Make a force-meat of grated bread-crumbs, minced suet, sweet
marjoram, grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and beaten yolk
of egg. You may add some grated cold ham. Light some writing
paper, and singe the hairs from the skin of the turkey. Reserve
the neck, liver, and gizzard for the gravy. Stuff the craw of the
turkey with the force-meat, of which there should be enough made
to form into balls for frying, laying them round the turkey when
it is dished. Dredge it with flour, and roast it before a clear
brisk fire, basting it with cold lard. Towards the last, set the
turkey nearer to the fire, dredge it again very lightly with
flour, and baste it with butter. It will require, according to its
size, from two to three hours roasting.
Make the gravy of the giblets cut in pieces, seasoned, and stewed
for two hours in a very little water; thicken it with a spoonful
of browned flour, and stir into it the gravy from the dripping-pan,
having first skimmed off the fat.
A turkey should be accompanied by ham or tongue. Serve up with it
mushroom-sauce. Have stewed cranberries on the table to eat with
it. Do not help any one to the legs, or drum-sticks as they are
called.
Turkeys are sometimes stuffed entirely with sausage-meat. Small
cakes of this meat should then be fried, and laid round it.
To bone a turkey, you must begin with a very sharp knife at the
top of the wings, and scrape the flesh loose from the bone without
dividing or cutting it to pieces. If done carefully and
dexterously, the whole mass of flesh may be separated from the
bone, so that you can take hold of the head and draw out the
entire skeleton at once. A large quantity of force-meat having
been prepared, stuff it hard into the turkey, restoring it by
doing so to its natural form, filling out the body, breast, wings
and legs, so as to resemble their original shape when the bones
were in. Roast or bake it; pouring a glass of port wine into the
gravy. A boned turkey is frequently served up cold, covered with
lumps of currant jelly; slices of which are laid round the dish.
Any sort of poultry or game may be boned and stuffed in the same
manner,
A cold turkey that has not been boned is sometimes sent to table
larded all over the breast with slips of fat bacon, drawn through
the flesh with a larding needle, and arranged in regular form.