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Squab Turkey, Devilled, with Bacon
Singe, cut off head and feet from a tender squab turkey, split open through back without separating, draw, remove breast bone, neatly wipe, envelop it in a clean coarse towel and neatly flatten with a cleaver. Season it all over with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Rub all over with tablespoon oil. Arrange on a double broiler and broil on a light charcoal fire ten minutes on each side. Remove, evenly spread all over a devilled butter, then broil again two minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish. Place six thin slices freshly broiled crisp bacon over the bird and serve.
This is a spatchcocked young turkey grilled over charcoal, finished with a mustard-and-cayenne butter. The method is sound; the language and the timings are what need translating.
- What a squab turkey isNot a squab (pigeon) at all: "squab turkey" was market language for a very young bird, generally under about 5 lb dressed. A small fresh turkey or a large chicken stands in directly; a heavier bird is unlikely to cook through by this method.
- The hinge: internal temperatureTwenty-two minutes total over charcoal will not reliably bring a split turkey to a safe 165F at the thigh joint, and the original assumed a cook who judged doneness by feel. Use an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone, and expect a 4 lb bird to want 35 to 45 minutes over moderate coals with the lid down.
- Split through the back, without separatingThis is spatchcocking. Cut down either side of the backbone, open the bird flat, then remove the keel and breastbone from the inside so it lies truly level. The towel-and-cleaver step is simply to crack the ribs and joints so the bird stops springing back -- press with the heel of your hand or a heavy pan instead.
- Devilled butterNot defined on this page; the term was common enough that the reader was expected to know it. Softened butter worked with dry mustard, cayenne, a little Worcestershire and lemon juice, salt to taste. About 4 tablespoons butter to a teaspoon of mustard and a good pinch of cayenne suits a bird this size.
- Double broilerA hinged wire grill basket that clamps the flattened bird between two grids so it can be turned in one motion. A pair of tongs and a weighted skillet set on top of the bird achieve the same thing.
- A light charcoal fireCoals burned down past the flaming stage to an even grey -- moderate, not searing. Oiled poultry over high heat will flare and blacken before the thigh is done; bank the coals to one side and cook the bird mostly over indirect heat, moving it over the fire only to colour the skin.
- Why the butter goes on lateMustard and cayenne scorch and turn bitter over a long cook. Spreading the devilled butter only for the last few minutes gives the flavour without the acridity -- keep this sequence even if you extend the total time.
- YieldA 4 lb bird treated this way serves three to four. The six slices of bacon are laid over the bird whole, as a garnish, not crumbled.
"Devilled" in Anglo-American cookery of the nineteenth century meant sharpened with mustard and cayenne and browned at high heat -- a treatment often said to have been applied to leftover joints, kidneys and bones, and by the late Victorian period a supper dish in its own right. Alexander Filippini's International Cook Book (1906) belongs to the era of the great hotel and restaurant kitchens, where a young broiling turkey split flat over charcoal was a luxury: quicker than a roast, dramatic at the table, and dependent on a grill cook who could read a coal fire by eye. That such small turkeys were routinely for sale is itself a period detail -- birds were brought to market at whatever size the season produced, long before the standardised heavy-breasted turkey of the mid-twentieth century.