My friends' hesitancy when faced with an American stuffed turkey doesn't mean, of course, that Italians don't stuff birds or other animals. Quite the contrary; there's a long tradition of stuffing game and courtyard birds, and many of the stuffings used are also used to stuff rabbits, or even turkey breasts.
However, the function of the stuffing is different: Rather than serve as a side dish that has absorbed some of the flavorful juices of the bird, Italian stuffings generally serve to extend the bird, as it were; with respect to an American bread stuffing they're much firmer, and effectively increase the amount of meat available. An Italian stuffed chicken or duck will easily serve 8, and there may even be leftovers.
As one might expect, the differences don't begin with the ingredients of the stuffing, but rather the preparation of the bird. After flaming the skin to remove the stray pinfeather, an Italian cook will bone the bird. This tremendously increases the volume of the cavity, and also makes the carving much easier: The cook merely allows the bird to cool enough for the stuffing to hold together, removes the string used to truss the bird, slices the bird thinly crosswise, into 1/8-1/4 inch (2-5mm) slices, each of which consists of some meat and some stuffing, lays them out on a serving dish, spoons the pan drippings over them if he or she so desires, and serves the bird with a garnish of mayonnaise or whatever other sauce may go well with the given stuffing. If the serving dish was heated the meat will be warm, but Italians see nothing wrong with serving this sort of dish cold, especially in the hot summer months. And I can't say I disagree.
As I said, many of these stuffings will also work well with rabbit or turkey breast.
- With rabbit, when you bone the animal you will obtain a slab of meat, which you should put between two sheets of waxed paper and pound gently with a meat pounder or the flat of a broad knife to spread the meat out.
- With turkey breast, (I generally use a half of a turkey breast) lay the breast flat and slice almost all the way through it horizontally twice, once from each side; you will now be able to extend the breast into a large thin slab, which you will want to pound gently to extend further.
Once you have extended your rabbit or turkey, you can either form a sausage of stuffing and wrap the slab around it, tying it with string the way you might tie a salami, or you can spread the stuffing in a thin layer over the slab and roll the slab up and tie it. I prefer the latter method because it makes for a more elegant presentation, and because the flavors of the meat and the stuffing meld better.
Next, How to Bone a Bird | And Then, Recipes
