"Pluck the bird carefully and singe all over with a piece of white paper; then wipe it with a clean cloth; draw in and keep the liver and gizard.
Wash the inside well and wipe it thoroughly dry with a cloth.
Cut the neck off close to the back but leave enough of the crop skin to turn over; break the leg bone close below the knee; draw out the sinews from the thighs and flatten the breast bone to make it look plump.
Fasten the neck with a skewer over to the back; run a skewer through the pinion and thigh on the other side and press the legs as much as possible between the breast and side bones.”
A turkey of ten pounds will take about 2.5 hours to cook - a larger one three hours or more.
A never seen before 161 recipe book by Beatrix Potter has been discovered and is up for auction.
The recipes, which are believed to have been handed down over generations, include sponge cake, roast turkey and curry. The earliest entry is dated 1851 and the hand written cookbook was updated regularly over many years. Read the entire article
HERE.
Beatrix Potter's recipe for Ginger Bread
Ingredients:
3.5 lb wheat meal
3.5 lb treacle
12 oz sugar
12 oz butter
2 oz ground ginger
1 oz pounded allspice
1 pint of ale
Add two thirds of the ale to the other ingredients and beat them well for some time then dissolve 1oz of common washing soda in the rest of the ale and add it just before you put it into the oven.
It requires a slow oven - (let all the ingredients except the flour and soda be put before the fire to dissolve for an hour or two.)
