Stuffed With Chestnuts

Roast chestnuts enough to fill the bird. Skin them and remove also the white skin under the outer one. Fill the turkey with them, after having cleaned and prepared it; when about half full, put in it also from four to six ounces of butter; finish the filling with chestnuts; sew it up, truss it as directed, and roast or bake it. Serve with the gravy only.

Stuffed With Truffles

Chop fine about four ounces of truffles, and put them in a stewpan with about a pound of salt pork cut in dice; set it on a moderate fire; add salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, a bay-leaf, a pinch of allspice, and a pinch of dried thyme; when hot, add also about two pounds of truffles, boil fifteen minutes, tossing now and then, and take from the fire. When nearly cool, put the whole in the turkey and sew it up; leave it thus, if fresh, four days in winter and one or two in summer; if not fresh, leave it a shorter time.

Boast or bake it as directed above, and serve with the gravy, freed from the fat part. This dish is considered exquisite by epicures.

Stuffed With Sausage-Meat

Proceed as for chicken stuffed, in every particular.

With Salt Pork

Place thin slices of salt pork on the breast of a prepared turkey, covering it entirely, and fastening the slices with twine; then the turkey is roasted or baked, and served with the gravy. The slices may be removed a little before taking from the fire, in order to color the meat.

Boned

Buy a good turkey, neither too old nor too fat, and picked dry. Singe the bird, but do not draw it. Cut the neck off about one inch and a half from the body. Cut also the wings off just above the second joint, and the legs just above the first joint; the third joint is the one nearest the body. Split the skin from the end of the neck to the rump; use a small sharp-pointed knife; commence to run the knife between the bones and flesh, on one side, till you come to the third joint of the wings and legs. By twisting and raising both wing and leg, but one. at a time, you easily crack the joint, and then separate it from the body with the knife. Continue to run the knife between the bones and flesh, on the same side, till you come to the breast-bone. Do the same on the other side. Pull out the crop and cut off the rump from the body, but without touching the skin, as the rump must come off with the skin and flesh. Then by taking hold of the bird by the neck with the left hand, and pulling the skin gently down with the right, you partly uncover the upper part of the breast-bone; then again run the knife between that bone and the flesh, on both sides, till you come nearly to the end or edge of the bone. Then lay the bird on its back, have somebody to take hold of it by the neck, having the breast of the bird toward you. All along the edge of the breast-bone there is no flesh between the bone and the skin. The bird being held as described above, take hold of the skin of the neck with your left hand, pulling gently downward, and with the knife detaching the skin carefully from the bone, the carcass coming off whole. Place the bird on the table, the inside up, pull out the bones of the wings and legs, scraping the flesh all around so as to leave it attached to the rest; pull or scrape off all the tendons of the legs; push legs and wings inside the bird; see that the rump is clean; cut off the ring under it if necessary. We warrant that anybody, with an ordi nary amount of natural capacity, can bone a turkey or other bird by following our directions with care. We recommend persons doing it for the first time not to attempt to do it fast. Now have at hand about two pounda of sausage-meat seasoned as directed, two pounds of boiled ham, half a dozen boiled sheep's tongues or a smoked beef tongue (but really the former is better), a pound and a half of salt pork, and half a pound of truffles sliced (the latter if handy and if liked). Cut the ham, tongues, and salt pork in strips about four inches long, one inch broad, and a quarter of an inch thick. Spread the bird on the table, the inside up and the rump toward you; salt and pepper it; place three or four slices of salt pork here and there on it, then a layer of sausage-meat, strips of ham and tongue and salt pork alternately on the sausage-meat, slices of truffles if used, again sausage-meat, ham, etc., till there is enough to fill the bird well; that is, by bringing the two sides of the skin together, giving the bird a round form, it is perfectly full. It is impossible to give exact proportions; it depends not only on the size of the bird, but also on the quality and degree of fatness of the bird. In two of the same weight, one may require more than the other to fill it. When filled, and when the two sides of the skin are brought together as described above, sew up the cut with a trussing-needle and twine. Wrap up the bird tightly in a towel, tie the towel with a string, and run the string all around the towel to prevent it from opening at all. Take a kettle or saucepan of an oval shape and large enough to hold the bird, put enough cold water in it to cover the bird, also all the bones of the bird (broken in pieces), a small piece of lean beef, say one pound, a few stalks of parsley, two of thyme, two cloves, two cloves of garlic, a bay-leaf, twelve pepper-corns, a middling-sized carrot sliced, half a turnip, and salt. Set on the fire, and at the first boiling put the bird in; boil gently for about three hours if it is a turkey of middling size, two hours for a middling-sized chicken. When done it partly floats; that is, the tipper part is above the liquor. Take it from the pan, take the towel off and rinse it in cold water; wrap the bird up in the towel again and in the same way as before; place it on a large dish, with the seam or back under; put another plate or dish over it with a weight on it, and leave thus overmight in a cool place. The next morning the bird will be perfectly cold and rather flattened; then remove the towel, also the twine with which it has been sewed, place it on the dish on which it is to be served, the breast upward; glaze it with essence of beef or glace; decorate with meat-jelly, and serve.