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Boned Turkey (Bone and stuff as in preceding)
Bone and stuff as in preceding recipe, roll tight in a strong, clean cloth, tie with tape in center and near the ends, and fasten ends firmly with strong twine, taking care to make the roll compact and perfectly secure; place in a rich stock, prepared by putting the bones in cold water with herbs, an onion peeled and stuck with ten cloves, and a sliced carrot and turnip, bringing to a boil, and skimming it until clear (if not enough to cover, add more boiling water), and boil four or five hours, take up, remove cloth, wash it in cold water, and replace turkey in it as before, place it between two platters under a heavy weight, and let stand over night to cool; strain the stock in which it was boiled, in the morning remove all fat, and put stock over the fire; add to it two ounces gelatine dissolved in a pint of cold water, and clarify as in general directions for "Soups." Strain through flannel until perfectly clear, pour it into two shallow molds, color one dark brown with caramel, and cool until the jelly is firm; place turkey on a dish and garnish with the jelly cut in fanciful shapes; or first place the turkey on a dish, and pour the jelly over it.
This is a galantine: a boned, stuffed turkey poached in its own stock, pressed overnight, and served cold under aspic. The work is in the rolling and the pressing, not the cooking.
- The hinge: a tight, secure rollIf the cloth roll is loose, the stuffing migrates and the slices fall apart. Roll the boned bird skin-side out around the forcemeat, wrap firmly in doubled muslin or cheesecloth, and tie at the center and both ends so the bundle is even in diameter end to end.
- Cooking timeFour or five hours is longer than a boned roll usually needs. A roll 3 to 4 inches thick will generally poach through in about 2 to 2 1/2 hours at a bare simmer; check with an instant-read thermometer pushed into the center of the stuffing, which should read 165F. Keep the stock at a bare simmer rather than a hard rolling boil, which is rough on the cloth-wrapped roll.
- Cooling and pressingPress it between two platters under a weight as directed, but do the overnight part in the refrigerator, not a room. A dense several-pound roll of cooked poultry and stuffing sits in the bacterial danger zone for hours if left out, and it presses just as well cold.
- GelatineTwo ounces is, by weight, eight 1/4-oz envelopes of modern powdered gelatine, roughly 6 tablespoons. Modern powder sets more firmly than the old sheet or shred gelatine, so less than the full weight will usually do. Bloom it in the pint of cold water, then stir into the hot stock off the heat. If your strained stock is already rich in body from the bones, use less or the aspic turns rubbery.
- ClarifyingThe book's "general directions for Soups" most likely means an egg-white raft: whisk two or three whites into the cold, defatted stock, bring it slowly to a bare simmer without stirring, hold ten minutes, then ladle through flannel or a double layer of dampened cheesecloth. Aspic must be genuinely clear or the finished dish looks muddy.
- Caramel for colorThe dark brown mold is colored with plain caramel, sugar cooked to a deep bitter brown and let down with a little water, not with a sweetened sauce. A few drops of gravy browning does the same job.
- ServingDepending on the size of the bird, a whole boned turkey galantine will serve roughly 12 to 16 as a cold course. Slice it across the roll, no more than 1/2 inch thick, with the aspic either cut into cubes and diamonds around the platter or spooned over the slices in thin layers as it begins to set.
A boned bird rolled in cloth, poached in stock and served cold in its own jelly is a galantine, a technique out of French professional kitchens; the name is generally traced to old French words for something gelled or garnished. Recipes like this one appear in The Dixie Cook Book as cold showpieces for a buffet or a supper table: the bird is cooled overnight and served cold, and the pressed roll could be sliced neatly without carving. The instruction to divide the jelly between two molds and darken one with caramel belongs to the same period taste for contrast and "fanciful shapes" cut from firm aspic, a decorative style that survived in banquet cookery well into the twentieth century.