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Devil, Wet
Score the leg of a roasted turkey, and fill up the cuts with a seasoning of mustard, pepper, and salt; then broil over a clear fire, and pour over it when sent to table the following sauce, made hot. To three table-spoonfuls of gravy and one of melted butter, add a tea-spoonful each of Harvey's sauce, mushroom ketchup, chilli vinegar, and mustard, a large wine-glassful of port, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, and a little cayenne and black pepper. More seasoning may be added, but this will be best regulated by the taste of the consumer.
A Victorian way of reviving cold roast turkey: a "wet" devil is one served with a sauce, as opposed to a "dry" devil, which is only rubbed with seasoning and grilled. The whole thing depends on the leg being already cooked, so the grilling is about crust and heat, not doneness.
- Start with cooked meatThe leg comes off a bird already roasted, and devils of this kind were usually made with meat left over cold. Score the leg and pack the mustard, pepper and salt into the cuts, so the seasoning sits inside the meat rather than scorching on the surface.
- "Broil over a clear fire"A clear fire is one that has burned down past the smoke to steady glowing coals. A modern overhead broiler on high does much the same job in a few minutes with a turn or two; you want blistered, crisp skin and the meat heated through to 165F.
- Harvey's sauceA commercial anchovy-based bottled sauce, popular through the 19th century and now hard to find. Worcestershire sauce is the closest widely available equivalent and can be used in the same teaspoon quantity.
- Mushroom ketchupNot tomato ketchup but a thin, dark, salty liquid of salted mushrooms, closer to soy sauce in body. Still sold by some British producers; a teaspoon of soy sauce plus a drop of mushroom soaking liquid stands in.
- Chilli vinegarSimply vinegar in which chillies have steeped for a week or two. Bottled hot sauce is not a like-for-like substitute; if substituting, use a teaspoon of cider or wine vinegar and lean on the cayenne.
- "Melted butter"In books of this date melted butter usually means the standard Victorian butter sauce, butter thickened with a little flour and water, not plain liquid butter. Either will work here, but the thickened version gives the sauce enough body to cling.
- Wine-glassfulA wine-glass in Victorian recipes is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, so "a large wine-glassful" of port is roughly 1/4 cup or a little more. That is a lot of wine against three tablespoons of gravy; the sauce is to be sent to table hot, so let it simmer a minute or two to take the raw edge off.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity, but the sauce as measured would suit a leg or two, enough for a couple of people as a savoury course or supper dish. It is aggressively seasoned by design, which is why the recipe hands the final adjustment to the eater.
Devilling was a common Victorian answer to leftovers: mustard, cayenne and something sharp applied to cold roast meat, poultry bones or fish, then grilled hard. The word had been attached to highly spiced grilled food since at least the late 18th century, the "devil" being the heat, and it belonged especially to the late supper and the breakfast sideboard in houses where a large bird had been carved the day before. Turkey and pheasant legs are often said to have been the usual subjects, since the drumsticks were considered too coarse for the roast dinner table but perfect once scored and fired. The sauce here is a museum of Victorian bottled condiments -- Harvey's sauce, mushroom ketchup, chilli vinegar -- the sort of proprietary flavourings that filled a well-stocked store cupboard, and the closing line, that the seasoning is "best regulated by the taste of the consumer," leaves the final adjustment to whoever is eating.