CookEat Recipe
Truffle-Stuffed Roast Capon
A small capon filled with walnut-sized truffle pieces, butter and Marsala, roasted in a buttered wrapper and browned uncovered.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 1 professionally dressed food-grade capon, about 800 g prepared weight without head, neck, feet or internal organs; 250 g fresh black truffles, cleaned; 95 g butter: 80 g for the truffles and 15 g for the wrapper; 5 tablespoons Marsala, about 75 ml; 40 g plain cured pork fatback, cut into thin strips for larding the breast; 1 tablespoon olive oil for finishing; Salt and black pepper; Food-contact grill foil rated for the roasting temperature and suitable for the rotisserie.
Step 2
Keep the dressed capon refrigerated at 4°C or colder until assembly. Brush and clean the truffles, peel them very lightly and reserve the clean peelings. Leave small truffles whole and cut larger ones into walnut-sized pieces. White truffles may replace the black ones in the same quantity.
Step 3
Melt the 80 g butter in a small saucepan. Add the truffle pieces, Marsala, salt and pepper and let bubble briskly for two minutes, stirring constantly. Transfer to a shallow container, cool promptly and refrigerate until the butter has set. Keep the truffle mixture and the raw bird separate until immediately before cooking; do not leave a filled raw bird overnight or age poultry at room temperature.
Step 4
Preheat for indirect rotisserie cooking at about 180°C with a drip pan below. Put the clean truffle peelings in the capon and spoon in the cold truffle mixture with all its butter and juices, filling loosely. If it will not all fit loosely, put the excess in a small covered ovenproof dish to heat alongside. A few thin slices cut from the same truffle allowance may also be slipped under the skin. Close the lower and neck openings with food-safe kitchen string.
Step 5
Insert the slender cured-fatback strips into the breast with a larding needle. Secure and balance the bird on the spit. Butter the food-contact side of a suitable foil sheet with the remaining 15 g butter, salt lightly and wrap the bird. This is a modern wrapper in place of the historical paper. Keep clear of flames and moving parts and follow the foil and appliance limits.
Step 6
Roast for about 60–90 minutes overall, removing the wrapper carefully after roughly two-thirds of that time and continuing without interruption. Brush the exposed bird with the olive oil and adjust salt sparingly while the skin browns. Check at least 82°C in the thickest bird meat and 74°C in the truffle filling and any separately cooked excess; time alone is not the endpoint. Rest for about ten minutes, remove every tie and take out the filling before carving. Serve the capon with its truffles and buttery juices.
Step 7
For a professionally dressed, legally supplied food-grade pheasant of about 1.6 kg, double every ingredient, including the wrapper butter and breast-larding fat, and allow about 1½–2 hours roasting. For a small turkey of about 2.4 kg, triple the quantities and allow about 2–2½ hours or longer as needed. In both cases keep the bird and filling separately refrigerated until assembly, fill loosely just before cooking, unwrap around two-thirds of the estimated time and finish to 82°C in the whole bird and 74°C in the filling. Cook any excess filling separately. The larger versions serve about four and six respectively; no prolonged storage of a filled raw bird is used.
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