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Devilled Spring Turkey with Ham
Singe, cut head and feet off a fine tender spring turkey of five pounds, split open through back without separating, draw, pull out breast bone and cut away spinal bone. Envelop the turkey in a coarse towel, flatten with a cleaver, season all around with a heavy teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, and rub bird all over with a tablespoon oil. Arrange on a double broiler, set to slowly broil for ten minutes on each side, then remove to table. Spread a devilled butter on both sides, lightly roll in fresh bread crumbs, reset on broiler, broil for two minutes on each side again, remove and dress on a hot dish. Cut six very thin slices Virginia ham, broil for two minutes on each side, place over turkey and serve.
A spatchcocked young turkey, broiled over coals, finished with devilled butter and crumbs. The method is sound; the timings belong to a hotter, closer fire than most home cooks have.
- The hinge: doneness, not the clockTwenty-four minutes of total broiling will not bring a butterflied five-pound bird to a safe 165F in the thigh. Broil to color, then finish in a 375F oven and go by an instant-read thermometer rather than the stated times.
- "Spring turkey"A young bird of the season, about five pounds. Supermarket turkeys are far larger; ask for a young hen or use a small chicken and scale the seasoning down.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. It is a hinged wire basket that clamps the flattened bird between two grids so it can be turned as one piece over a coal fire. A grill basket does the same job; without one, weight the bird under a foil-wrapped brick.
- Devilled butterThe book gives no formula here. A common version is softened butter worked with dry mustard, cayenne, a little Worcestershire and lemon, mustard-strength to taste; roughly 4 oz butter suits a bird this size.
- Spatchcocking, in plain termsSplit down the back without cutting through, open the bird out, then remove the breastbone and the spine section under it. Flattening with a cleaver through a towel keeps the skin from tearing and levels the bird so it cooks evenly.
- Crumbs under a broilerFresh crumbs over butter will scorch in well under two minutes at close range. Set the pan 6-8 inches from the element and watch it rather than timing it.
- Virginia hamA dry-cured, heavily salted country ham, not the wet-cured deli product. Sliced paper-thin and briefly broiled it crisps and seasons the turkey; if you substitute a mild ham, expect far less salt and use prosciutto instead.
- YieldA five-pound bird treated this way serves four to six; the recipe calls for six thin ham slices but states no number of servings.
"Devilling" -- mustard, cayenne and pepper worked into butter, then broiled to a crust -- was a durable Anglo-American way of treating cold or plain meat, and appears in the grill sections of nineteenth-century professional cookbooks. The pairing of poultry with a slice of salty Virginia ham reflects an American taste for dry-cured Southern hams as a seasoning meat rather than a main course. The "spring turkey" itself is a reminder that turkeys were once genuinely seasonal: young birds came to market small and tender, fit for the broiler, while the heavy autumn birds went to the roasting oven.