Truffled Young Turkey

Dindonneau truffé (truffled young turkey) teaches one thing above all: keep the truffle's perfume inside the bird until the final browning. Black truffle is not a garnish here. It is folded through pounded fresh fat, enclosed in the cavity, and carried into the flesh by a long, steady roast. Open the bird too soon and the kitchen gets the aroma instead of the meat.

The source is deliberately spare because it sends the cook back to the truffled pullet and asks only for more truffle, more fat, and more time. A grand kitchen could give the turkey to a rôtisseur (roast cook), keep a saucier beside a stock never off the fire, pound fat at the mortar, and correct the colour under a salamander. At home, a small processor, a roasting rack, good poultry stock, and a hotter final oven do the same work. I have scaled the bird to four generous servings. The brigade's extra hands are scaffolding, but the generous truffle, the pounded fat, the sewn opening, the buttered paper, and the steady fire are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Do not pack the cavity hard. The fat must melt around the truffles without forming a dense plug. Sew the skin snugly, wrap the breast and sides in buttered parchment, then leave the paper alone until the last stretch. That seal is the step that decides the dish.