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Meat Jelly for Boned Turkey
As soon as the water in which the turkey was boiled is cold, take off all the fat and strain it, put it in a porcelain-lined kettle; two ounces gelatine, three eggs, with shells, a wine-glass of sherry, port or madeira wine; stir well. Add one quart of the strained liquor; beat rapidly with an egg-beater, put it on the fire and stir until it boils. Simmer ten or fifteen minutes. Sprinkle in a pinch of turmeric and strain just as any other jelly. When congealed break it up and place around the turkey. Cut some in thick slices and in fanciful shapes with paste cutters. Place some of these lozenges over the turkey and border the edges of the dish with them.--Mrs. S. T.
This is an aspic — a clarified turkey stock set with gelatine, used to garnish a cold boned turkey. The whole thing hinges on the clarification, and one instruction in the original will ruin it if followed literally.
- Stop stirring once it boilsThe eggs and crushed shells form a raft that traps cloudy particles. Beat them into the cold stock and stir only until it reaches a boil, then leave it strictly alone at a bare simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Continued stirring breaks the raft and you get murky jelly.
- Gelatine quantityTwo ounces of gelatine to a quart appears in other recipes of the period; nineteenth-century gelatine varied in strength, while modern powdered gelatine is stronger and more consistent. About 1 oz (four 1/4-oz envelopes) per quart gives a jelly firm enough to cut into lozenges with a cutter, which is what this recipe needs.
- A wine-glassRoughly 2 fluid ounces, a quarter cup. Sherry, port or madeira all work; port in particular will tint the finished jelly noticeably darker.
- Degrease thoroughlyThe recipe's "as soon as the water is cold" is about letting the fat rise and lift off as a solid cap; chilling the stock overnight is the simplest modern way to get there. Any fat left behind will cloud the jelly and leave a greasy film on the cut surfaces.
- Straining"Strain as any other jelly" means through a jelly bag or two layers of damp cheesecloth in a sieve, without pressing or squeezing. Let it drip. Ladle the clear liquid out from under the raft rather than pouring the pot.
- The turmericA pinch only, purely for colour — it gives the pale poultry stock a golden tint. More than a pinch and the flavour becomes obvious and slightly musty.
- Setting and cuttingPour part of the jelly into a shallow pan about half an inch deep for the slices and cut-out shapes; the rest can set in a bowl to be broken up and heaped around the bird. Four to six hours in the refrigerator, or overnight.
- Yield and holdingA quart of stock makes enough to garnish one platter generously. Keep the assembled dish refrigerated until it goes to the table — aspic on a cold cooked bird is a food best kept cold, and it will slump and weep if it sits out for long.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from recipes contributed by Southern housekeepers and signed only with initials such as "Mrs. S. T.," belongs to the high period of the cold decorated table. A boned turkey — the bird taken off its skeleton, stuffed, rolled, poached and pressed — was the centerpiece of a supper or a wedding collation, and it was never served naked: the cooking liquor was clarified, set, chopped into glittering rubble and cut into lozenges with the same tin paste cutters used for pastry. That practice is generally traced back through Victorian and Georgian cookery to the French galantine, and it depended on a household with plenty of hands, an icehouse or a good cool cellar, and no interest in wasting a quart of good stock.