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Turkeys

There is some difference in the methods adopted for trussing a turkey for roasting or braising and boiling. For roasting the same process as that described under trussing poultry is employed. For braising or boiling, trussing differs from the former in that the legs are tucked under the apron as follows:

Singe and draw the bird, cut the legs off at the first joint, pass the finger into the inside, raise the skin of the legs, and tuck them under the apron of the bird. Pass a skewer through a joint of the wing and the middle joint of the leg, and run it through the body and the other leg and wing. Clean the liver and gizzard, and tuck them in with the pinions. Turn the small end of the pinion on the back, and fasten some twine over the ends of the legs to keep them in their places.

Turkeys are often boned for making galantines or preparing other dishes in which the meat of the turkey without the skeleton is preferred. In some of the following recipes the boning of the turkey is prescribed, and the following is the method by which it should be done:

The skin of the turkey for boning must not be broken or damaged in the slightest way, otherwise the effect will be spoiled. Pluck and singe the bird, chop off the head and lower joints of the legs, and the tips of the wings, and draw out the tendons from the legs, loosening the skin round the drumstick. The turkey must not be drawn before boning. Place the bird on its breast on a board, and with a sharp knife make a cut through the skin of the neck to the middle of the back or near the junction of the side bone. Scrape away the flesh with the skin until the end of the shoulder-blade is reached, ease the flesh from this and continue to follow the bone to the shoulder joint down to the middle joint in the wing. Care must be taken at this point, as the skin lies very near the bone. The lower or first bone should be left in the wing, as it is not in the way of carving, and helps to form the bird into shape. Should the turkey be small, the wings may be chopped off at the middle joint, as there is but little meat on them. Serve the other wing in the same way, and then follow the collarbone, loosening the crop from the flesh. Care must again be taken in removing the flesh from the breast-bone not to cut through the skin on the ridge; it should be pushed away with the fingers, and the pieces that are detached from the other flesh can be inserted in their places afterward. As soon as the breast-bone is freed of meat, take off that from the ribs, then take it from the legs at the top joint, and then the drumsticks, turning the flesh inside out as if you were pulling a glove from your finger. When both of the legs have been boned, scrape down to the end of the backbone, and cut through the bone, leaving a part of it in the tail to hold the skewers. Now separate the membrane under the body, and all the flesh should be in the skin, while the skeleton containing the inside can be pulled away at the neck.