GAME AND SMALL BIRDS.
General Observations—To Roast Woodcocks—Canvass-Back Ducks—Wild Ducks—Widgeon and Teal—Sauce for Wild Fowl—Pheasants—Partridges, Roasted, Boiled, &c.—Reed Birds—Small Birds—Larks—Rabbits—Hare.
WHEN game seems to be spoiled, it may often be made fit for eating by nicely cleaning it, and washing with vinegar and water. If there is danger of birds not keeping, draw, crop, and pick them; then wash them in 2 or 3 waters, and rub them with salt; plunge them, one by one, into a saucepan of boiling water, drawing them up and down by the legs, that the water may pass through them. Let them stay in 5 or 6 minutes; then hang them up in a cool place. When drained, pepper and salt the inside well. By this method the most delicate birds may be preserved. Before roasting, wash them well. But, as a rule, no game should be washed, for one-half the game that is sent to table is spoiled by being saturated in water.
In dressing game be careful to keep a clear fire. Let it be done of a bright brown, but not much roasted, or the fine flavor will be destroyed. It requires to be continually basted, and to be sent up beautifully frothed. Wild-fowl take a much shorter time than domestic poultry.
The following will give, pretty nearly, the time required for roasting the several birds:—Wild-ducks quarter of an hour, widgeons the same, pheasants half an hour, grouse quarter of an hour, quails 10 minutes, woodcocks 20 minutes, partridges from 20 to 25 minutes. A hare or rabbit will take an hour; the kind part requires most heat, and that should be attended to, as it commonly happens that the hick part of the thigh is underdone, as well as the shoulders. The blood stagnated round the neck and shoulders is not easily removed: to do this, put those parts into a pan of lukewarm water, and prick them with a skewer; before dressing, rub and squeeze it out.
To take off the fishy taste which wild-fowl sometimes have, put an onion, salt, and hot water into the dripping-pan, and baste them for the first 10 minutes with this; then take away she pan, and baste constantly with butter.
To roast Woodcocks or Snipes.—Handle them as little and as lightly as possible, and pluck off the feathers gently; for if this be violently done the skin of the birds will be broken. Do not draw them, but after having wiped them with clean soft cloths, truss them with the head under the wing, and the bill laid close along the breast; pass a slight skewer through the thighs, catch the ends with a bit of twine, and tie it across to keep the legs straight. Suspend the birds with the feet downwards to a bird-spit, flour them well, and baste them with butter, which should be ready dissolved in the pan or ladle. Before the trail begins to drop, which it will do as soon as they are well heated, lay a thick round of bread, freed from the crust, toasted to a delicate brown, and buttered on both sides, into the pan under them to catch it, as this is considered finer eating even than the flesh of the birds; continue the basting, letting the butter fall from them into the basting-spoon or ladle, as it cannot be collected again from the dripping-pan should it drop there, in consequence of the toast or toasts being in it. There should be one of these for each woodcock, and the trail should be spread equally over it. When the birds are done, which they will be, at a brisk fire, in from twenty to twenty-five minutes, lay the toasts into a very hot dish, dress the birds upon them, pour a little gravy round the bread, and send more to table in a tureen. Woodcock, 20 to 25 minutes; snipe, 5 minutes less.
Another way.—Cut up the backs, and take out the intestines; since, and add half the quantity of bacon, with a little minced parsley, shalots, scallions, pepper, red salt; stuff the woodcocks, sew them up, cover with slices of bacon, and finish as directed in the last receipt: serve bread-sauce in a sauce-boat.
Attention is to be paid to pick out the gall, which is attached to the liver, as well as the gizzard, which is full of small pebbles and other calcareous matter.
Salmi of Woodcocks.—Cook the intestines, taking out the gall and gizzard. (See Table Salmi.)
Woodcocks with Truffle, or à la Pèregueux.—Open the woodcocks by the back; have truffle ready cooked in rasped lard; let it cool a little; mince the intestines, and mix them with the truffle; stuff the woodcocks, truss and lard; either roast or braise them. Use truffle-powder, if there is no fresh truffle.
To roast Canvass-back Ducks.—Let the duck be young and fat; pick it well; draw and singe it carefully, but do not wash it. Truss it, leaving its head on to distinguish it from common game, and place it on the spit before a brisk fire, for at least fifteen minutes: serve it hot in its own gravy. The best are found on the Potomac River. They have the head purple, and the breast silver-color. The season is only during cold weather.
Wild Ducks.—You must pluck, draw, singe, and clean the inside of these, the same as directed for poultry. To roast them properly, you must hang them down to a brisk, clear, bright fire, and baste them with butter, as the outside must be nicely browned and frothed, and yet the flesh be juicy and full of gravy. They will take about twenty to thirty-five minutes to roast, according as the family like them more or less done, which you must inquire. Serve up with sauce made thus: half a teacupful of port wine, the same of good meat gravy, a small onion sliced, a little cayenne pepper and salt, a grate of nutmeg, and a bit of mace: simmer them for ten minutes; then put in a little bit of butter and flour, give it all one boil, strain it, and pour it through the birds.
Or you may serve them up without making gravy, by only mixing the gravy which drops from them with half a teacupful of boiling water, and a little pepper and salt, and straining it into the dish.
Widgeon and Teal.—Widgeon and teal are to be dressed and served up in the same manner as wild duck; but twenty to twenty-five minutes will be long enough to roast a widgeon; and fifteen to twenty minutes, a teal.
Sauce for Wild Fowl.—Put into a saucepan half a pint of gravy, a few leaves of basil, a small onion or shalot, and a small piece of lemon peel; boil a few minutes, and strain off; then add the juice of half a lemon, or Seville orange, or a glass of port wine; and season with salt and Cayenne, or black pep per. This is a fine sauce for all kinds of wild fowl.
An onion, or shalot, chopped fine, and warmed in plain brown gravy, is a readier sauce than the above.
To roast Partridges.—Let the birds hang as long as they can possibly be kept without becoming offensive; pick them carefully, draw, and singe them; wipe the insides thoroughly with a clean; truss them with the head turned under the wing and the legs drawn close together or crossed. Flour them when first laid to the fire, and baste them plentifully with butter. Serve them with bread sauce, and good brown gravy.
A little of this last should be poured over them.
In preparing them for the spit, remove the crop through a slit cut in the back of the neck; clip the claws close; hold the legs in boiling water for a minute that they may be easily skinned.
Another way.—Cover the breasts with slices of lemon, and then with bacon, and fix the paper tightly over, and when ready, unpaper and froth them: serve with clear juice, all-spice, and a little Seville orange-juice.
Broiled Partridge: (French receipt.)—After having prepared the bird with great nicety, divided and flattened it, season it with salt, and pepper, or cayenne, dip it into clarified butter, and then into very fine bread crumbs, and take care that every part shall be equally covered: if wanted of particularly good appearance, dip it a second time into the butter and crumbs. Place it over a very clear fire, and broil it gently from twenty to thirty minutes. Send it to table with brown mushroom sauce, or some Espagnole.
To roast wild Pigeons—Pigeons, when stuffed, require some green parsley to be chopped very fine with the liver and a bit of butter, seasoned with a little pepper and salt; or they may be stuffed with the same as a fillet of veal. Fill the belly of each bird with either of these compositions. They will roast in about twenty or thirty minutes. Serve with parsley and butter, in a dish under them, with some in a boat. Garnish with crisp parsley, fried bread crumbs, bread sauce or gravy.
Wild Pigeons may be stewed, &c., by the receipts for Pigeons.
Reed Birds.—Having carefully picked your birds, which should be very fat, draw them with the greatest care possible so as not to rob them of any fat, and truss them on a skewer, which you fasten to the spit, and cook them before a brisk fire; a very few minutes is requisite. In serving them, place them on buttered toast, and pour a small portion of gravy over them. Let them be hot. This is generally considered the best manner of serving reed birds, although many persons prefer them breaded and fried, or barbacued. When they are very fat it is unnecessary to draw them. The season for this delicious bird is from the middle of September to the first or second week in October.
Small Birds.—Sparrows, larks, and other small birds, must be carefully picked, gutted, and cleansed; then rub them over thinly with the yolk of an egg, and sprinkle them with bread crumbs; hang them down, and baste with butter while they are roasting. They will take 10 to 15 minutes, with a brisk fire.
Obs.—Larks are not found in America, but robins, we are sorry to say, are sometimes killed for the table. We fully agree in sentiment with the English lady, whose remarks we subjoin, on the barbarity of killing, for amusement, singing birds and inoffensive little animals:
“I cannot here lay down my pen without calling upon my country women to stamp on the barbarous practice of hurting or murdering for diversion the indelible stigma of their abhorrence. It argues, indeed, a degraded state of morality and of science, when men can be found, without the plea of necessity so weak in head, and strong in heart, as to have recourse to such practices for amusement and for occupation.
“Nor less does it argue in their matrons of England and their daughters the absence of that delicacy and gentleness, for which we are so willing to take credit to the female character. The desire of the sexes to be mutually agreeable to each other is so constant and intense, that unless where women have no will of their own, anything much disliked by the one cannot long be continued by the other. If women are unable to demand from their husbands, instead of the brush, or the leading the field, superiority of intellect and refinement of manners, they certainly can require them from lovers, and instil them into the minds of their children.”
Rabbits.—Rabbits being rather dry meat, are much improved by larding. Should the process be deemed too troublesome upon common occasions, a good effect may be produced by lining the inside of the rabbit with slices of fat bacon previously to putting in the stuffing. This is a very easy method of improvement, and ought never to be neglected.
A boned rabbit, larded, stuffed, and braised, or stewed affords a cheap and elegant side-dish for a dinner party.
Leveret, or Rabbit, with Herbs.—Cut either of the two into pieces, put it into a stew-pan with butter, salt, pepper, parsley, sorrel, and young onions chopped. When sufficiently done, add the juice of a lemon. The legs may be broiled and laid on the top.
To roast a Rabbit.—Put veal-stuffing into it, and the back may be larded; roast three-quarters of an hour, and serve with rich brown gravy.
To boil a Rabbit.—Put into boiling water, with a piece of crumb of bread, a little mutton-suet, and a slice of peeled lemon; boil three-quarters of an hour and serve with onion sauce, or parsley and butter.