No. 2027

Turkey a la Sartiges—Studded

Dinde Cloutee a la Sartiges

Singe, draw and truss a ten pound turkey as for an entree (No. 178), stuff the insides with a quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) mixed with cooked fine herbs (No. 385); dip the breasts in boiling water to stretch the skin, drive twelve truffle nails into each fillet at equal distances apart and arranged symmetrically in rows of six each, then wrap the turkey in slices of fat pork fastening them on with a string. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with fat pork, lay in the turkey and moisten to a little above its height with a mirepoix stock (No. 419), boil, skim and cook in a moderate oven. When the bird is done drain it off and dress it on a rice foundation. Have a garnishing of cocks'-combs truffles, quenelles, and cepes dressed in clusters around the turkey; strain and skim off all the fat from the stock, reduce it to a succulent sauce with some espagnole (No. 414) added; pour a part of this over the garnishings and the remainder to be served separately with Spanish olives stuffed and minced mushrooms.

← No. 2026 Small Turkey a la Financiere—Larded Turkey & Guinea Fowl No. 2028 Turkey, American Style—Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a braise dressed up as a showpiece, and it depends on half a dozen other numbered recipes in The Epicurean. Read it as a method rather than a self-contained recipe.

The hinge: it is not roastedThe bird is moistened to a little above its height with mirepoix stock and cooks submerged, so the skin never crisps and the barding fat is there to protect, not to brown. Bring the liquid to a boil on the stovetop, skim, then transfer to the oven; a 10 lb bird will take several hours, and the thigh should read 165F.
"A moderate oven"The book gives no temperature. The term is conventionally read as somewhere around 325-350F; for a braise of this size the lower end is steadier and gives less risk of the breast drying before the legs are done.
Truffle nailsCut firm black truffle into short tapered pegs, like small nails, and drive them into the breast with a larding needle or a thin skewer so the heads sit flush with the skin. The boiling-water dip tightens the skin so the holes do not tear open and gape during cooking. Twelve per fillet in two rows of six is decoration, not seasoning.
"Fat pork"Barding fat cut in thin sheets. Period American usage covers both fresh fatback and salt pork; if you use salt pork, allow for the salt when you reduce the braising liquid down to a sauce.
The cross-referencesNo. 89 is a quenelle forcemeat, No. 385 cooked fine herbs, No. 419 a mirepoix stock, No. 414 espagnole; each is set out on its own page. Any good chicken forcemeat and a well-reduced brown sauce will stand in; without the espagnole the finished sauce will taste thin and unbound.
Cocks' combs and cèpesCocks' combs were a standard Victorian garnish, blanched and peeled, and are effectively unobtainable now; omit them without apology. Cèpes are porcini, fresh if you can get them, otherwise dried and rehydrated and given a hard sauté so they do not water down the plate.
The rice foundationA socle: stiff, thoroughly cooked rice packed into a mold or shaped into a low plinth, used to raise the bird above the platter and hold the garnishes in clusters. Purely architectural, and easily replaced by a simple bed of rice.
YieldA 10 lb turkey with forcemeat, garnish and sauce serves 10 to 12 as the centerpiece of a course.

A Little History

Cloutée means studded or nailed, from clou, a nail, and the name is literal: the truffle pegs are driven into the breast in ranks so the carved slices show a regular pattern of black against white meat. The dish belongs to Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's, where the kitchen routinely attached the names of patrons, diplomats and celebrities to dishes, and the Sartiges of the title is most likely the Comte de Sartiges, the French minister in Washington in the 1850s. What the recipe really documents is a technique now almost extinct in home cooking: braising a whole large bird in a rich brown stock under a jacket of pork fat, then reducing that stock into the sauce, so that the cooking liquid and the finished sauce are the same thing. The elaborate garnish of cocks' combs, quenelles, truffles and cèpes is standard financière-style dressing of the period, and its ingredients are a fair index of how much of the nineteenth-century larder has since dropped out of use.