In the culinary language of this country, turkey is spoken
of as such, without reference to the sex of the animal as
hen or cock. In the ordinary French language the turkey-
cock is un cUnclon, and the hen une dinde ; but in the
terminology of the French kitchen both cock and hen are
dinde. The hen is always smaller and more delicate
than the male.
Turkeys were known to the Greeks, who termed them
meleagrides, because a king of Macedonia, Meleager, intro-
duced them into Europe. It is related that the Greek
tragic writer Sophocles had introduced into one of his now
lost tragedies a chorus of turkeys which deplored the death
of Meleager.
The Romans bred Meleagrian birds at the time of
Pliny, who describes them accurately. The animals then
became so rare that they were no longer reared in open
yards and fields, but shut up in cages, and after the Middle
Ages turkeys were practically extinct in Europe. They
were imported again in 1432, it is alleged by the French
HISTORY AND DRESSING OF TURKEYS 4^9
trader Jaques Coeur, then a great merchant, later Master
of the Mint, or Treasurer and Director of Artillery in the
service of Charles VII. of France. Hence the French
name of 'povXc, cVIudc, transformed into dincle, or diiidon ,
and to show that the India here referred to was East India,
the Germans, who received the turkey from France or Italy,
and have termed it mostly Wdlscher-Hcihii, or Welsch-Huhn,
frequently yet call it a Calicut cock. (In North Germany
the name of Puter- or Trut-Hahn is more common.) The
turkey lived wild in America at the time of the discovery of
that continent, and is not yet quite destroyed ; according
to some authors we have received it from thence. Brillat-
Savarin figures as the hero of a hunt for wild turkey. In the
present day turkeys are reared all over the world, and in
Spain we have seen flocks of many thousands.
There are many modifications of the treatment which the
turkey experiences after it has been killed and plucked, for
the purpose of adapting it to the particular culinary opera-
tion by which it is to be made an important feature of the
dinner-table. Thus, the removal of the trail is effected by
some through an incision at the hack of the neck, and when
the vent begins to be drawn in it is cut round with a sharp,
narrow-bladed, pointed knife, and the small hole thus pro-
duced is at once sewn up. Some then singe off the hair-
like feathers, and divest the legs of their black skin by
scalding; others break the leg-bone and draw out the
sinews, many of which are bony, as in the pheasant ; all
cut off the neck close to the back, leaving a portion of the
skin of the neck adherent to that of the body. Some then
break the keel of the breast-bone by laying a manifold cloth
over it, and forcing it strongly on one side by pressure or
blows with a bat, to make the breast appear more round
and plump. The limbs are then fixed close to the sides by
skewers, an operation called trussing ; some place the liver
and gizzard in the angles of the pinions of the wings, which.
490
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
in case the birds be roasted, causes them invariably to be
spoiled ; they should always be treated in conjunction with
some forcemeat, as a stuffing for parts of the turkey or the
whole of its cavity.
Page 308
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
In the culinary language of this country, turkey is spoken of as such, without reference to the sex of the animal as hen or cock. In the ordinary French language the turkeycock is un dindon, and the hen une dinde ; but in the terminology of the French kitchen both cock and hen are dinde. The hen is always smaller and more delicate than the male.
Turkeys were known to the Greeks, who termed them meleagrides, because a king of Macedonia, Meleager, introduced them into Europe. It is related that the Greek tragic writer Sophocles had introduced into one of his now lost tragedies a chorus of turkeys which deplored the death of Meleager.
The Romans bred Meleagrian birds at the time of Pliny, who describes them accurately. The animals then became so rare that they were no longer reared in open yards and fields, but shut up in cages, and after the Middle Ages turkeys were practically extinct in Europe. They were imported again in 1432, it is alleged by the French
HISTORY AND DRESSING OF TURKEYS 4^9
trader Jaques Coeur, then a great merchant, later Master of the Mint, or Treasurer and Director of Artillery in the service of Charles VII. of France. Hence the French name of 'povXc, cVIudc, transformed into dincle, or dindon , and to show that the India here referred to was East India, the Germans, who received the turkey from France or Italy, and have termed it mostly Wälscher-Huhn, or Welsch-Huhn, frequently yet call it a Calicut cock. (In North Germany the name of Puter- or Trut-Hahn is more common.) The turkey lived wild in America at the time of the discovery of that continent, and is not yet quite destroyed ; according to some authors we have received it from thence. Brillat- Savarin figures as the hero of a hunt for wild turkey. In the present day turkeys are reared all over the world, and in Spain we have seen flocks of many thousands.
There are many modifications of the treatment which the turkey experiences after it has been killed and plucked, for the purpose of adapting it to the particular culinary operation by which it is to be made an important feature of the dinner-table. Thus, the removal of the trail is effected by some through an incision at the hack of the neck, and when the vent begins to be drawn in it is cut round with a sharp, narrow-bladed, pointed knife, and the small hole thus produced is at once sewn up. Some then singe off the hairlike feathers, and divest the legs of their black skin by scalding; others break the leg-bone and draw out the sinews, many of which are bony, as in the pheasant ; all cut off the neck close to the back, leaving a portion of the skin of the neck adherent to that of the body. Some then break the keel of the breast-bone by laying a manifold cloth over it, and forcing it strongly on one side by pressure or blows with a bat, to make the breast appear more round and plump. The limbs are then fixed close to the sides by skewers, an operation called trussing ; some place the liver and gizzard in the angles of the pinions of the wings, which.
in case the birds be roasted, causes them invariably to be spoiled ; they should always be treated in conjunction with some forcemeat, as a stuffing for parts of the turkey or the whole of its cavity.