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Pulled Turkey, Fowl, or Chicken
Skin a cold chicken, fowl, or turkey; take off the fillets from the breasts, and put them into a stewpan with the rest of the white meat and wings, side-bones, and merrythought, with a pint of broth, a large blade of pounded mace, a finely-minced shallot, the juice of half a lemon, and a roll of the peel, some salt, and a few grains of cayenne; thicken with flour and butter, and let the stock simmer for a few minutes, till the meat is warm. In the meantime score the legs and rump, powder them with pepper and salt, broil them nicely brown, and lay them on or round the pulled chicken. Three table-spoonfuls of good cream, or the yolks of as many eggs, will be a great improvement to this dish.
A two-part supper dish built from a cold roast bird: the white meat shredded and warmed in a sauce, the legs scored and grilled. Both halves want a light hand.
- "Pulled" means torn, not carvedThe white meat should be pulled into coarse shreds along the grain with your fingers or two forks, not sliced. Ragged edges hold the sauce; neat slices sit in it.
- The bird's anatomyThe merrythought is the wishbone and the flesh around it; the side-bones are the pieces cut from the lower back on either side of the rump, each containing the 'oyster'. Anything white and tender goes into the pan; the dark legs are reserved for the grill.
- A pint of brothAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, about 2.5 US cups. That is generous for one bird — reduce it a little before thickening if you want a sauce that clings rather than a soup.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, sold as blades or ground. A large blade pounded is roughly a quarter teaspoon of ground mace; it is warmer and less sweet than nutmeg.
- Thicken with flour and butterButter and flour worked together to a paste (beurre manié) and whisked in in small pieces. The recipe gives no quantities: add it a little at a time until the sauce just coats, then simmer a couple of minutes so the flour loses its rawness.
- A roll of the peelA single long strip of lemon zest pared with no white pith, curled into the pan and lifted out before serving. It perfumes the sauce without the bitterness of chopped peel.
- The cream or yolks go in off the heatThree yolks slaked with a spoonful of the hot sauce and stirred back into the pan off the boil will thicken it silkily. Return it to direct heat and it scrambles. Cream is the forgiving option.
- Warm through, do not cook againThe meat is already cooked. Simmering it a second time dries the breast to string; two or three minutes to heat it is the whole intention of "till the meat is warm."
- The legsScore them to the bone at intervals so the seasoning penetrates, and grill or broil close to the heat for a few minutes a side until the skin blisters.
This is the classic English way with yesterday's roast bird: white meat gently sauced, dark meat scored and fired. Recipes of this type circulate through English household books from the Regency onward, and similar dishes appear in Eliza Acton and, earlier, in Mrs Rundell. Grilled, heavily seasoned joints of this kind are close kin to the Victorian breakfast "devil", which pushed the pepper and mustard much further. The logic is thrift dressed as elegance — a cold carcass yields two textures and a hot supper.