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Turkey Pinions, Stewed
Remove the large wing-bone from the pinions, and fold the skin over at the end. Fry the wings in a little butter till they are lightly browned, dredge some flour over, barely cover them with stock, and add a bunch of parsley, a small onion stuck with one clove, and a little pepper and salt. A glass of claret may be put into the stock if liked. Let all simmer gently together for an hour, then add half a dozen small onions fried in butter, and four or five mushrooms chopped small. Just before serving the stew, mince a tea-spoonful of capers finely, and stir them into the sauce. Put the pinions into the centre of a dish, pour the sauce over and round them, and garnish with sippets of toast. Time, an hour and a half. Probable cost, 1s., exclusive of the pinions. Sufficient, one set of pinions for one or two persons.
A frugal braise built on the part of the bird nobody roasts. It works on the same logic as coq au vin, and the only real difficulty is sourcing the cut.
- What a pinion isThe pinion is the outer part of the wing: the tip and the joint next to it, beyond the meaty first joint — though usage is loose, and 'pinion' is sometimes applied to the whole wing. They are seldom sold separately now; ask for whole turkey wings, and expect more meat than the original intends.
- "Remove the large wing-bone"This means boning out the large bone from the thick joint so the flap of skin can be folded back over the cut end, keeping the piece tidy during the long simmer. A boning knife and a few minutes will do it; skipping the step costs presentation, not flavour.
- A glass of claretClaret is red Bordeaux. A Victorian 'glass' in recipe measure is usually reckoned at roughly 2 fl oz, though the term was loose. Any dry red will serve the same purpose.
- Barely cover with stockOnly enough to come level with the wings — in a small pan a cupful or so, but go by the pan rather than a fixed measure. Keeping the liquid low concentrates the sauce; the flour dredged over the browned wings is the only thickener, so resist topping up unless the pan runs dry.
- TimingWing joints are heavily worked and full of connective tissue. An hour of gentle simmering followed by the half-hour with the onions and mushrooms is the stated hour and a half, and that is the minimum — check that the meat pulls from the bone before serving, and give it another twenty minutes if it does not.
- The onion stuck with a cloveAn oignon piqué, a standard flavouring of the period. Fish it and the parsley bunch out before the second batch of onions goes in, or the clove will keep on giving.
- Capers at the endThey go in off the heat, or nearly so. Their point is the sharp note that cuts through an hour and a half of buttery braising liquid, and prolonged cooking flattens it.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of bread, fried in butter or toasted, tucked round the edge of the dish. They are there to soak up sauce.
- Yield and costOne set of pinions feeds one or two, as stated. The "probable cost, 1s." is given "exclusive of the pinions", so the shilling covers the stock, butter, wine and vegetables only; the pinions are priced separately or not at all.
Cassell's belongs to a generation of household dictionaries that treated the carcass as a set of small problems to be solved, and the pinions were among the smallest. Wing tips carry little meat and almost no fat, but a great deal of collagen, which is exactly what makes them good braising material; the same instinct survives in chicken wings, duck wing confit, and the giblet stews that once followed every roast bird. That a book of this size gave the pinions their own entry says something about how a large bird was budgeted in a middle-class Victorian kitchen: the breast went to the dining room on the day, and the rest was expected to reappear, disguised, for several days after. The claret and the capers point to French braising practice, Anglicised.