No. 2025

Wild Turkey a la Delagrange—Stuffed

Dinde Sauvage Farcie a la Delagrange

Singe and draw a young wild turkey, then truss for an entree (No. 178). Prepare a dressing composed of bread-crumbs soaked in warm water and the liquid entirely extracted, season with salt, fine spices, sage, chopped onions fried in butter, and finely chopped beef marrow; add some roasted chestnuts, and broiled sausages free of skin, and cut into slices. When all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, fill the turkey with it and braise in a saucepan garnished with bards of pork, and moistened with a white wine mirepoix stock (No. 419); when nearly done, glaze, drain, untruss, and dress on a layer of Piedmontese risot (No. 739); serve with bechamel sauce (No. 409) reduced with the mirepoix stock, thickening with raw egg-yolks and cream; when ready to serve incorporate a little chicken glaze (No. 398), and a piece of fine butter. Pour part of this sauce over the turkey serving the rest in a sauce-boat.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has stock, glaze and risotto standing by, so the work here is mostly assembly. The hinge is the sauce: once the egg yolks and cream go in, the béchamel must not boil or it will curdle and break.

The birdWild turkeys are far leaner and tougher than a supermarket bird; a young one is usually somewhere around 8-12 lb dressed, though weights vary widely. Braising suits such a bird. A heritage-breed or free-range turkey of similar size behaves much the same; a standard broad-breasted bird will be done sooner and can dry out.
"Truss for an entree"Ranhofer sends the reader to No. 178. Trussing for an entree generally means legs and wings drawn in tight against the body so the bird holds a compact shape while braising and carves cleanly at table. Butcher's twine and no ceremony.
Bards of porkThin sheets of fatback laid over the breast and sides. Unsmoked salt pork sliced thin, or caul fat, is the closest thing available; ordinary bacon works but adds smoke that the white-wine braise does not want.
Beef marrowAsk a butcher for marrow bones and scoop the marrow out raw, or soak split bones in cold water to loosen it. Chop it cold, straight from the refrigerator, or it smears. It can be left out, but the dressing loses its richness.
Mirepoix stock (No. 419)A white stock cooked down with diced carrot, onion, celery, ham and white wine — in practice, a well-flavoured poultry stock plus a cup of dry white wine and a browned-free mirepoix. It serves as both braising liquid and the base of the finished sauce.
Fine spicesEpices fines, a nineteenth-century French kitchen blend; formulas vary, but pepper, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, bay and thyme ground together is typical. A pinch of quatre-epices is a fair stand-in.
Oven and timingRanhofer braises in a covered saucepan and gives no temperature or time; if you move it to the oven, 325F and roughly 20 minutes per pound is a workable guide. Check the thigh for 165F on an instant-read thermometer, and because the bird is stuffed, check the centre of the dressing too — it should also reach 165F.
Glazing and the sauceTo glaze, uncover for the last stretch and baste repeatedly with the reduced braising liquid until the skin takes on a lacquer. For the sauce, reduce the strained braising stock into béchamel, then temper the yolk-and-cream liaison with a ladle of the hot sauce before adding it back off the heat; finish with butter and serve at once, as it will not hold well.
YieldA bird this size with risotto beneath serves eight to ten. Make the Piedmontese risot of No. 739 while the turkey rests.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its turkey chapter shows how thoroughly American game had been absorbed into French service: wild turkey, native to the continent and still commonly hunted in Ranhofer's day, is handled here exactly as a French kitchen would handle a pheasant or capon barded, braised in white-wine mirepoix, glazed, and set on risotto under a fortified bechamel. The garnishes are conventionally autumnal, chestnuts and sausage being the standard partners for game birds on both sides of the Atlantic. The name is left unexplained; Delmonico's regularly attached the names of patrons, colleagues and visiting notables to dishes, and a great many of the many hundreds of numbered preparations in the book carry such dedications without further explanation. Wild turkey populations later collapsed under hunting and habitat loss before twentieth-century restoration programmes brought them back, so a bird familiar to Ranhofer's kitchen became, for a time, nearly impossible to buy.