The American Pastry Cook

Jessup Whitehead's American Pastry Cook — the hotel pastry trade's own manual, in hundreds of numbered recipes.

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Boned Turkey in Aspic Jelly

Warm the mould or shape and take out the pressed turkey. Remove the cloth, draw out the thread, wipe off all adhering jelly and fat with a towel dipped in hot water and shave off any discolored or ragged portions. With a vegetable cutter stamp out half a dozen small shapes from a thick sliced green pickle and place them on the bottom of the same mould, well washed and dried, that the turkey was pressed in, and place the turkey resting on them. This leaves a space under and around for a coating of aspic jelly to be poured in and when quite cold and set the boned turkey can be turned out again on to its dish, thinly but evenly encased in clear jelly, which may be sliced and served with it.

To be used only to slice as cold meat the turkey need only have two or three coats of fresh butter melted and applied with a brush, the turkey being very cold. Ornaments of jelly, or of chopped jelly forced through a tube can still be added if desired in the individual dishes.

Your boned turkey, whether incased in jelly or not, will have a handsomer appearance to the consumers inside than outside, and when sent to table whole should always on some excuse or other be cut first, the halves or even the quarters of a turkey that is about all white meat can be edged and finished with decorations to look as well and infinitely more appetising than any over-done "bellevue" that is ever exhibited.

We have spoken of the trifling divergence of common usage from the strict definition of galantine, and have now to notice the same in regard to the description a la bellevue. It is ordinarily understood by cooks and bill of fare writers to mean that the article is incased in jelly and ornamented. But it is applied by old authorities to several other sorts of decoration besides aspic jelly, even to hot dishes. The word means literally a pretty sight. The modern usage is to drop bellevue altogether and just say the galantine is decorated (decoree.) When well done a something en bellevue is unquestionably a very handsome object; the complaint is that a party may go to a ball supper and go away from it hungry for all the good a turkey done that way will do in the way of something to eat. It looks too pretty to cut--the jelly casing, not the turkey, which indeed is not even seen--and besides is not suggestive of anything to eat at all. These things might better be made of cabinet work transparent glue and varnish and save the cook his wasted pains.

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