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A Boned Turkey
For this purpose you must have a fine, large, tender turkey; and after it is drawn and washed and wiped dry, place it on a table, take a very sharp knife, with a narrow blade and point. Begin at the neck; then go round to the shoulders and wings, and carefully separate the flesh from the bone, scraping it down as you proceed. Next, loosen the flesh from the breast and back and body, and lastly from the thighs. Use great care and patience, to avoid breaking or tearing the skin. Be careful that the knife always penetrates to the bone, scraping loose the flesh carefully. After you have finished your work with the knife, and the flesh has been well loosened, take a firm hold on the neck, pulling it gently, and the whole skeleton will come out from the flesh with the greatest ease. After this process the flesh will fall. With a needle and thread sew up any holes that may have been torn in the skin. Make a stuffing as follows: Take three small loaves of bread; grate the crumb, and soak the crust in water. When very soft mix it with the bread crumbs, and a pound of butter, cut into pieces. Two bunches of sweet marjoram, same of basil, one bunch of parsley (mince parsley very fine), and rub to a powder the leaves of the marjoram and basil. Two large spoonfuls of each will not be too much. Chop two onions, mixing with the herbs.
Beat fine a quarter of an ounce of mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves and one large nutmeg. Mix spices together, adding a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of black pepper. Then mix herbs and spice well into the bread crumbs, and add by degrees three or four beaten eggs, to hold the ingredients together. Proceed to stuff the turkey, beginning at the wings; next do the body, and then the thighs. Stuff very tightly, form the turkey into its natural shape by filling out properly the wings, breast and body. When you have stuffed the body, sew and skewer the bird into the usual shape in which they are trussed; so that, if skilfully done, it will look as natural as if it had not been boned. Tie it well with tape and bake at least three hours, basting frequently with fresh butter. Make a gravy of the giblets, chopped and stewed in a little water. When done, add to it the gravy that is in the dish about the turkey (having first skimmed off the fat), and just before you remove from the fire, add two beaten yolks of eggs, with a glass of white wine stirred into the gravy. If turkey is to be eaten cold, drop tablespoonfuls of cranberry jelly (or currant) in the dish over and around it. A young roasting pig is very nice prepared in the same manner
A boned bird is a knife exercise more than a cooking one, and the original assumes both a skilled hand and a household that could eat a whole turkey in a sitting. A few of the quantities need scaling before you commit.
- The hinge: keep the skin wholeEverything else can be corrected; a torn skin cannot be hidden once the bird is stuffed and swelling. Work with the blade angled against the bone and the flesh pulled back with the other hand, and turn the bird rather than reaching across it. A chilled bird is far easier to bone than one at room temperature.
- "Drawn"Means eviscerated. A supermarket turkey arrives drawn, with the giblets bagged inside; save them for the gravy as directed.
- Oven heatThe recipe specifies no oven heat, only "bake at least three hours, basting frequently." A moderate oven, in the region of 325-350F, is a reasonable modern reading for a large stuffed bird, but the temperature and the bird's weight are both modern inferences and not stated in the original.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockA boned bird is a solid cylinder of meat and dense stuffing, so the center is the slowest point. Take it to 165F in the thickest part of the stuffing itself, which may take more or less than the stated three hours depending on how heavily you have packed it.
- Scale the stuffingThree small loaves of bread with a full pound of butter is enough for a very large bird and then some. For a modern 12 lb turkey, about 8-10 cups of crumbs and 8 oz of butter is closer to workable; make the rest as a side dish rather than forcing it in.
- Herbs and spices"Two bunches" of fresh marjoram or basil is not a fixed amount, but the recipe clarifies itself: two large spoonfuls of each once dried and powdered, so roughly 2 tablespoons each of dried marjoram and basil. A quarter ounce of mace and a quarter ounce of cloves works out at roughly 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of each ground, and with a whole nutmeg on top the spicing is assertive by current taste. Halve it if you want the turkey to taste of turkey.
- TapeMeans narrow cotton tape used to bind roasts into shape. Butcher's twine does the same job; wrap it around the bird in bands rather than trussing legs and wings, since there are no longer bones to truss against.
- Finishing the gravyThe two egg yolks will curdle if the giblet gravy is boiling. Pull the pan off the heat, whisk a ladle of hot gravy into the beaten yolks and wine, then return the mixture and keep it below a simmer.
- Yield and servingA boned bird carves into clean slices with the stuffing running through them, and holds together well cold. A 12 lb turleft will stretch a long way -- reckon on a dozen or more servings -- and if serving cold, chill it fully wrapped and firm before slicing, with the cranberry or currant jelly as directed.
Boning a bird whole and re-forming it around a forcemeat is the technique behind the French galantine and ballotine, and it reached American cookbooks through the same channel as most nineteenth-century fine cookery: English adaptations of French practice. The heavy hand with mace, cloves and nutmeg is characteristic of an older tradition of spiced forcemeats that persisted in stuffings long after it had faded from the rest of the meal.