No. 2031

Turkey Truffled and Garnished with Black Olives

Dinde Truffee et Garnie d'Olives Noires

Have a fine fat tender turkey weighing about eight or ten pounds; truffle it three days before-hand with two pounds of leaf lard, three bay leaves, thyme, salt, pepper, a very little crushed and chopped garlic, and two chopped up shallots. Peel three pounds of truffles, chop up the parings, and place all together in a vessel, cutting the large truffles into pieces. Strain the melted lard over these and let get cold, stirring the whole well together with a gill of brandy, and season. Fill up the turkey with this and insert a slice of thin fat pork between the breast skin and the meat; place on this fat pork slices of truffle. Truss for roasting (No. 179) and wrap in buttered paper; lay it on a cradle spit (Fig. 116), and cook for an hour and a half to two hours, basting frequently; unwrap it fifteen minutes before serving; salt and let acquire a good color. Dress on a long dish, garnish around with black olives, and serve separately some clear gravy (No. 404) taken from the drippings well skimmed and strained.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A Delmonico's holiday centerpiece written for a kitchen with a spit, a cool larder and an unlimited truffle budget. Most of it translates directly; the timing and the three-day hold do not.

The hinge: separate the aromatics from the raw birdThe three-day rest exists so truffle perfume can migrate into the flesh, but a raw turkey packed with lard and held for three days in a modern refrigerator is a long fermentation of surface bacteria in a sealed, fatty, oxygen-poor space. Chill the truffled lard mixture on its own, keep the bird refrigerated and unstuffed with truffle slices under the breast skin, and fill the cavity the day you roast it.
Roasting time is short by halfAn 8-10 lb turkey packed with three pounds of truffles and two pounds of lard needs considerably more than the hour and a half to two hours given here, which assumes a fiercely hot open fire and a cradle spit turning in front of it. In a 350F oven, plan on roughly 3 to 3 1/2 hours and go by a thermometer: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh and in the center of the stuffing.
A gill of brandyHalf a cup. It goes into the melted lard as it cools, not over the bird.
Three pounds of trufflesAt current prices this is a four-figure stuffing. A defensible domestic version uses 2-4 oz of fresh truffle plus a generous quantity of finely chopped cremini or dried porcini in the lard, with the peelings still worked in as the recipe directs; truffle oil is a different flavor and will not stand in.
Leaf lard and fat porkLeaf lard is the soft kidney fat, sold rendered by good butchers and some bakers. The "slice of thin fat pork" set between skin and breast is fatback or unsmoked salt pork sliced thin, not bacon, which would smoke-flavor the whole bird.
Buttered paper and the cradle spitParchment brushed with butter, tied on, does exactly what the original intends; heavy foil works but conducts more heat. Roast on a rack in a shallow pan, basting as directed, and pull the wrapping off for the last 15 minutes so the skin colors.
The gravy and the olivesNo. 404 is a clear, skimmed pan gravy rather than a thickened one: degrease the drippings, deglaze, strain, serve in a boat. For the garnish use oil-cured or brine-cured black olives with some character; canned California ripe olives contribute almost nothing against truffle.
YieldServes 8 to 10 as the main course of a large dinner, the stuffing being rich enough that portions are modest.

A Little History

This is No. 2031 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the encyclopedic record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Dinde truffee was a celebrated French holiday roast of the nineteenth century, associated with Christmas and New Year; the practice of filling a bird with truffled fat several days ahead so the scent penetrates the flesh is a French tradition rather than the invention of any one cook. Ranhofer's version shows how far a fashionable American restaurant depended on imported French luxuries: truffles by the pound, and black olives used as a dark decorative ring around the dish. The cradle spit he calls for (Fig. 116) was a hinged basket that held a large bird in front of an open fire and could be turned without unspitting it, a piece of equipment the closed range was displacing by the time the book appeared.