Chop up one pound of white veal, with a pound of fat bacon; season high with chopped mushrooms, parsley, pepper, salt, and a bunch of sweet herbs; when chopped fine, pound them in a mortar or pass them through a sausage grinder; add to this the yolks of three eggs, and place it by in a basin for use. Peel a pound of truffles, and cut up a boiled smoked tongue, a pound of fat bacon, or a pound of calf’s udder or veal. Next bone a turkey, or two fine capons, or fowls, and draw the skin from the legs and pinions inside. Take the turkey on a napkin—it is now limp and boneless—cut slices from the thick breast and place it on the skin where it seems to be thin, distribute the flesh of the fowl as evenly as you can on the skin; season it slightly with pepper and salt. Spread a layer of the prepared force-meat in the basin, let it be an inch thick; then place the cut-up tongue, bacon and veal, lay a row of chopped truffles and a layer of the force-meat until the skin is covered, or as full as it will hold. It must be sewed up the back, the ends tied, like a cushion, or roly-poly; to do this you must butter a cloth and put it tightly over the turkey skin, as it will be quite too tender to stand the cooking, etc., unless supported by a napkin. Tie it up tightly and place it in a round stewpan with the bones and any trimmings of veal or poultry at hand, add to it two boiled calf’s feet, or an ounce of gelatine, two onions stuck with four cloves, a bunch of parsley, six green onions, a bunch of sweet basil, and a bunch of thyme, two blades of mace, and a dozen pepper corns, or whole peppers; moisten all with half a pint of wine or brandy. Warm this up and put in your tied-up gelatine, pour over it as much white veal stock as will cover it well, put it back in the stove to simmer gently for two hours and a half; let the gelatine get cold in its own seasoning, and then take it out and put it under a weight while you remove the stock or gravy; take off all the cold grease from the surface and clarify with eggs in the usual way. When the gelatine is quite cold, remove the weight, take it from its napkin, wipe it and glaze it, and place it on a dish. Decorate it with the strained gravy, which should have been placed on ice as soon as clarified and strained. It will now be a firm jelly; if not, put it on ice again, and trim the boned turkey or fowls with it.
Gelatines of turkeys, geese, capons, pheasants, partridges, etc., are made in the same way. This is from the finest source, and will repay any one who tries to make this magnificent dish. It has never, to my knowledge, been given in an American cook-book, as it was obtained from one who was Chef de Cuisine to a crowned head of Europe.
WILD TURKEY
If the turkey is old, or tough, it must be boiled one hour before being stuffed for baking. Then stuff it with oysters, bread and butter, and season with pepper and salt; baste with butter, and the juice of the turkey. Make the gravy by putting in the pan a pint of oysters, or button mushrooms, throw in a cup of cream, or milk, salt and pepper, and send to table hot, with the turkey.
A PLAIN WAY TO COOK A TURKEY BY ROASTING
Make a dressing to suit you; there are several to choose from in this book, made from bread, or forcemeat. Stuff the turkey, season it with salt, pepper, and a little butter, dredge it with flour and put it in the oven; let the fire be slow at first, and hotter as it begins to cook. Baste frequently with butter; when the turkey is well plumped up, and the steam draws toward the fire, it is nearly done; then dredge again with flour, and baste with more butter until it is a nice brown. Serve with gravy and bread sauce; some like chestnuts stewed in the turkey gravy, and served with it. A very large turkey will take three hours to roast, one of eight pounds will take two hours.
ROAST TURKEY A LA PERIGORD
For this purpose choose a fine young hen turkey; make an incision at the back of the neck, and through this take out the entrails, as the turkey looks so much nicer than when otherwise cut. Cut away the vent, and sew up the place with coarse thread; singe off the hairs and scald the legs to get off the black skin, if the skin is black, as it sometimes is. The neck should be cut off close into the back, and the crop left entire; some cooks can do this and some think it too much trouble. Break the breast bone and take it out. Lay a little salt on the turkey, and cover it up, while you prepare the stuffing. Wash three pounds of truffles, if the hen turkey is a large one; if it is small two pounds will do. Peel the truffles and slice them; throw them into water, and scald them; add two pounds of fat ham, or bacon, also the turkey liver, and a quarter of a pound of veal liver; season this with pepper, salt, nutmeg, chopped thyme, and a clove of garlic. Set the stew-pan, containing all these ingredients, on a slow fire, and let them cook for an hour, stirring them occasionally, with a wooden spoon. Mash them all up and let it get cool; when cool, stuff the turkey full of the truffle dressing, and fill the crop also; sew it up carefully, and tie it with a string, then truss the turkey, and if time allows, put it away for the next day. It should then be roasted, keeping it well basted with the liquor the truffles were boiled in, and butter added to it.
BOILED TURKEY AND CELERY SAUCE
Draw a fine, young turkey hen, and remove the angular part of the breast bone; take two pounds of fat veal dressing and stuff the turkey with it. Put over the fire to cook the veal, bones, and turkey giblets, to make some white soup stock; season this and let it boil until you want to put the turkey on to cook. Now truss your turkey and put it in a boiling pot with a carrot, two onions, a head of celery, and a bunch of sweet herbs; now pour over the turkey the stock from the veal and giblets; cover with it, if enough; if not, put in water to cover it and set it to boil; when it has boiled one hour, put it on the back of the stove, and let it simmer and braise, until dinner. Take off any strings that may look badly; dish it up. Pour over it a well-made puree of celery, or oyster sauce, and send to table. This is an elegant mode of serving turkey.