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Roast Turkey (After picking and singeing)
After picking and singeing the turkey, plump it by plunging quickly three times into boiling water and then three times into cold, holding it by the legs; place to drain and dress as in general directions; prepare stuffing by taking pieces of dry bread and crust (not too brown) cut off a loaf of bread fully three or four days old (but not moldy); place crust and pieces in a pan and pour on a very little boiling water, cover tightly with a cloth, let stand until soft, add a large lump of butter, pepper, salt, one or two fresh eggs, and the bread from which the crust was cut, so as not to have it too moist. Mix well with the hands and season to suit taste; rub inside of turkey with pepper and salt, stuff it as already directed on page 272, and sew up each slit with a strong thread; tie the legs down firmly, and press the wings closely to the sides, securing them with a cord tied around the body (or use skewers if at hand), steam (page 273) from one to three hours (or until easily pierced with a fork), according to the size, then place turkey in pan with water from dripping-pan in which the turkey was steamed; lard the turkey, or place on the breast the pieces of fat taken from it before it was stuffed, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge well with flour; if not sufficient water in the pan, keep adding boiling water and baste often, as the excellence of the turkey depends much on this. Cook until a nice brown and per fectly tender; remove to a hot platter and serve with cranberry sauce and giblet gravy. To make the gravy, after the turkey is dished place the dripping-pan on the top of range or stove, skim off most of the fat, and add water if necessary; chop the heart, gizzard and liver (previously boiled for two hours in two quarts of water), and add to the gravy with the water in which they were boiled, season with salt and pepper, add a smooth thickening of flour and water, stir constantly until thoroughly mixed with the gravy, and boil until the flour is well cooked. Some, in making stuffing, try out the fat of the turkey at a low temperature, and use instead of butter; others use the fat of sweet-pickled pork chopped fine (not tried out), and a small quantity of butter, or none at all. -Mrs. Judge J. L. Porter.
This is a two-stage turkey: steamed until nearly done, then browned in the oven with the steaming liquid as basting stock. The method is unusual now but sound, and it explains why no oven temperature is given.
- The hinge: stuffing temperatureBread stuffing cooked inside the bird must reach 165F at the center of the cavity, checked with a probe, not just the thigh. Because the steaming stage keeps the bird below roasting heat for a long time, take the reading in the stuffing itself before you judge the turkey done.
- No oven temperature givenThe recipe gives none, only 'cook until a nice brown and perfectly tender', and the steaming has already done most of the cooking. Roast at 325F until the skin is evenly brown and the breast reads 165F; for a 12-14 lb bird this is often well under an hour.
- Steaming the bird'steam from one to three hours' refers the reader to the book's own directions on page 273; the recipe later mentions the dripping-pan in which the turkey was steamed. A covered roasting pan with an inch or two of water on a rack, in a 300F oven, gives the same effect, and the liquid left behind is the basting stock the recipe then calls for.
- PlumpingDunking the bird three times in boiling and then cold water tightens the skin so it looks fuller. It makes little or no difference to flavour or texture and can be skipped with a modern chilled, plucked bird.
- Picking, singeing and dressingThese steps belong to a bird that arrived with feathers and pinfeathers and entrails. A supermarket turkey needs only the giblet packet removed and the cavity dried.
- The breadBread "fully three or four days old" means a plain unsweetened wheat loaf that has gone dry, not gone stale-soft. Ordinary sandwich bread is too sweet and too soft; use a lean white or country loaf, dried in a low oven if you have no old bread.
- LardingTo lard is to thread strips of fat through the flesh with a larding needle, needed when birds were leaner than ours. The alternative the recipe offers, laying the reserved cavity fat over the breast, works as well; so does buttered cheesecloth or bacon.
- Giblet gravyTwo hours in two quarts of water is fine for the gizzard and heart, which are tough, but the liver turns grainy and bitter after that long. Simmer the liver separately for 15 minutes and chop it in at the end.
- YieldNot stated, as was usual. Figure roughly 1 lb of dressed turkey per person for a table with other dishes on it, so a 12 lb bird serves ten to twelve.
Steaming a turkey before roasting is a method found in this family of compilations, from a time when the birds were often older, tougher and much leaner than the broad-breasted commercial turkeys of today, and when a wood-fired range gave uneven, hard-to-hold heat. Moist heat guaranteed the thighs were tender; the dry oven stage was only for color. The three-day-old bread and the careful "not too brown" crust point to the same economy that runs through The Dixie Cook Book (first published in the 1880s), a compilation in the mold of the era's community cookbooks, where recipes often carry a contributor's name -- here Mrs. Judge J. L. Porter, identified by her husband's office, as married women in such books were sometimes identified. The closing lines, noting that "some" render the turkey's own fat and "others" use finely chopped sweet-pickled pork, are the mark of that collective authorship: the book records the variations of a whole circle of cooks rather than the ruling of one.