Oyster Bundles
Cut nice, even slices of the breast of either boiled or roast turkey; spread over each piece a thin slice of bacon and put on top of each piece of bacon a large oyster; roll each slice of turkey, with the bacon and oyster inside so as to form a little bundle, tie each of these securely, place in a baking-pan and bake them long enough to cook the bacon, basting frequently with a little melted butter. Serve in a dish garnished with parsley.
A leftover-turkey dish from the era when a roast bird was carved for days. The whole recipe hangs on one tension: bacon wants time, oysters want almost none.
- The hinge: bacon versus oysterAn oyster is done in two or three minutes, when the edges just ruffle; bacon rolled around it needs fifteen or more to lose its rawness. Lay the bacon in a dry pan first until the fat begins to run but it is still limp, then assemble, and the bundles need only 12-15 minutes.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Take it as 400F. Hot enough to colour the bacon and set the parcels quickly, not so hot that already-cooked turkey dries out.
- Slices thick enough to rollCut the breast with the grain across, about a quarter inch thick and wide enough to wrap. Slices from a cold bird roll far more neatly than warm ones; if they crack, flatten them lightly between sheets of paper.
- TyingPlain cotton kitchen twine, one loop per bundle, snug but not cutting in. Wooden toothpicks do the same job and come out faster. Remove either before serving.
- Drain the oystersShucked oysters carry a good deal of liquor, which will steam the bundle from inside and slacken the bacon. Drain them and blot dry; save the liquor for the pan sauce.
- Basting and the panBasting with melted butter is the original instruction and is worth following, since there is no skin to protect the meat. Afterwards, deglaze the pan with the reserved oyster liquor and a splash of cream for a sauce the recipe does not mention.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. Figure roughly three bundles per person as a first course, five as a light main; how many a breast produces depends on the bird and on how it is carved.
This belongs to a long American habit of pairing oysters with poultry, visible in oyster stuffing, oyster sauce for boiled fowl, and the scalloped oysters that shared the Thanksgiving table. Before the oyster beds gave out, oysters were cheap protein on the Eastern seaboard and, thanks to the railroads, inland by barrel and can, so a cook could afford to spend them on a garnish. The form itself is the classic small savoury bundle the French call a paupiette and English cooks once called an olive, here built entirely from what was left of yesterday's bird. The Butterick company published this alongside its dress patterns for the same readership: households running on economy without wanting to look as though they were.</p>