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Colonial America Recipes: Fowl, Veal, and Sweetbreads

© Pat Williams

During the 19th century, dressing the meat was the most important (and, at times, tedious) process in the preparation. Fortunately for today’s cooks, that has been taken care of before the meat hits the display case, so some steps for these recipes can be skipped.

Based on recipes from Godey’s, February 1862.

Boiled Turkey

• Fill the body with oysters, and let it boil by steam without any water [use a pan with a rack to keep the turkey out of the juices]
• When sufficiently done [20 minutes per pound], take it up
• Strain the gravy that will be found in the pan; thicken it with a little flour and butte
• Add the liquor of the oysters intended for sauce, also stewed, and warm the oysters up in it [salt and pepper to taste]; whiten it with a little boiled cream
• Pour it over the turkey.

Roast Pigeons

• Scald some parsley
• Chop it with the livers
• Mix them with a piece of fresh butter
• Season with pepper and salt
• Put a portion inside each pigeon
• Cover the breast with a slice of bacon fat
• Roast them [20 minutes per pound at 350 degrees]
• Serve with parsley and butter in the dish.

Roast Goose

Scald four or six sage-leaves, according as they are fresh or dry, the fresh ones being the strongest; chop them fine [or use 1 teaspoon of ground sage]; take one large or two small onions; chop them and then pour boiling water over them to make them eat mild [sauté in 1 tablespoon of butter; mix the sage and onion with rather more than an equal quantity of fine bread-crumbs; season well with pepper and salt; put this inside the body of the goose; roast before a quick fire an hour or more, according to the size of the bird [25-30 minutes per pound at 350 degrees]. Geese are sometimes stuffed with potatoes, the whole body being filled with them, whether whole or mashed; but it absorbs so much of the gravy as to injure the richness of the bird. Applesauce and gravy are sent up with geese in separate tureens.

Sweetbreads Stewed

The thymus gland or pancreas of a young animal, especially a calf or lamb.

• After blanching, stuff them with a forcemeat [finely ground and highly spiced meat, fish, or poultry that is served alone or used in stuffing] of fowl, fat and lean bacon, an anchovy , nutmeg, lemon-peel, parsley, and a very little cayenne and thyme

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