[Sca-cooks] Something for the Season
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Sat Nov 23 09:32:43 PST 2013
A long time ago I translated two eighteenth century recipes for the bird:
The "Dons de Comus" offers two recipes for turkey with truffles, one
simply
an entrée:
"Young turkey with truffles
Take one or two turkeys. Prepare them for the spit. They can be cooked in
strips of lard, like a chicken. Put in the body a lump of butter worked
with
salt, pepper, nutmeg, grated lard, some chopped truffles. Plug them up and
do not let them overcook. Serve on this a well-cooked stew of truffles."
And the other a 'big' (main?) entrée:
"Turkey with truffles, foie gras and small onions
Prepare it as for the spit. Take foie gras and whole or halved truffles,
two
dozen small onions cooked in the cinders, or half in strips of thick
bacon. Season all this together with grated bacon, one or two bars of butter, a
little white veal stock, salt, pepper & basil, all well married togethers.
Stuff your turkey, & cook it on the spit. Serve with white veal stock and a
few truffles."
This one, for a cold entremets, begins by cooking the turkey, but seems
suitable for leftovers as well. The *Larousse Gastronomique* says that a
'daube' usually involved meat braised in stock (as is not the case here),
but that in earlier use it always applied to meat intended to be (as here)
served cold:
"Old turkey a la daube
Pluck it and truss it inside. Lard it crossways with large strips of thick
bacon, season with salt, pepper, basil, nutmeg & a little spice. Put it in a
stewpot or terrine with some strips of lard, or other meat peelings. Put it
on hot cinders & season with salt, pepper, clove, basil, laurel. Cover it
& put in a pint [English pint] of white wine, two sols worth of brandy, &
half a glass of water. Let all this cook slowly for eight hours and more if
necessary. Let it cool in its sauce, & serve it with [sic].
Old turkey can be made into paté or in the pot. It can be used to make
white
[white meat?]. The legs are used separately."
"Dons de Comus" (II, 133-135)
Of course, since peacock is said to taste like very tough turkey, one could
always use any of the numerous peacock recipes out there to stay in
period.
Jim Chevallier
(http://www.chezjim.com/) www.chezjim.com
Les Leftovers: sort of a food history blog
leslefts.blogspot.com
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