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TURKEY, TRUSSING AND CARVING OF (Dr. Kitchener's observations)

The rules for cutting up a pheasant are in all respects applicable to a turkey; whether roasted or boiled, it is trussed and sent to table like a fowl. In trussing it, three skewers should be placed so as to admit the spit between them and the back of it: these keep it firm on the spit, and prevent the great weight of the stuffing, etc., from making it turn irregular while at the fire. One skewer should be passed through the legs; one in the middle, which confines the wings; and the other under the wings, near the end of the merry-thought. The best parts of a turkey are the white ones--the breast, wings, and neck-bones. The neck must be taken away, and the hollow part under the breast stuffed with forcemeat, which is to be cut in thin slices in the direction from the rump to the neck, and a slice given with each piece of turkey. The breast is the only part usually cut up; if more is wanted, take off one or both wings, a leg, etc. The gizzard and rump are favourites with some epicures. It is called a devil when well peppered, salted, and broiled; many people score it with a knife before it is peppered and salted. If you wish a turkey, especially a very large one, to be tender, never cook it till at least four or five days (in cold weather, eight or ten) after it has been killed. "No man who understands good living will say, on such a day I will eat that turkey--but will hang it up by four of the large tail-feathers, and when, on paying his morning visit to the larder, he finds it lying upon a cloth prepared to receive it when it falls, that day let it be cooked."