Meaning:
Cooked just right.
Background:
Since at least the end of the first Millennium, food, especially meat, has
been cooked on spits. The English abbot and scholar, Aelfric of Eynsham,
referred to them as `spitu' in Latin Grammar and Glossary, circa 1000.
Spits were originally simple pointed sticks, which were used to hold meat
near to a fire. Rotating spits were developed in the Middle Ages; initially
turned by hand and later by various forms of powered mechanism.
The allusion in the phrase `done to a turn', or `roasted to a turn', is to
food that had been cooked for the precisely correct number of turns of the
spit. Both versions of the phrase date back to the 18th century and the
`roasted' form is first cited in a piece by an author called Mackenzie in
Mirror No. 93, 1780:
"The beef was roasted to a turn."
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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I prefer braising to pit-roasting. I'll brown some flour-dusted lamb chunks and
set them aside. I'd add oil and sweat finely-diced onions, carrots, and celery
in the same pot. Once the veggies caramelize and shrink to half the original
size, I'd pour in a cup of red wine, turn up the heat and let it reduce before
chucking the meat back in. Now all I need to do is to add tomato sauce (I mash
canned whole tomatoes), chicken broth, herbs, and salt, bring it to a boil, turn
down the heat, and let it simmer for at least two hours. Never worry about the
meat not done to a turn; it always turns out finger-licking good.
