Roast Turkey

Singe the turkey with burning paper, pick out all the pen-feathers, wash it clean and wipe it dry; then draw out the entrails, and wash the inside of the bird with several waters; prepare a filling as follows: bread-crumbs sufficient to fill it loosely (it should never be packed in any kind of poultry or birds), season with half a teaspoonful of sweet basil, one of sweet marjoram, an onion chopped very fine and stewed for five minutes in a quarter of a pound of butter, which pour over; pepper and salt, and if convenient two dozen oysters chopped fine, fill the bird with this, reserving a little to put in where the craw came from, put the ends of the legs through the opening you made when you drew it, letting the joint come just through the vent, turn the wings back and run a skewer across through them, securing it with a string, skewer the legs in the same way, season the outside of the turkey with pepper and salt, dust with flour, and place in a dripping-pan, pour round it a cup of water. If the turkey is a very large one it will require three hours, one of ten pounds will roast in two hours, and a small one in an hour and a half; baste it frequently.

For the gravy, when you first draw the turkey, put the liver, gizzard, end of the wings, and a piece of the neck, and the heart into a stew-pan, with half a large onion cut in two, pepper and salt, cover with cold water and simmer for several hours; when perfectly tender, take out the liver and gizzard, chop the latter and put it back, rub the liver to a smooth pas 3 with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg and a piece of butter as arge as a walnut, moisten with some of the broth, add a heaping tablespoon of flour, stir this into the sauce-pan, boil up once, when you dish the turkey, pour the contents of the sauce-pan into the dripping-pan, stir it round until brown, pour a few spoonsful over the turkey after you have removed the skewers and strings, and serve the rest in a gravy-boat.

Boiled Turkey

Prepare the turkey as for roasting, make a filling of bread crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt, a teaspoonful of sweet marjoram, half an one of sweet basil, three ounces of melted butter, and twenty-five raw oysters chopped and poured in with a few spoonsful of their juice, mix thoroughly, and fill the turkey but do not pack it, sew up the place you filled it through, truss the legs and wings as for roasting, and put it in a large meat-boiler, with a tablespoonful of salt, and cover with boiling water; keep a kettle of boiling water to replenish with, and allow fifteen minutes to every pound of turkey. If you put oysters in the filling serve with egg-sauce, as oyster-sauce destroys the taste of the seasoning, if you omit the oysters in the filling put a small chopped onion in the place of them, and serve with oyster-sauce.

Ragout Of Cold Roast Turkey

Cut off the meat from the bones in as large slices as it will allow, and quite thin, put any cold gravy left from the roast, into a sauce-pan, if not enough to form the sauce, add butter rubbed to a paste with a tablespoonful of brown flour, half a pint of water, season the meat with pepper, salt, and half a saltspoon of powdered mace, or a blade of mace in the gravy, and two tablespoons of tomato catsup, or mushroom if preferred, put in the cold fowl, let it simmer gently for five minutes, then add a tablespoon of lemon juice and a glass of wine, boil up and serve.

Another Way

Cut the meat from the bones as above, break up the bones, put them in a stew-pan, with cold water to cover them, boil them an hour, strain out the bones; season the meat with pepper, salt, a very little grated nutmeg and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, add it to the broth, and when hot stir in a tablespoonful of flour and the yolk of an egg mixed in half a cup of rich cream, add a piece of butter the size of an egg, stir over the fire until it thickens, and serve; add any cold gravy you may have and leave out a little of the water. There should be very little broth.