• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
✮ The Food Dictator ✮

18th Century Devilled Turkey

January 24, 2016 by The Generalissimo 1 Comment

195
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditWhatsappYummly
Light Dark Dark Light
()
18th Century Devilled Turkey
Devilled Turkey Image Used Under Creative Commons License From neilcooksgrigson.blogspot.com

Citizens, this is quite possibly one of the best recipes ever for leftover Turkey – and it must, in TFD’s not so humble opinion – be DEVILLED!

This recipe is from Jane Grigson’s ‘English Food’ and is in TFD’s humble opinion one of the most delicious dishes of eighteenth century cooking, indeed one of the best of all English dishes, period! James Boswell described devilling during the 18th century, the time period from which this particular recipe originated.

As noted in the Oxford Companion to Food:

Devil – a culinary term which… first appeared as a noun in the 18th century, and then in the early 19th century as a verb meaning to cook something with fiery hot spices or condiments…The term was presumably adopted because of the connection between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell…

As further expounded on portablepress.com:

“Deviled” as a culinary term goes back to the 1700s, and it originally meant to cook something—anything—with lots and lots of hot and spicy condiments and seasonings. The most commonly used spices in this catchall preparation were mustard and cayenne pepper. (It’s first ever use in print refers to a “devil’d kidney,” which we’re sure was quite tasty.)

The meaning behind the term is pretty easy to ascertain: deviled, to devil, to hot and spicy, in going with the traditional representation of the devil as a horned demon that lives in fire. It’s a phenomenon that continues to this day, with cartoon devils appearing on the packaging of numerous hot sauces and other spicy foods.

Deviled foods of all stripe were eaten in the U.S. well into the 19th century, with some culinary historians going so far as to place the idea something like a westernized version of a curry. Deviled shrimp and seafood were especially popular.

Today, the term is most closely associated with just two foods: deviled eggs and deviled ham. While deviled eggs—egg yolks mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, and spices and placed back into a halved, hard boiled egg—aren’t particularly spicy, they do maintain the qualities that makes a food traditionally deviled: mustard and pepper. The paprika is technically a variety of chili pepper, and for extra devilish credentials, it’s red.

As for deviled ham, it was invented in 1868 by the Underwood Company, when a worker mixed ground ham with some slightly spicy seasonings, and then canned it.

The devilling mixture typically consists of Worcestershire sauce, mustard, butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper, although some recipes can also include curry powder. I would personally also enjoy this with some of my deviled shrimp.

As to the reason some Deviled items are spelled as ‘Devilled’ – it’s because of Anglo vs. American English!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
18th Century Devilled Turkey

18th Century Devilled Turkey


★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Total Time: 0 hours
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • About 1 lb cooked turkey breast
  • One leg and thigh of the turkey, preferably undercooked and pink.
  • Instead of the turkey, a boiled or roasted chicken (with the brown meat a little underdone) or a brace of stewed or roasted pheasants can be used.
  • ***
  • Devil sauce:
  • 1 rounded tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 rounded tablespoon mango chutney
  • 1 tablespoon Worcester(shire) sauce, or half a tablespoon of anchovy essence
  • A quarter-tablespoon Cayenne pepper
  • Salt
  • 2 tablespoons corn oil
  • Pulled sauce:
  • 3 oz butter
  • 6 oz double (heavy) cream
  • Lemon juice
  • Salt, pepper
  • Chopped parsley

Instructions

  1. First pull the breast meat apart with your fingers into pieces about 1.5″ long and the ‘thickness of a large quill’.
  2. Follow the grain of the meat, so that you end up with somewhat thready-looking pieces. Take the brown meat off the bones, and divide it into rather larger pieces than the breast meat. Slash each one two or three times.
  3. Mix the devil sauce ingredients together, chopping up any large pieces of fruit in the chutney. Dip the pieces of brown meat into it, and spoon the devil into the slashes as best you can.
  4. Arrange in a single layer on the rack of a foil-lined grill pan, and grill under a high heat until the pieces develop an appetizing brown crust. Keep them warm.
  5. For the pulled sauce, melt the butter in a wide frying pan, and stir in the cream. Let it boil for a couple of minutes, and keep stirring so that you end up with a thick rich sauce.
  6. Put in the pulled breast, with any odd scraps of jelly, and stir about until the pieces are very hot indeed. Season with lemon, salt and pepper.
  7. Put in the center of a serving dish, and surround it with the devilled bits. Serve with good bread or toast. Not a dish to be eaten with two vegetables: keep them for afterwards, or simply serve a salad.
  • Prep Time: 0 hours
  • Cook Time: 0 hours

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thefooddictator on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook and hashtag it #TFD

How useful was this post, Citizen?

Click to rate My Recipe, Citizen - 5 hearts are ALWAYS appreciated!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media, Citizen!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Related posts:

Austin Jewish Community BBQ Sauce
The Hirshon Cambodian Prahok With Pork Belly - ប្រហុក ពោះសាច់ជ្រូក ជាមួយ
Jeffrey Steingarten's Hybrid Julia Child/Jacques Pepin Lobster Soufflé
The Hirshon Norwegian Fish and Root Vegetable Chowder - Bergensk Fiskesuppe
The Hirshon Brazilian Shrimp and Seafood Stew - Moqueca de Camarão e Peixe
The Hirshon Ultimate Gourmet Mississippi Mud Pie
The Hirshon Grilled Lamb Chops With Veracruz Salsa Macha
The Hirshon Welsh Giant Oggie Via Hong Kong - Cawr Cymreig Oggie Trwy Hong Kong

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Turkey

About The Generalissimo

The myth of the Generalissimo is far more interesting than the reality.

Previous Post: « The Hirshon French Venison Stew – Civet de Chevreuil
Next Post: The Hirshon Bolivian Salteña »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

➤ Citizens – Please Support TFD Nation!

Donate to Help TFD!

⇔ Search, And Ye Shall Assuredly Find!

✮ Citizens ✮

TFD currently has a total of 1,363 posts and 1,159,134 words written since December of 2014! Add your voice to My 50,000+ dedicated readers, comment on My recipes and thus become an active member of TFD Nation! Looking for a particular recipe? Search for it in the box above or via the category tags below - there are THOUSANDS of the finest in world and historic recipes here!

❧ TREMBLE Before Our Categoric Zeal!

Appetizers (145)Beef (143)Beverages (24)Bread (111)Cheese (64)Chicken (132)Chinese (121)Chocolate (16)Condiments (262)Dessert (166)Drinks (23)Duck (20)Egg (47)Fish (56)French (56)Game (30)Georgian (34)Indian (60)Italian (58)Jewish (84)Lamb (73)Manifestos (1)Pasta (90)Pork (147)Salad (40)Sandwich (42)Seafood (84)Shrimp (53)Soup (109)Spices (12)Tofu (7)Turkey (15)Veal (18)Vegetables (108)

✺ Click to Follow Us Across Social Media!

Facebook   

    instagram

☥ TFD SPEAKS!!!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TFD-Avatar-Cold-Open-FINAL.mp4

 Enjoy TFD’s Mellifluous Podcasts, Citizen!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

© 2023 · The Food Dictator is abjectly served by WORDPRESS

✮ The Food Dictator ✮
Manage Cookie Consent
Citizens!

Be advised that as an enlightened Dictatorship here at TFD, we are indeed on the side of right when it comes to protecting the privacy of TFD Nation!

We do use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information, solely to improve your browsing experience and to show personalized ads.

Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions - trust us, we really ARE on your side!

YOUR LOYALTY IS NOTED! 🎖️
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
195
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditMailYummly