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Turkey Twirled on a String

In the days of roomy old fireplaces people who cooked clandestinely in rented rooms (as they do even today with electric hot plates concealed in their baggage) would sometimes roast a fowl without any pot or pan at all, simply by tying its legs together with the end of a long, strong string, twisting the string around and around till it was tight as a grandfather's clock spring, and then hanging the bird above the coals on a nail stuck in the bricks, and leaving it to automatically twirl as the string unwound and rewound itself. A made-to-order, labor-saving rotary grill, for without any trouble or basting the dressed bird would soon be cooked to a turn. And there was no danger of the string burning, either, because it had the bird's body between it and the heat.

We tried this pioneer method once with a wild turkey, or at least we started to, in an Illinois woods where we got lost with a shooting party from school, invited out into the wilds by a farm boy. The excitement of shooting down one of a raucous flock of fleet wild turkeys with a .22 rifle evidently turned our heads, for before we knew it we couldn't find the trail. And after wandering around in a circle when we got good and hungry one of the party bragged about twirling ducks and such forbidden things on a string in his dormitory grate and suggested that we build a big bonfire under a dead tree limb, tie up our booty by our boot strings and roast our gobbler to a turn over the bed of coals.

We had just started, dry picked and cleaned the bird, when a farmer burst through the underbrush, held us all up at the muzzle of his .12 gauge shotgun, grabbed our "wild" turkey and explained that it was his one of the semi-domesticated flock that often took to wing unexpectedly and headed for the nearest woods. We have never since bagged a wild turkey, but in case we do we know one of the best ways of roasting him without pot or pan, provided we aren't out barefooted, without even a shoe string to twirl. 6 SQUABS SALT AND PEPPER FLOUR