful together, but it was pretty hard to keep it together. If you want to showcase some cheeses together, layering slices on a cheese plate will probably work better.
The second test: Cheesy Turbacon
A loaf of cheese, ground turkey, and bacon all wrapped together make one rich meat loaf.
Be warned, there’s a lot of meat in this one. I took a loaf of Medium Cheddar Cheese, layered it with ground turkey, and then added what I like to call a bacon weave around that. It took over an hour to bake, and the result…well, it’s about what you would expect! It was like a mini turkey meat loaf, wrapped in bacon, with cheese inside. Pretty tasty even though the cheese was slightly overcooked. However, I don’t advise you eat too much at once, it’s pretty rich.
Note: if you don’t pack the meat around the loaf tight you might have a cheese leak while baking!
The third test: Cheesy Peptom
A green pepper, stuffed with cheese, stuffed with a tomato, stuffed with more cheese!
This one was pretty simple, a green pepper stuffed with Sharp Cheddar Cheese, stuffed with a tomato, stuffed with more cheese. You throw it in the oven for a while and you have yourself yummy roasted vegetables with a cheesy garnish.
Note: I wanted to put mashed potatoes in between the pepper, tomato, and cheese, but I didn’t leave enough room! If you ever try this yourself it might be a fun addition (and you’ll have to let us know how the test goes!).
The winner for me was the Cheesy Peptom. Simple fresh vegetables with melted cheese on top were a refreshing addition to my dinner. However, depending on your love of meat, you might disagree with me and go for the Cheesy Turbacon.
