For filling the legs and wings, or body, if restoring the bird to its original form
Boning the fowl or turkey
- Cut through the skin down the centre of the back.
- Raise the flesh carefully on either side with the point of a sharp knife, until the sockets of the wings and thighs are reached.
- For beginners, it may be better to bone these joints before proceeding further.
- After the joints are detached, the whole of the body may easily be separated from the flesh and taken out entire.
- Only the neck-bones and merrythought will then remain to be removed.
Preparing the bird (Option 1: Restoring original form)
- Fill the legs and wings with forcemeat.
- Fill the body with the livers of two or three fowls mixed with alternate layers of parboiled tongue freed from the rind, fine sausage meat, or veal forcemeat, or thin slices of the nicest bacon, or aught else of good flavour.
- This filling will give a marbled appearance to the fowl when it is carved.
- Sew up and truss the bird as usual.
- Stew gently for an hour.
- Serve hot, covered with mushroom, or any other good sauce that may be preferred.
- Alternatively, let it cool until the following day and serve garnished with the jelly.
Preparing the bird (Option 2: Rolling)
- Draw the legs and wings inside the body.
- Flatten the bird on a table.
- Cover with sausage meat and the various other named ingredients, so placed that it shall be of equal thickness in every part.
- Tightly roll the bird.
- Bind firmly together with a fillet of broad tape.
- Wrap in a thin pudding-cloth.
- Tie closely at both ends.
- Put it into a braising-pan, stewpan, or thick iron saucepan, bright in the inside, and fitted as nearly as may be to its size.
- Add all the chicken bones, a bunch of sweet herbs, two carrots, two bay-leaves, a large blade of mace, twenty-four white peppercorns, and any trimmings or bones of undressed veal which may be at hand.
- Cover the whole with good veal-broth.
- Add salt, if needed.
- Stew very softly from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.
- Let it cool in the liquor in which it was stewed.
- Lift it out.
- Boil down the gravy to a jelly and strain it.
- Let it become cold, clear off the fat.
- Serve it cut into large dice or roughed, and laid round the fowl, which is to be served cold.
Making the jelly
- Boil down the gravy from the stewed fowl until it forms a jelly.
- Strain the jelly.
- Let it become cold.
- Clear off the fat.
- Serve the jelly cut into large dice or roughed, and laid around the fowl.
Notes on consistence and variations
- Adding the liquor in which a calf’s foot has been boiled down to the broth will give the jelly the necessary degree of consistence.
- French cooks add three or four onions to these preparations of poultry (the last of which is called a galantine).
- The author prefers to reject the addition of onions based on personal taste.
Pie suggestion
- A couple of fowls, boned and rolled, make an excellent pie.
ANOTHER MODE OF BONING A FOWL OR TURKEY.
Cut through the skin down the centre of the back, and raise the flesh carefully on either side with the point of a sharp knife, until the sockets of the wings and thighs are reached. Till a little practice has 266been gained, it will perhaps be better to bone these joints before proceeding further; but after they are once detached from it, the whole of the body may easily be separated from the flesh and taken out entire: only the neck-bones and merrythought will then remain to be removed. The bird thus prepared may either be restored to its original form, by filling the legs and wings with forcemeat, and the body with the livers of two or three fowls mixed with alternate layers of parboiled tongue freed from the rind, fine sausage meat, or veal forcemeat, or thin slices of the nicest bacon, or aught else of good flavour, which will give a marbled appearance to the fowl when it is carved; and then be sewn up and trussed as usual; or the legs and wings may be drawn inside the body, and the bird being first flattened on a table may be covered with sausage meat, and the various other ingredients we have named, so placed that it shall be of equal thickness in every part; then tightly rolled, bound firmly together with a fillet of broad tape, wrapped in a thin pudding-cloth, closely tied at both ends, and dressed as follows:—Put it into a braising-pan, stewpan, or thick iron saucepan, bright in the inside, and fitted as nearly as may be to its size; add all the chicken bones, a bunch of sweet herbs, two carrots, two bay-leaves, a large blade of mace, twenty-four white peppercorns, and any trimmings or bones of undressed veal which may be at hand; cover the whole with good veal-broth, add salt, if needed, and stew it very softly, from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half; let it cool in the liquor in which it was stewed; and after it is lifted out, boil down the gravy to a jelly and strain it; let it become cold, clear off the fat, and serve it cut into large dice or roughed, and laid round the fowl, which is to be served cold. If restored to its form, instead of being rolled, it must be stewed gently for an hour, and may then be sent to table hot, covered with mushroom, or any other good sauce that may be preferred; or it may be left until the following day, and served garnished with the jelly, which should be firm, and very clear and well-flavoured; the liquor in which a calf’s foot has been boiled down, added to the broth, will give it the necessary degree of consistence. French cooks add three or four onions to these preparations of poultry (the last of which is called a galantine); but these our own taste would lead us to reject.
Rolled, 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hour, galantine, 1 hour.
Obs.—A couple of fowls, boned and rolled, make an excellent pie.