It’s been a while since we shared some of our 18th Century recipes so today we chose a classic meal for you to enjoy.
For main course we have selected ‘A Forc’d Turkey’ which could quite possibly become the new Thanksgiving or Christmas staple if you’re feeling brave.
A Forc’d Turkey
Take a large turkey. After a day kild, slit it down ye back, & bone it & then wash it. Clean stuf it as much in ye shape it was as you can with forc’d meat made of 2 pullits yt has been skin’d, 2 handfulls of crumbs of bread, 3 handfulls of sheeps sewit, some thyme, & parsley, 3 anchoves, some pepper & allspice, a whole lemon sliced thin, ye seeds pick’d out & minced small, a raw egg. Mix all well together stuf yr turkey & sow it up nicely at ye back so as not to be seen. Then spit it & rost it with paper on the breast to preserve ye coler of it nicely. Then have a sauce made of strong greavy, white wine, anchoves, oysters, mushrooms slic’d, salary first boyl’d a littile, some harticholk bottoms, some blades of mace, a lump of butter roll’d in flower. Toss up all together & put ym in yr dish. Don’t pour any over ye turkey least you spoyl ye coler. Put ye gisard & liver in ye wings. Put sliced lemon & forc’d balls for garnish.
A pretty straight forward recipe but if anyone is wondering a pullit, or pullet, is a young hen typically less than a year old. Overall, we think we could handle this recipe, apart from the boning as we’d probably take our fingers off if we tried, we are rather clumsy. However, this one certainly makes our mouths water far more than other 18th Century recipes.
To follow this extravagant main we have a homely dessert of bread pudding.
To Make a Bread Pudding
Take a meonshit [manchet]. Cut of the crust, slice it in thin slices the pour a quart of boyling milk on it. Then take 12 eggs, half the whites. Beat them very well with a little nutmeg, a qr of a pd of sugar, 2 or 3 spoonfulls of rose water, a glass of sack. Mix all the ingredients well together. Butter yr pan. 3 qrs of an hour bakes it. The same way for boyling, only put in a small spoonfull of flower. An hour for boyling. You may put in sewit if you please. Sack, butter & sugar for sauce. When boyled, don’t mix the pudding till the milk is cold.
This recipe uses a manchet or a small loaf, sack which is sherry and the addition of rose water which sounds lovely and once again is definitely among our favourite 18th Century recipes.
Let us know if you make either of these delights and as always please share, tweet, like, follow and comment.
All the best K & D
Culloden Battlefield 