Home › The Principles of Cookery › Turkey, Rolled
Turkey, Rolled
Cut a young turkey down the middle into two parts, remove the bones without injuring the skin, lay the pieces flat on the table--skin downwards--and spread over each a layer of good veal forcemeat three-quarters of an inch thick. Roll them up like a sausage, cover with thin slices of fat bacon, and tie these on with twine. Lay the rolls in a stewpan, cover with stock, and put with them a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, two carrots, two onions in which two cloves have been stuck, a parsnip, half a small blade of mace, and a little pepper and salt. Let them simmer gently until they are done enough, and skim the liquor carefully. When the bird is half-cooked a glassful of wine may be added to the liquor. Rolled turkey may be eaten hot or cold. If it is to be eaten hot, put the rolls on a hot dish, remove the twine, strain and thicken the sauce, pour part of it over the meat, and send the rest to table in a tureen. If it is to be eaten cold, let the rolls lie in the liquor for half an hour after they are taken from the fire, and when the meat is cold brush over with two coats of glaze. Time to simmer the rolls, one hour and a half.
A boned, stuffed, poached turkey — essentially a galantine served hot with its own sauce or cold under glaze. The work is all in the boning and rolling; the simmering is undemanding but needs watching for temperature.
- The hinge: keep the skin wholeThe roll holds together only because the skin stays intact, so bone from the inside with a small sharp knife and stay close to the bone. Any tear should be closed with a needle and thread before the forcemeat goes on, or the stuffing bleeds into the stock.
- "A young turkey"The recipe gives no weight; a young bird simply means a smaller one than the festive roasting turkey. A modern 10–12 lb bird gives two rolls that will barely fit a large stewpan; a 6–8 lb bird, or a pair of large turkey breasts with the skin on, is easier to manage.
- Veal forcemaat, and what to use insteadVeal forcemeat, and what to use instead -- Victorian veal forcemeat is generally minced veal, bound with breadcrumbs, suet, egg, lemon peel and seasoning. Ground veal is now expensive and often unavailable; ground pork shoulder with a little cream and egg behaves the same way. Judge the quantity by covering each half-bird to the stated three-quarter-inch depth.
- Fat baconThe original means unsmoked back fat or green streaky bacon, used as a barding jacket rather than for flavour. Sheets of pork fatback or thin unsmoked pancetta are the closest match; smoked bacon will dominate the poaching liquor.
- Blade of maceMace is the lacy aril that encloses the nutmeg seed; the recipe's half a small blade amounts to no more than a pinch of ground mace, an eighth of a teaspoon or less. Do not substitute more than that — it is assertive.
- Simmer, and check the temperatureNinety minutes at a bare tremble is about right for a roll 3–4 inches thick, but stuffed poultry needs verifying rather than timing: the centre of the forcemeat should reach 165F/74C. Hold the pot below a boil or the roll swells and splits its skin.
- Thickening the sauceStrain the liquor, reduce it hard to concentrate the vegetables and wine, then thicken with a beurre manié or a roux. The unreduced stock is too thin to make a good sauce.
- The glaze for cold serviceGlaze here is meat stock reduced to a syrup that sets — the boned carcass and wings will make it if simmered several hours and reduced. A commercial aspic jelly or a good gelatine-set reduced stock gives the same lacquer. Let the rolls lie in the liquor for the half hour directed, then let them go quite cold before brushing, as the recipe says.
- YieldTwo rolls from one bird serve 8–10 hot, or more cut in thin rounds cold. Chill overnight, still tied, before slicing cold; it cuts cleanly and the stuffing holds.
Boning a bird, spreading it with forcemeat and rolling it into a cylinder to poach is the technique the French call a galantine, and it belongs to the era before refrigeration when a cold centrepiece had to look as impressive as a hot one. The glaze served a practical purpose as well as a decorative one: a coat of set, reduced stock sealed the cut surface and slowed drying on a buffet or supper table. A boned roll stretches one bird across many plates and slices without waste or carving skill, virtues that mattered in a household feeding a large table or sending cold meat to a picnic, ball supper or shooting lunch. The instruction that the rolls may be eaten hot or cold, with two quite different finishes, treats one preparation as the basis for two meals.