Name: Of a Turkey
Ingredients: 1 hen turkey, about 12 pounds; alcohol for burning feathers

Of a Turkey

Ingredients

1 hen turkey, about 12 pounds
alcohol for burning feathers

Directions

Select a young hen turkey with tender skin and soft legs.
Have the butcher remove the leg sinews.
Remove pin-feathers and singe off hairs using a lit saucer of alcohol.
Cut off the feet below the joint and the head close to the bill.
Slit the skin on the neck, detach the windpipe and crop, and cut off the neck.
Make a small slit below the breastbone to remove the intestines, starting with the gizzard.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.