If you have an old turkey unfit for roasting or boiling, braise it for four or five hours, adding a little wine (toward the last) to the stock, if you choose.
Turkey Galantine, or Boned Turkey.
Choose a fat hen turkey. When dressing it, leave the crop skin (the skin over the breast) whole; cut off the legs, wings, and neck. Now slit the skin at the back, and carefully remove it all around. Cut out the breasts carefully; cut them into little elongated pieces, about a quarter of an inch square and an inch long (parallelograms); or cut them any way you like. Season them with pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, mace, pounded cloves, sweet basil, and a little chopped parsley, all mixed. Now make a force-meat, with a pound and a quarter of lean veal or fresh pork, well freed from skin and gristle. Mix this with the meat of the turkey (all but the breasts); chop it well. Then chop an equal volume of fresh bacon, which mix with the other chopped meat: season this with the condiments last mentioned. Now pound it in a mortar to a paste. Cut one pound of truffles, half a pound of cooked pickled tongue, and half a pound of cooked fat bacon, into three-quarter-inch dice. Season these also.
Spread the turkey skin on a board. Make alternate layers on it, first of half of the force-meat, then half of the turkey breasts, then half of the dice of tongue, truffles, and bacon, then, turkey fillets and dice again: save some of the force-meat to put on the last layer. Now begin at one side and roll it over, giving it a round and long shape; sew up the skin; wrap it, pressing it closely in a napkin; tie it at the extremities, and also tie it across in two places, to keep it in an oval shape with round ends.
Boil the galantine gently for four hours in boiling water (or, better, in stock), with the bones of the turkey thrown in. At the end of that time, take the stew-pan off the fire. Let the galantine cool in the liquor one hour; then drain it, and put it on a dish with a seven-pound weight on it.
When cold, take the galantine out of the napkin; put it at the end of an open oven for some minutes to melt the fat, which wipe off with a cloth; glaze it, or sprinkle it with a little egg and fine bread-crumbs, and bake it a few minutes. It is, of course, to be sliced when eaten. It is generally served placed on a wooden standard, as described for a Mayonnaise of salmon.
A boned turkey, or galantine, is seen at almost all large parties. It is convenient to have one in the house, as it will keep for a long time, and is very nice for lunch or tea. It costs ten dollars to buy one, and about half of the amount to make it. Of course, it is some trouble to make; yet if one’s time is worth less than one’s money, there is plenty of time for the purpose, as it can be made three or four days before an entertainment. Chicken and game galantines are made in the same way. The figure on page 169 is a boned turkey or chicken prepared for boiling.
Mixed Spices for Seasoning.
In cities, mixed spices can be purchased, which are prepared by professional cooks, and which save much trouble to inexperienced compounders. This is one of their receipts: “Take of nutmegs and mace, one ounce each; of cloves and white pepper-corns, two ounces each; of sweet basil, marjoram, and thyme, one ounce each, and half an ounce of bay leaves: these herbs should be previously dried for the purpose. Roughly pound the spices, then place the whole of the above ingredients between two sheets of white paper, and after the sides have been folded over tightly, to prevent the evaporation of the volatile properties of the herbs and spices, place them in a warm place to become perfectly dry. They must then be pounded quickly, put through a sieve, corked up tightly in bottles, and kept for use.”