The Ladies' Tea Guild

Friday, November 28, 2008

How did the Victorians use up leftover turkey? They made turkey hash!

"Turkey Hashed.
Time, one hour for the gravy.
Cold roast turkey; pepper; salt; half a pint of gravy; a piece of butter the size of a walnut; a little flour; a spoonful of ketchup; peel of half a lemon.
Cut the breast of a cold turkey, or any of the white meat, into thin slices. Cut off the legs, score them, dredge them with pepper and salt, and broil them over a clear fire a nice brown. Put half a pint of gravy into a stewpan with a little piece of butter rolled in flour, a spoonful of ketchup, some pepper and salt, and the peel of half a lemon shred very fine. Put in the white meat, and shake it over a clear fire til it is thoroughly hot, place it in a dish with the broiled legs on the top, and sippets of fried bread round it."
-- From Warne’s Model Cookery, edited by Mary Jewry, ca. 1891.

2 comments:

Christina said...

Perhaps it's worth trying after Christmas!!
I read - on a menu in a restaurant - that at the end of a Christmas ball, as the guests were about to leave, quite often hot soup and turkey were given to 'see them on their way'. However, there wasn't always enough to go round and the less 'important' guests were given a piece of cold turkey shoulder...Hence the expression 'given the cold shoulder'. Don't know how true it is, but it sounds likely.

Hilliard & Croft

Most Beautiful Princess

South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild said...

I've never heard that before! How interesting ...

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
-- William Cowper (1731-1800)
"The Winter Evening" (Book Four), _The Task_ (1784)