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Turkey, Blanquette Of
Cut the meat from the remains of a cooked turkey into neat slices, cover these with a cloth, and set them in a cool place till wanted. Put the bones and trimmings into a saucepan with two ounces of lean ham or a piece of bacon-rind, a small onion finely-minced, a blade of mace, and as much cold stock or water as will cover them. Let all simmer gently together for half an hour or more. Strain the liquor, and put it back into the saucepan with half a gill of thick cream, half a tea-spoonful of finely-minced lemon-rind, and a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Let the sauce simmer for ten minutes, put in the slices of turkey, let them heat for two or three minutes, then add gradually the well-beaten yolk of an egg, and be careful to mix a little of the sauce with the egg in a basin before putting it to the rest. Stir gently for a few minutes till the sauce is set, but on no account allow it to boil after the egg is added. Serve the preparation on a hot dish with toasted sippets round it. Time, altogether, about an hour. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold turkey, 9d. Sufficient, with a pound of meat, for two or three persons.
A leftovers dish built on a quick stock made from the carcass, finished with cream and egg yolk. Everything depends on the last minute of cooking.
- The hinge: no boiling after the yolkOnce the beaten yolk goes in, the sauce must stay below a simmer or it will curdle into grainy threads. Pull the pan off the heat, temper the yolk with a ladleful of hot sauce as directed, then return it over the lowest possible heat and stir until it just coats the spoon.
- Half a gill of creamAn imperial gill is 5 fluid ounces, so this is about 2 1/2 fl oz (roughly 70 ml, a scant 1/3 cup). Use heavy or double cream; "thick cream" here means high-fat, not clotted, and single cream or half-and-half is more likely to split.
- Reduce the strained liquorThe recipe only says to cover the bones with stock or water, so the yield is unspecified and can easily be more liquid than half a gill of cream and one yolk will thicken. Boiling the strained stock down before adding the cream will give a sauce rather than a broth.
- Bacon-rind and lean hamBoth are there for salt and gelatin in the stock. A couple of ounces of unsmoked bacon or a prosciutto end works; heavily smoked bacon will dominate the delicate sauce.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg seed, sold in "blades" or ground. Substitute a scant 1/4 teaspoon of ground mace, and remember nutmeg is grated in later as well, so keep both restrained.
- Heating the turkeyTwo or three minutes is deliberate and correct. The meat is already cooked, and longer in the pan makes it stringy; it only needs to come through hot.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toast or fried bread, arranged around the edge of the dish. Cut them from firm white bread and add them at the table so they do not soften.
- YieldAbout a pound of picked turkey meat serves two or three as written. Rice or plain boiled potatoes stretch it further without competing with the sauce.
A blanquette is a French white stew, named for its pale sauce, traditionally veal or chicken simmered and then bound with cream and egg yolks rather than browned first. Here the technique is applied to cold roast turkey, which is exactly the kind of thrift a household dictionary was written to teach: the carcass makes the stock, the trimmings and a scrap of bacon-rind season it, and a single yolk turns the whole into something presentable enough for a hot dish with toast points. The costing in pence, given "exclusive of the cold turkey," makes the logic plain, since the meat has already been paid for at an earlier meal.