10 out of 10 for extra stuffing

The multi-bird roast has been around for centuries but the growing popularity of exotic poultry such as quail, spatchcock and guinea fowl is tempting adventurous modern cooks to give it a go.

A large turkey, stuffed with a duck, in turn stuffed with a chicken, both deboned - known as turducken - is one of the most popular Christmas combinations.

The popularity of the multi-bird roast started to grow after Britishchef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall prepared a 10-bird roast that served 125 people on his Beyond River Cottage television show, which airs on Australia on Foxtel.

He used a woodcock as the smallest bird - and a turkey as the largest - in his combination for a mediaeval Christmas feast.

One of Hobart's leading restaurants, Monty's on Montpelier, will offer a 10-bird roast for lunch on Christmas Day. Chef and owner Matt Starkey, a fan of Fearnley-Whittingstall's work, will place a quail inside a pigeon squab, inside a spatchcock, inside a pheasant, inside a partridge, inside a guinea fowl, inside a chicken, inside a duck, inside a goose, inside a rather large turkey. The set menu lunch, which includes entree and dessert, costs $140 a person.

"People here just love the concept," Mr Starkey said. "I don't make a lot of money out of it, but it's good value for the diners and good fun, too."

Sydney chef and owner of Sails on Lavender Bay, Greg Anderson, has a turducken recipe. But his head chef, Nathan Darling, has added a fourth fowl - a quail. "It's not on our menu, but it was interesting to make," Mr Darling said. "It took a bit of work."

However, Australian consumers may have to think twice about taking the multi-bird roast route next year, with the National Australia Bank predicting a 3.5 per cent rise in the price of poultry due to higher global grain prices.

The multi-poultry roast is also a simpler form of an early 19th-century French royal feast made up of 17 birds - from a bustard, one of the largest species of European bird, down to a garden warbler stuffed with a single olive.

Karl Fraser, director of Game Farm, a Sydney online poultry supplier, said the popularity of game birds was growing year by year.

He said high-rating television cooking shows such as MasterChef and Junior MasterChef had demonstrated to viewers how relatively simple it was to use exotic ingredients in home cooking.

"Those shows are doing the food industry a whole lot of good," Mr Fraser said. "The Australian palate is changing."

Try multi-roasting birds at home

Feeling game this Christmas? See the recipe by

Nathan Darling from Sails on Lavender Bay, at smh.com.au

THE POULTRY SUM

Total cost $365

Total weight 20.5kg

Total calories 10,000