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Turkey Poult, Cold, to Re-Cook
The remains of a turkey poult may be minced, made into patties, croquettes, etc., or, indeed, dressed up in various ways very much like the larger bird. The following will be found to be the most satisfactory way of serving it a second time. Cut the meat into neat pieces free from skin, bone, and sinew. Put the trimmings into a saucepan with a pint of white stock, a small bunch of parsley, a finely-minced shallot, and six mushrooms chopped small. Add pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, and simmer the sauce till it is pleasantly flavoured and partly reduced. Strain it, thicken with a little white roux or with flour and butter, and add an equal quantity of new milk or cream. Stir it over the fire till it boils, put in the slices of meat, and let them simmer until they are quite hot; but the sauce must not boil after they are added. Put the meat on a hot dish, pour the sauce over, and garnish the dish with sliced lemon and parsley. Time, about an hour and a quarter to make the sauce; four or five minutes to heat the meat. Probable cost, if milk be used, 8d., exclusive of the cold turkey poult.
A Victorian plan for leftover roast turkey, and a better one than most: the carcass trimmings are turned into the sauce rather than thrown out. Two details carry the dish — a properly reduced stock and a sauce that never boils once the meat goes in.
- The hinge: no boiling once the meat is inSliced cooked turkey held at a boil in cream sauce goes dry and stringy within a minute or two, and the cream can break. Bring the sauce to a boil to thicken it, then drop the heat so it barely steams and give the meat four or five minutes to warm through.
- Turkey poultA poult is a young turkey, so the meat is finer and more delicate than an old bird's. Leftover breast and thigh from any modern roast turkey behaves the same way; the smaller bird simply yields less trimming for the stock.
- A pint of white stockAn imperial pint is 20 fl oz, so measure 2 1/2 US cups. White stock means an unbrowned poultry or veal stock; unsalted chicken stock is the direct substitute, and salt at the end since the liquid is reduced.
- White roux, and how muchFor a pint of reduced stock plus an equal quantity of milk, about 2 tbsp butter cooked with 2 tbsp flour, kept pale and blond, gives a coating sauce; add more if you want it thicker. The original leaves the quantity to the cook's judgement.
- The hour and a quarterThat time covers simmering the trimmings and reducing the stock, not active work. If your stock is already concentrated, twenty to thirty minutes with the parsley, shallot and mushrooms is enough to take up the flavour.
- Mushrooms and shallotSix mushrooms is roughly a small handful of buttons. They and the shallot are strained out, so chop them fine and treat them purely as flavouring; slice a few extra to keep back and add to the finished sauce if you want texture.
- NutmegGrated nutmeg in a white poultry sauce is a period signature and easy to overdo, since a spoonful of pre-ground packs far more densely than a few strokes on a grater. Start with a small pinch.
- Yield and servingA pint of stock, reduced, with a matching quantity of milk will sauce enough turkey for about four. Serve over toast, rice or plain boiled potatoes; the lemon is listed as garnish, but a squeeze cuts the cream.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of the English re-cook: a household that roasted a whole bird for one meal was expected to account for every scrap of it afterwards, and dictionaries of cookery devoted whole runs of entries to "cold" versions of the previous day's joint. The technique here might fairly be described as a domesticated blanquette, a stock finished with cream, and the instruction to simmer the bones and trimmings for the sauce rather than discard them is the thrifty core of the method, not a refinement. The "probable cost, 8d." that closes the entry was a standard feature of Cassell's; the qualifier "exclusive of the cold turkey poult" makes the point that the leftovers were treated as already paid for. Turkey by the late nineteenth century was firmly a festive English bird, so entries like this one generally implied the aftermath of Christmas or a large dinner.