POULTRY should invariably be purchased young. If old and tough, fowls are never as savory when cooked as when young and tender. This applies especially to ducks and geese. The flesh of young fowls will be firm and fleshy to the touch, and heavy in proportion to their size; the skin should be clear, white and finely grained, the toes pliable and easily broken when bent back. All kinds of poultry, and turkeys especially, are improved by hanging a day or two, unless the weather should be exceedingly sultry. Dark-legged fowls are best roasted, while the white-legged ones should be chosen for boiling. In dressing poultry, care should be taken not to break the gall: a thorough cleansing in every part is also necessary. The hairs should be singed off with a well-lighted piece of writing paper, holding the fowl before a hot fire. Poultry of all kinds should be thoroughly cooked and handsomely browned.
Game is never good when very fresh, but it does not follow that it should destroy the appetite, when sent to the table, by its offensive odor. The fine flavor and tenderness of the flesh depend almost entirely on its being allowed to hang a reasonable time before cooking. Venison, if kept to the proper time, is the most tender of all meats, but care is necessary to bring it into a fitting state for table without its becoming offensive; a free current of air materially assists in preserving its sweetness, while a close, damp atmosphere is destructive to this as well as all other kinds of meat. Should any moisture appear on its surface, it must be wiped carefully with a soft, dry cloth. The haunch is generally regarded as the prime and favorite joint of venison, although the neck and shoulder are also excellent stewed in various ways or made into pasties. Young hares and rabbits are nutritious and easily digested; when old, the reverse. Partridges, like most birds, should be hung up for a day or two to ripen, and may be chosen by nearly the same tests as poultry. Wild birds need no scalding before being picked. They are much more delicious than domestic fowls, which is owing to the contrast of living. They have free range in the open air, and choose their own food, which produces a delicate texture of flesh.
IN cold weather a turkey should hang at least a week before it is cooked. Draw and clean it with great care, taking particular pains not to break the gall bladder. Pour cold water plentifully through it, singe with writing paper, dry, and wipe clean. Fill the body with a dressing made with bread-crumbs, a slice of sweet, fat pork (boiled so that it will chop tender), thyme, parsley, pepper, salt, grated lemon-peel and mace. Before putting it in the oven cover the breast with very thin slices of salt pork; roast, and baste frequently, for an hour and a half or two hours, in a not too hot oven. Garnish with a chain of fine fried sausages and green parsley, or with small crimped paper rosettes and celery tops. Serve with cranberry sauce.
SELECT a plump, not too large, hen turkey for boiling; draw, clean and singe the bird smoothly and with great precaution. Cut off the head and neck, cut the skin around the first joint of the legs and draw them off. Fill the breast with raw oysters and a dressing made of bread, chopped celery, a little pork and seasoning. Dress it so as to make it look round and plump as possible, Wrap it in a cloth and place it in boiling water, clear off all the scum which rises, and simmer gently two hours. Garnish with green celery tops and small crisp slices of fried bacon. A ham is often served with boiled turkey. Serve with oyster sauce.
SELECT a young, tender and fat goose; draw, clean and wipe thoroughly dry, inside and out: save the giblets for the gravy; fill the body with a stuffing of bread, sage, thyme, one or two parboiled onions chopped fine, some mashed Irish potatoes and a very little butter. Add salt and pepper and yolk of egg; truss it, and roast it at a brisk fire; baste the same as turkey. Pour off most of the fat that drips from the goose, or the gravy will be too rich. After boiling the giblets in a sauce-pan by themselves, seasoning with salt and pepper and adding a little butter, cut off the neck and chop up the heart, liver and gizzard and serve in the gravy, after it is well skimmed. Unite the two gravies and serve them up in a gravy-tureen. Apple sauce is indispensable as an accompaniment to this dish.
AFTER it is well dressed singe it thoroughly. Have ready a dressing prepared of bread-crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt and butter, with the addition of two finely-chopped onions, a little sage and more pepper than would be used for turkey. Fill the body and close it firmly; put it in cold water, and boil it gently an hour if tender, if not, longer; serve with giblet sauce. The onions can be omitted if not relished.
PREPARE for roasting two fine, fat young ducks in the same manner as for roast goose. Stuff with sage, onion and thyme, bread-crumbs and butter; baste well with salt and water and their own gravy. Roast one hour, or until thoroughly done and finely browned. Serve with cranberry jelly or apple sauce.
TAKE a couple of young ducks, or a tender fat goose, and after preparing for cooking the same way as roast goose or duck, half roast before a slow fire. Then cut either down neatly into joints, and put them into a stew-pan, with a pint of good beef gravy, a few leaves of sage and mint cut small, pepper and salt and a bit of onion shred as fine as possible. Let it simmer for a quarter of an hour, skimming it thoroughly; then add a pint of green peas or rice mixed with a little port wine; put in a piece of butter and a little flour, and give it one boil. Serve hot in one dish.
FOWL and capons are roasted and served as turkeys, with the addition of egg sauce, but they require proportionally less time at the fire, and are seldom stuffed. A full-grown fowl will require three-quarters of an hour to be well roasted, a capon an hour and a quarter. A large fowl may be stuffed the same as a turkey.
TAKE a fine, plump fowl, fill the breast with a good forcemeat and roast in the usual manner. When nearly done remove the fowl from the fire, pour tepid butter over it in every part and spread thickly with very fine bread-crumbs; sprinkle these again with butter, and dip the fowl into more crumbs. Place it to the fire, and when of a clear, light brown all over put it carefully into a dish, and serve with lemon sauce and with gravy thickened and mixed with plenty of minced parsley, or with brown gravy and any other sauce usually served with fowls.
SPLIT it down the back, season well with salt and pepper, and put it on the gridiron with the inner part next to the fire, which must be very clear and brisk. Hold the gridiron at a considerable distance from the fire until the fowl is nearly done; then turn it, taking care that it does not burn. Broil until it is well browned, and serve with stewed mushrooms or a sauce made of pickled mushrooms. If the fowl is very large, half roast it, cut it into four quarters, and then broil it on the gridiron. The time required for cooking is from a half to three-quarters of an hour. A duck may also be broiled in the same way, but it must be young and tender.
BOILED fowls are prepared in the same manner as boiled turkey. Drawn butter seasoned with parsley or celery is the most common sauce used. Liver sauce is good, but when oysters can be had oyster sauce is generally preferable.
SELECT a pair of young and plump chickens, and after a careful cleansing cut them into joints; season well with pepper and salt and a little powdered mace; put them into the stew-pan with a pint to a pint and a half of water, according to their size; let them simmer over a slow fire, stirring in a little flour mixed with butter. If necessary add more seasoning, and serve hot in a heated dish.
CLEAN them carefully, split them down the back and lay them in a pan, the inside part down; pour about a half pint of water into the pan and cover them with another pan; let them steam twenty minutes, and bake. When nearly done pepper them nicely, and grate some bread-crumbs over them. Make a rich gravy, and serve hot.
TAKE two fine young chickens, clean them carefully, and wipe them thoroughly dry. Put them into the frying-pan, season with pepper and salt and dredge them with flour. Fry in lard till richly browned on both sides; take them out and keep them near the fire; skim the gravy carefully in which the chickens have been fried, mix with it half a pint of cream, season with mace, pepper, salt and parsley; pour it over the chickens, and serve hot.
CUT two small, tender chickens into joints, as for a fricassee; season well with pepper and salt, and lay them in a pudding-dish lined with slices of ham or bacon; add a pint of veal gravy and an onion finely minced, fill up the dish with boiled rice well pressed; fill the dish to its utmost capacity; cover it with a paste of flour and water. Bake one hour, and serve before taking off the paste.
CUT off the wings and legs of three small chickens; separate the breasts from the backs; divide the backs crosswise; cut off the necks and clean the gizzards; put them with the livers and other parts of the chickens (after being thoroughly washed) into a sauce-pan. Add salt, pepper and a little mace; cover with water, stew till tender, and take them up. Thicken a half pint of water with two spoonfuls of flour rubbed into four ounces of butter; add a tumbler of new milk; boil all together a few minutes, then add eight spoonfuls of white wine, stirring it in carefully, so as not to allow it to curdle. Put in the chickens, and shake the pan until they are sufficiently heated. Green peas, lima beans, asparagus tops or mashed potatoes are excellent accompaniments. Chicken fricassee is a nice side-dish for company.
TAKE a pair of nice, tender chickens, clean them thoroughly and cut up into small pieces; wash well and let them cook for twenty minutes in water sufficient to cover them. Mix a tablespoonful of flour in cold water to a thin paste, and stir in the gravy; add a lump of butter, and season thoroughly with pepper and salt; let all cool. To make a paste, mix together equal quantities of lard and flour, adding a little salt; roll out thin; line a deep pie-dish; after rolling out the top crust to half the size required spread over it butter to the depth of one quarter of an inch; roll up and roll out again, and repeat the operation two or three times; put in the chicken, and put on the top crust, and pinch the edges well together; cut a slit in the top crust. Bake till the crust is slightly browned.
MINCE up together the breast of a chicken, some lean ham, half an anchovy, a little parsley, some shalot and lemon-peel, and season these with pepper, salt, cayenne and beaten mace. Let this be on the fire for a few minutes, in a little good white sauce. Cut some thinly-rolled-out puff paste into squares, putting on each some of the mince, turn the paste over, fry them in boiling lard and serve them up on a salver. These puffs are very good cold, and they form a convenient supper-dish.
PREPARE two young chickens as for a fricassee. Mix a tablespoonful of good butter with a tea-spoonful of flour, and put into a stew-pan with an onion minced finely; brown over a brisk fire, and then add a quart of water and a quarter of a peck of ochras, first sliced thin and then chopped; season with a very little salt, cover the pan, and let the whole stew together till the ochras are entirely dissolved; then put in the pieces of chicken, and cook for half an hour, or until they are thoroughly done. Serve up hot in a deep dish. An equal quantity of tomatoes cut small may be added to the ochras; no water will be required if tomatoes are used, as their juice will supply ample liquid.
PIGEONS lose their flavor by being kept more than a day after they are killed. They may be prepared and roasted or broiled the same as chickens; they will require from twenty to thirty minutes’ cooking. Make a gravy of the giblets, season it with pepper and salt and add a little flour and butter.
TRUSS the pigeons the same as boiled fowls; put them into boiling water, season with a little salt, and in about fifteen minutes lift them out, pour over them parsley and butter, and send a tureen of it to the table with the pigeons.
CUT into quarters four young pigeons and sprinkle them with pepper, salt and herb seasoning; cut also into four pieces a pound or less of sweet salt pork, and lay them at the bottom of the dish. Boil four eggs ten minutes, take out the hard yolks, and lay them between the pigeons upon the steaks; pour in a gill of gravy or water; cover with puff paste.
AFTER very nicely cleaning goose or duck giblets, stew them for several hours with a small quantity of water, onion, black pepper and a bunch of sweet herbs till nearly done; season them with salt and pepper and a very small piece of mace. Before serving give them one boil with a cup of cream and a piece of butter rubbed in a teaspoonful of fine flour.
WASH and clean your giblets; put them in a sauce-pan; season with pepper, salt and a little butter rolled in flour; cover them with water and stew till very tender. Line a pie-dish with paste and put in the giblets. If the gravy is not thick enough, add a little more butter rolled in flour; let it boil once, pour in the gravy, put on a top crust, leaving a square hole in the centre. Ornament the pie with leaves of paste. Set the pie in an oven, and when the crust is done take it out.
To prepare a haunch of venison for roasting, wash it slightly in tepid water, and dry it thoroughly by rubbing with a clean, soft cloth. Lay over the fat side a large sheet of thickly-buttered paper, and next a paste of flour and water about three-quarters of an inch thick; cover this again with two or three sheets of stout paper, secure the whole well with twine, and lay the haunch to a clear, steady fire; baste the paper immediately with butter or clarified dripping, and roast the joint from three to four hours, according to its weight and quality. Doe venison will require half an hour less time than buck venison. About twenty minutes before the joint is done remove the paste and paper, baste the meat in every part with butter, and dredge it very lightly with flour; let it take a pale brown color, and serve hot, with unflavored gravy in a tureen and good current jelly. Venison is much better when the deer has been killed in the autumn, when wild berries are plentiful, and it has had abundant opportunities to fatten upon this and other fresh food.
IN ordering the saddle request the butcher to cut the ribs off pretty close, as the only part that is of much account is the tenderloin and thick meat that lies along the backbone up to the neck. The ribs which extend from this have very little meat on them, but are always sold with the saddle. When neatly cut off they leave the saddle in a better shape, and the ribs can be put into your stock-pot, to boil for soup. Wash the saddle carefully. See that no hairs are left, dried on to the outside. When ready in the oven cover with some buttered white paper, put some boiling water, with a little salt, into the bake-pan, set the saddle on the rack, and while baking baste often. When two-thirds done remove the paper, that the top may be nicely browned. Venison should not be over-done, and should be eaten hot.
HEAT the gridiron, grease it well, lay on the steaks cut from the neck; broil quickly, without scorching, turning them two or three times; season with salt and pepper. Have the butter melted in a well-heated platter, into which the steaks must be laid hot from the gridiron, turning them over three times in the butter, and serve hot with currant jelly laid on each steak. It is well to set the platter into another in which you have some boiling water.
AFTER carefully removing the bone from the shoulder season it with cayenne, salt and pounded mace, with a little allspice. Lay over it thin slices of the fat of a loin of well-fed mutton; roll and bind it tightly; lay it into a vessel nearly of its size, and hardly cover it with some good stock made of equal parts of beef and mutton. Stew it slowly from three to four hours, according to size and weight, and turn it when it is half done. Dish, and serve it with some of the gravy in which it has been stewed, thickened with rice flour, mixed with a glass or more of claret or of port wine, and seasoned to taste.
A VERY close relationship exists between the hare and the rabbit, the chief difference being in the smaller size and shorter legs and ears of the latter. The manner of dressing and preparing each for the table is therefore pretty nearly the same. To prepare them for roasting, first skin, wash well in cold water and rinse thoroughly in lukewarm water. If a little musty from being emptied before they were hung up and afterward neglected, rub the insides with vinegar and afterward remove all taint of the Add by a thorough washing in lukewarm water. After being well wiped with a soft cloth put in a filling of forcemeat, sew the animal up, truss it, and roast for a half or three-quarters of an hour, until well browned, basting it constantly with butter and dredging with flour. Serve with fine red currant jelly.
CUT up a young rabbit and soak it an hour in water; lay it in the stew-pan with half a dozen mushrooms, a bunch of parsley, a teaspoonful of salt, half as much pepper and two blades of mace; pour over a pint of port wine, stew gently for half an hour. Then take out the rabbit, strain the sauce, reduce it a little over the fire, add two tablespoonfuls of thick cream, put in the rabbit, and heat over the fire, without boiling, for a quarter of an hour. Serve in the sauce, with sliced lemon.
IT will generally be conceded that the best canvas-back ducks are to be found along the Potomac River. Having picked, singed and drawn it well, wipe it carefully, so as to have it clean without washing it. Truss it, leaving the head on, to show its quality. Place it in a moderately hot oven for at least three-quarters of an hour; serve it hot, in its own gravy, on a large chafing-dish. Currant jelly should be on the table.
THESE are prepared like canvas-back ducks, except the heads are taken off, also the toes, but not the feet. They are sometimes skinned, which is hardly advisable. To free the fowls from a “fishy” taste, first parboil them, with a carrot placed inside them, which absorbs the “sedgy” taste; throw it away, and lay the duck in cold water for a time. Wild fowls should not be stuffed. Flour them well, baste plentifully with butter and roast briskly three-quarters of an hour. Serve with currant jelly.
A WIDGEON is a water-fowl of the duck persuasion, as is also the teal, although smaller than the common duck. They are dressed precisely like the duck, only less time in cooking is required for the widgeon, and still less for the teal.
PLUCK, singe, draw and truss them; roast about twenty minutes; baste them well with butter, and when the gravy begins to run from them they are done. Put them on dishes, three in each dish, with some bread-crumbs fried a nice brown and arranged in small heaps. The gravy should be served in a tureen separately. Orange sauce is a nice accompaniment. If these birds have a bitter taste when cooked; do not eat them. It is produced by their feeding on laurel berries in winter, when their food is scarce. Laurel berries are poisonous, and people have died from eating birds that have fed on them.
TAKE a pair of cold partridges that have been roasted or broiled; cut them into quarters and dip them into beaten and seasoned yolks of eggs; put some butter into the frying-pan, and when the fat becomes very hot drop the birds into it, and cook them over a moderately hot fire until nicely browned.
SPLIT them down the back; wash and wipe them inside and out with a soft towel; dip them into melted butter, then roll them in breadcrumbs; repeat this; lay them, inside down, upon a well-heated gridiron, turning them once; season with a little salt and cayenne; when done serve them with piquante sauce.
CUT them up, after preparing properly; slice an onion, pull it in rings and put into the stew-pan with a piece of butter rolled in flour and a tablespoonful of water, one of wine and another of vinegar; boil once, and then put in the partridge; simmer very gently till done. Garnish with slices of toast, and pour the gravy over them.
CLEAN and wash them well, cut off the heads and truss like boiled fowls; then put them into boiling water; boil them quickly for fifteen minutes. Make a rich sauce by adding an ounce of butter to half a pint of thick cream; put in a little salt; stir one way over the fire till hot, and pour it into a dish with the partridges. Serve immediately.
CLEAN them nicely, and season with mace, allspice, white pepper and salt in fine powder; rub every part well, then lay them breast downward in a pan, and pack the birds as close as you possibly can; put a good deal of butter on them, then cover the pan with a coarse flour paste and a paper cover. Tie it close, and bake in a slow oven for seven or eight hours. Remove the paste, take the bones from the partridges and beat them to a proper consistency; put the beaten paste into pots and pour butter over.
PREPARE and truss them as for boiling; pound in a mortar the livers of the birds, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon and some shred parsley; lay part of this forcemeat at the bottom of a raised crust, put in the birds, add the remainder of the forcemeat and a few mushrooms; put some slices of fat bacon on the top, cover with a lid of crust, and bake it two hours and a half. Before serving the pie remove the lid, take out the bacon and add sufficient rich gravy and orange juice.
WOODCOCKS should not be drawn, as the trail (the intestines) is considered the most delicious part of the bird; truss their legs close to the body, and run an iron skewer through each thigh close to the body, and put them on a small bird-spit feet downward; place them to roast at a slow fire; cut as many slices of bread as you have birds, toast or fry them a delicate brown, and lay them in the dripping-pan under the birds to catch the trail; baste them with butter and froth them with flour; lay the toast on a hot dish and the birds on the toast; pour some good beef gravy into the dish, and. send some up in a boat; twenty or thirty minutes will roast them. Garnish with slices of lemon.
Snipes differ little from woodcocks, unless in size; they are to be dressed in the same way, but require about five minutes less time to roast.
A good broth may be made of the trimmings and parings of the birds used, by stewing them with some vegetables and proper seasoning.
THESE are considered the most delicate of the small birds. When cleaned and prepared for roasting, brush them with the yolk of an egg, and roll in bread-crumbs; spit them on a small bird-spit, and tie that on a larger spit; ten or fifteen minutes at a quick fire will cook them; baste them with fresh butter, and sprinkle them with breadcrumbs till they are quite covered, while roasting. Sauce, grated bread fried in butter, which set to drain before the fire that it may harden. Serve the crumbs under the larks when you dish them, and garnish them with slices of lemon.
THIS is a nice mode of serving the remains of roasted game, but when a superlative salmi is desired, the birds must be scarcely more than half roasted for it. In either case, carve them very neatly, and strip every particle of skin and fat from the legs, wings and breasts; bruise the bodies well, and put them with the skin and other trimmings into a very clean stew-pan. If for a simple and inexpensive dinner, merely add to them two or three sliced onions, a bay-leaf, a small blade of mace and a few peppercorns; then pour in a pint or more of good veal gravy, or strong broth, and boil it briskly until reduced nearly half; strain the gravy, pressing the bones well, to obtain all the flavor; skim off the fat, add a little cayenne and lemon juice, heat the game very gradually in it, but do not on any account allow it to boil; place pieces of fried bread round a dish, arrange the birds in good form in the centre, give the sauce a boil, and pour it on them.