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Turkey, Devil of, with Sauce
Devilled turkey prepared as above may be sent to table with sauce Robert, grill sauce, poivrade sauce, curry sauce, thick melted butter flavoured with anchovy or ketchup, or with a sauce prepared as follows. Mince four shallots or four young onions very finely, and put them into a small stewpan with as much good vinegar as will moisten them. Let them simmer gently till they are soft, then add a wine-glassful of strong gravy, a pinch of cayenne, half a glassful of wine, and a small piece of anchovy butter, or, if this is not at hand, use six or eight drops of the essence of anchovy, and stir a small lump of butter into the same after it is strained and put into the tureen. Boil the sauce two or three minutes longer, and serve. If liked, the savoury joints may be stewed in as much stock as will barely cover them, and served on a hot dish with the sauce poured over them, and garnished with hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters lengthwise, and arranged round the dish alternately with toasted sippets. Time to stew the legs, etc., nearly half an hour. Probable cost, varying with the sauce. Sufficient for four persons.
This is the sauce half of a devilled turkey entry — the meat itself is scored, spread with mustard and cayenne and grilled elsewhere in the book. What follows here is a sharp shallot-and-vinegar reduction of the sauce Robert family, plus an optional way of stewing the devilled joints.
- The hinge: reduce, then strainThe shallots are cooked down in vinegar until soft and sweet before any liquid goes in; rushing that leaves the sauce raw and harsh. The butter goes in only after straining and off the boil, so it emulsifies rather than splits.
- A wine-glassfulTake it as 2 fl oz (about 1/4 cup) of gravy. "Half a glassful of wine" is genuinely vague in this book — a wineglass would give 1 fl oz, a tumbler 4 — and 1 to 2 fl oz gives a balanced sauce.
- Strong gravyA well-reduced brown stock or gravy, of the kind a well-run Victorian kitchen aimed to keep by it. Use well-reduced veal or brown chicken stock, or the strained roasting-pan juices from the bird, and keep it unsalted since the anchovy brings plenty.
- Essence of anchovyA thin bottled anchovy extract, close to today's anchovy sauce. Anchovy paste works as a substitute; start with an eighth of a teaspoon in place of the six to eight drops and taste. Worcestershire is a rougher substitute and brings its own vinegar and tamarind.
- Anchovy butterSimply butter mashed with pounded anchovy; ratios vary, but about one fillet to 2 oz of butter is a reasonable working proportion. The recipe asks only for 'a small piece'.
- StewpanA small heavy saucepan. Avoid untreated aluminium or bare cast iron, which react with the quantity of vinegar involved.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toasted or fried bread, arranged round the dish alternately with the egg quarters as the recipe directs. Cut them from a firm white loaf and toast them dry so they hold up under the sauce.
- Stewing the jointsThe half hour applies to turkey legs already roasted and grilled — it is a warming-through and flavouring step, not a cooking one. Barely cover with stock and keep it at a bare tremble so the meat does not shred.
- YieldFour servings, as the original states. The sauce itself makes only a small quantity, enough to pour over the joints.
Devilling was the standard Victorian answer to a cold bird past its best: score the joints deeply, work in mustard, cayenne and something salty, and put them under fierce heat so the spice bites into the meat. The name is generally traced to eighteenth-century usage, where "devilled" meant simply fiery, and the technique is often said to have been common at club and chophouse breakfasts and at the sideboard the morning after a large dinner. Cassell's is characteristically thorough in offering a rank of sauces to go with it: Robert, grill, poivrade sauce, curry, anchovy butter. The shallot-and-vinegar reduction given here is essentially a domestic sauce Robert without the mustard, a reminder of how much of English cookery writing in this period was French method translated into English pantry terms.