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Turkey Poult, Truffled
Fill the body of the bird with nicely-seasoned veal forcemeat, and add as many truffles as it may be wished to use, first cutting them into balls the size of a walnut. The trimmings of the truffles may be used to make sauce, or they may be minced and mixed with the forcemeat. Lard the breast of the bird, or, if this is not practicable, cover with thin slices of fat bacon, truss the poult firmly, and put it down before a clear fire. Baste liberally, and serve truffle sauce or bread sauce with it. Time to roast, one hour or more, according to size.
A spit-roasted young turkey stuffed with veal forcemeat and whole truffles. The method translates to an oven without much trouble, but two things need attention: the bird is small, and the stuffing is raw meat.
- What a poult isA poult is a young turkey, and would have been a considerably smaller bird than the 14 lb-plus turkeys sold today; the hour given for roasting implies something in the range of a large chicken or capon. Buy the smallest whole turkey you can find, or use a large capon-sized chicken.
- Stuffing of raw vealVeal forcemeat is ground raw meat, and packed inside a bird it heats slowly. Take the centre of the stuffing to 165F on a thermometer, not the flesh alone, or cook the forcemeat separately in a loaf tin and serve it sliced alongside.
- Oven instead of spit"Put it down before a clear fire" means roasting on a spit or jack in front of the hearth rather than in a closed oven, with frequent turning. In an oven, start hot for about 20 minutes to colour the bacon, then drop to a moderate heat for the remainder; the recipe's own guide is one hour or more according to size, so check the bird and the stuffing with a thermometer rather than relying on a per-pound rule.
- Larding and bardingLarding means threading strips of pork fat through the breast with a larding needle. Few cooks own one now; the alternative the recipe already offers, a blanket of thin fat bacon or pork back fat tied over the breast, does the same job. Remove it for the last 20 minutes to brown the skin.
- TrufflesBalls the size of a walnut means truffles large enough to be turned with a small knife, which at current prices is extravagant beyond reason. Thin shavings tucked under the skin, or a few tablespoons of chopped preserved truffle worked into the forcemeat, give much of the perfume for a fraction of the outlay.
- BastingLiberal basting made sense in front of a fire, where the surface dried constantly. In a closed oven it costs more heat than it gains moisture; baste two or three times at most and keep the door shut otherwise.
- SaucesTruffle sauce here is a brown sauce or reduced veal stock finished with the truffle trimmings. Bread sauce is milk infused with onion and clove, thickened with fresh crumbs and enriched with butter.
- YieldDepending on the size of the bird, this will serve roughly four to eight with the forcemeat. Rest it 20 minutes under foil before carving.
Truffled turkey was one of the set pieces of the nineteenth-century festive table. Turkeys had been raised in England for three centuries by then, and young birds came to market in autumn and early winter, exactly when French black truffles were dug; Brillat-Savarin's earlier praise of the truffled turkey helped fix the pairing in the anglophone cookery imagination. The instruction to roast in front of a clear fire rather than in an oven marks the recipe as belonging to a kitchen that still had a hearth, even as closed ranges were taking over.