Turkey was served often at Winterthur, an ancestral home of the du Pont family, in Delaware. The birds were raised on the estate, in great enough numbers for the family to give them to employees at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The land was purchased in 1810 by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont; the house was built in 1839 and opened to the public as a museum of American decorative arts in 1951. Many of its recipes survive, among them one for truffled turkey and stuffing, which Pauline Foster du Pont, who was married to Eleuthère Irénée's grandson, included in her personal handwritten cookbook.

First, three pounds of zucchini were boiled, then peeled, mashed and seasoned with salt, pepper and butter. This was the stuffing. Then the contents of an entire can of black truffles were sliced and slipped under the turkey’s skin. To serve, the meat was carved and then put back in its skin so that the turkey appeared to be whole. In this adaptation, the bird is rubbed with truffle butter, and the zucchini (finely chopped, not mashed) is bolstered with bread crumbs and more truffle butter. But it does not suggest replicating the reassembled turkey. The du Ponts had staff for that. You will have enough to do at Thanksgiving without attempting it.

Featured in: Thanksgiving Recipes Across The United States.

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