No. 284

Puree of Wild Turkey a la Sartiges

Puree de Dinde Sauvage a la Sartiges

Twenty-four Persons.—Braise a wild turkey in a braising pan, garnishing the bottom of it with slices of fat pork, and slices of onions and carrots, and on top lay the turkey; moisten with a quart of broth, let fall to a glaze, then moisten again to its height with more broth, adding a bunch of parsley, garnished with thyme, bay leaf, one clove of garlic and a split knuckle of veal, also two celery stalks, and let cook slowly; when the turkey is done, remove it, and strain the broth through a fine sieve. As soon as the turkey is nearly cold, cut away all its skin, and detach the meat adhering to the bones, about four pounds in all; pound this with four ounces of freshly peeled almonds, and dilute with four quarts of broth and two quarts of veloute (No. 415), strain it through a sieve, and then incorporate into it half a pound of fresh butter. A garnishing of green peas cooked in salted water and some pearl barley boiled three hours in white broth to be added to the soup tureen.

← No. 283 Puree of Wild Ducks, [canvasback, Redhead or Soups & Broths No. 285 Barley Soup with Celery →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's banquet soup built in two stages: a full braise of the bird, then a pounded purée thinned with stock and velouté. The quantities are for twenty-four, and everything scales cleanly by quarters.

Scale firstAs written this yields something over six quarts of finished soup before garnish (4 quarts broth and 2 of veloute, plus the meat puree and butter), enough for 24 modest first-course servings. Quartering the recipe (1 lb picked meat, 1 oz almonds, 1 qt broth, 2 cups veloute, 2 oz butter) gives six servings and is far easier to manage.
Sourcing the birdWild-harvested game generally cannot be sold in the United States, so a genuinely wild turkey usually means a hunter's bird. A 10-12 lb heritage or free-range domestic turkey braised the same way is the practical substitute; dark meat and thighs carry more of the flavor the recipe is after, so weight the four pounds of picked meat toward the legs.
"Let fall to a glaze"Reduce that first quart of broth until it is syrupy and just filming the bottom of the pan, so the pork, onion and carrot caramelize into it. This is the step that gives the soup its color and depth; skipping it leaves a pale, flat purée.
Braising pan and heatAny heavy covered pot that holds the bird snugly. The recipe says only "cook slowly": keep it at a bare tremble on the stovetop, or use a low oven of about 300F, until the thigh meat pulls easily from the bone.
The knuckle of vealA split veal knuckle is there chiefly for gelatin, though it adds flavor as well. A veal shank cut crosswise, or a couple of split calf's feet, does the same; without it the finished soup will have noticeably less body.
AlmondsSweet almonds, blanched and skinned, pounded with the meat as a thickener and to smooth the texture. Never bitter almonds. A food processor replaces the mortar: grind meat and almonds to a paste, loosen with warm broth, then push through a chinois or fine sieve.
Velouté No. 415Ranhofer's velouté is a white roux cooked with veal or chicken stock and reduced. Two quarts is a large quantity to make on the side; a well-made blond roux thinned with the strained braising broth serves the same purpose here.
Butter off the heatThe half pound of butter goes in at the end, whisked into soup that is hot but not boiling. Once the butter is in, the soup must not return to a boil or it will separate.
The barleyModern pearl barley is done in 30-45 minutes, far short of the three hours called for; cook it separately in white stock, drain, and add it and the peas to the tureen so they do not cloud the puree.
SeasoningSalt is specified only for the water the peas are cooked in. Season the broth lightly during the braise and correct at the very end, after the reduction and the butter, or the concentrated puree will run salty.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its soup chapter is thick with dishes named for the restaurant's patrons and for visiting dignitaries — the Sartiges of this title is generally taken to be the Comte de Sartiges, French minister to the United States in the 1850s, though Ranhofer, as usual, explains nothing. What the recipe really documents is the market game trade of the period: wild turkey, canvasback, redhead and grouse arrived at New York's Washington Market by the barrel and appeared on restaurant menus as ordinary purchases, which is why the neighboring entry (No. 283) is a purée of wild ducks. That trade was progressively dismantled in the decades after this book's publication, as the Lacey Act, a wave of state laws and eventually the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 ended commercial hunting; the technique here, a braised bird pounded with almonds and let down with velouté, is a much older one, often traced to the medieval and Renaissance almond-thickened blancmanger that French cookery is said to have carried forward into the nineteenth-century purée soups.