GAME AND POULTRY.
A SALMI.
Cut off the flesh from the bodies of a pair of cold pheasants, partridges or wild-ducks, or an equal quantity of small birds. Beat it in a mortar, moistening it frequently with a little broth or gravy. Then pass the whole through a cullender or sieve. Put it into a stew-pan with a piece of butter about the size of a walnut, rolled in flour; half a pint of port wine or claret; two whole onions, and a bunch of sweet-herbs. Let it boil half an hour, and then stir in two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, and the juice of a lemon.
In another pan stew the legs and wings of the birds, but do not let them boil. Stew them in butter rolled in flour, seasoned with pepper and salt. Cut some slices of bread into triangular pieces, and fry them in butter. Lay them in the bottom of a dish, put the legs and wings upon them, and then the other part of the stew. Garnish the edge with slices of lemon, handsomely notched with a knife.
If the Salmi is made of partridges, use oranges instead of lemons for the juice and garnishing.
COLD SALMI.
This is prepared on the table. Take the liver of a roast goose, turkey, or ducks. Put some of the gravy on a plate, cut up the liver in it, and bruise it with the back of a spoon or a silver fork. Add three tea-spoonfuls of olive oil, the juice of a lemon, and cayenne pepper and salt to your taste. Mix it well. When the bird is cut up, eat with it some of this sauce.
RAGOOED LIVERS.
Take the livers of half a dozen fowls or other poultry, a dozen mushrooms, a bunch of sweet herbs, a clove of garlic or a small onion, a table-spoonful of butter rolled in flour. Add a glass of white wine, and sufficient warm water to keep the ingredients moist. Season it with salt and pepper. Stew all together, and skim it well. Before you send it to table, stir in the yolks of two or three beaten eggs, and two spoonfuls of cream.
A FINE HASH.
Take any cold game or poultry that you have. You may mix several kinds together. Some sausages, of the best sort, will be an improvement. Chop all together, and mix with it bread crumbs, chopped onions and parsley, and the yolks of two or three hard-boiled eggs. Put it into a sauce-pan with a proportionate piece of butter rolled in flour. Moisten it with broth, gravy, or warm water, and let it stew gently for half an hour.
Cold veal or fresh pork may be hashed in the same manner.
MARINADE OF FOWLS.
Take a pair of fowls, skin and cut them up. Wash them in lukewarm water. Drain them, and put them into a stew-pan with some butter. Season them to your taste with salt, pepper, and lemon-juice. Add parsley, onions, and a laurel leaf. Moisten them with warm water, and let them stew slowly on hot coals for two or three hours. Clear them from the seasoning and drain them. Then lay them in a dish, and grate bread crumbs over them. Whip some white of egg to a stiff froth, and cover with it all the pieces of fowl.
FRICASSEE OF FOWLS.
Skin and cut up your fowls, and soak them two hours in cold water, to make them white. Drain them. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, and a table-spoonful of flour. Stir them together till the butter has melted. Add salt, pepper, a grated nutmeg, and a bunch of sweet-herbs. Pour in half a pint of cream. Put in the fowls, and let them stew three quarters of an hour. Before you send them to table, stir in the yolks of three beaten eggs, and the juice of half a lemon.
The Fricassee will be greatly improved by some mushrooms stewed with the fowl.
To keep the fricassee white, cover it (while stewing) with a sheet of buttered paper laid over the fowls. The lid of the stew-pan must be kept on tightly.
FOWLS WITH TARRAGON.
Pick two handfuls of tarragon (the leaves from the stalks) and chop half of it fine with the livers of the fowls. Mix it with butter, salt, and whole pepper. Stuff your fowls with it. Lard them and wrap them in papers buttered or oiled.
Melt some butter rolled in flour, and stir into it the rest of the tarragon. Moisten it with a little water or milk. Stir in the yolks of two beaten eggs, and the juice of half a lemon. Serve it up as gravy. Strew over the fowls some sprigs of fresh tarragon.
A STEWED FOWL.
Take a large fowl, and put it into a stew-pan with two ounces or more of butter, some thin slices of cold ham, a little parsley and onion chopped fine, and some nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Then pour in half a tumbler of white wine. You may add, if you choose, six table-spoonfuls of boiled rice, which you must afterwards serve up under the fowl and ham. Let it stew slowly for two hours, with just sufficient water to keep it from burning.
Before you send it to table, go all over the fowl with a feather or brush dipped in yolk of egg. You may add to the stew a dozen small onions, to be laid round the fowl with the slices of ham.
CHICKENS IN JELLY.
Cold chickens, pigeons, and game, look very handsome in jelly. To make this jelly, take four calves-feet (with the skin on) and boil them to a strong jelly with an ounce of isinglass and three quarts of water, carefully skimming off the fat. The calves-feet must be boiled the day before the jelly is wanted, and when it is cold scrape off all the sediment that adheres to it. Then boil the jelly with the addition of the whites and shells of six eggs, the juice of three lemons, three or four sticks of cinnamon, half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a pint of Malaga or other sweet wine. Let it boil hard for five or six minutes, but do not stir it. Strain it several times through a flannel bag into a deep white pan, but do not on any consideration squeeze or press the bag, as that will entirely spoil the transparency of the jelly. After it has done dripping through the bag, take out all the ingredients (as they are now of no farther use) and wash the bag clean. Then pour the jelly into it again, and let it strain. Repeat this till it is perfectly clear and bright; washing the bag every time. Sometimes (but not often) it will be clear at the first straining.
Put a little of the jelly into the bottom of a deep dish or bowl, and set it in a cold place. When it has congealed and is firm, lay your chickens on it with the breasts downwards. Having kept the remainder of the jelly warm, to prevent its congealing too soon, pour it over the fowls. Let it stand all night or till it is perfectly firm. Then set your dish or bowl in warm water for a moment, to loosen the jelly. Lay over it the dish in which you intend to serve it up, and turn it out carefully. If you fear that you will not be able to turn it out without breaking the jelly, you may prepare it at the beginning in a deep china dish fit to send to table.
If you put too much water to the calves-feet, the jelly will never be firm, till it is boiled over again with more isinglass. The generality of cooks are in the habit of putting too much water to every thing, and should be cautioned accordingly.
PULLED CHICKENS.
Boil a pair of fowls till they are about half done. Then skin them, and pull the flesh from the bones in pieces about a finger in breadth and half a finger in length. Take a few table-spoonfuls of the liquor they were boiled in, and mix it with half a pint of boiling cream. Put it into a stew-pan with a piece of butter rolled in flour; pepper, salt, and nutmeg; a little chopped parsley; and a table-spoonful of white wine. Put in the pieces of chicken, and stew them slowly till quite done.
STEWED TURKEY, OR TURKEY EN DAUBE.
Take a large turkey; lard it and stuff it as for roasting. Then cover it all over with a seasoning made of salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sweet-herbs, parsley and onions, minced fine. Put it into a stew-pan, with some slices of bacon, one or two calves-feet, some onions and carrots, one or two laurel leaves, a few cloves, a beaten nutmeg, salt, pepper, and, if you choose, a clove of garlic. Pour in a pint of water, and a pint of white wine or brandy.
Put on the cover of the stew-pan, and lay round its edge on the outside a wet cloth, which must be kept wet. Stew it slowly for five or six hours or more, and turn the turkey when about half done. When it is finished, withdraw the fire, and skim and strain the gravy. Serve up the turkey with the gravy under it.
A goose done this way is very fine.
A round of beef may be stewed in the same manner. It will be the better for lying all night in the seasoning, and it should be put in to stew early in the morning.
ROASTED TURKEY.
Rub the turkey all over with salt. Then lard it. You may stuff it with sausage-meat; or with chestnuts previously boiled, peeled, and mashed. Or, you may make a force-meat stuffing of the liver, heart, and gizzard, chopped fine, and mixed with chopped parsley, onions, sweet-herbs, grated bread, butter, lemon-juice, grated lemon-peel, and the yolk of one or two eggs.
A turkey of moderate size will require at least two hours to roast. Thicken the gravy with yolk of egg stirred in just before you send it to table.
A cold roast turkey should be larded and served up with large spoonfuls of stiff currant jelly dropped all over it.
You may roast a goose in the same manner.
POTTED GOOSE.
Take several fine geese; rub them with salt, and put into each a handful of sage leaves. Roast them about an hour. Do not baste them, but save all the fat in the dripping-pan, emptying it as it is filled. When you have taken the geese from the spit, cut off the legs and wings, and cut the flesh from the breast in slices. Set them away to get cold.
Put the fat that has dripped from the geese into a kettle, with about half as much lard as there is of the dripping. Boil it ten minutes. Have ready a tall stone jar, or more than one if necessary. Lay two legs of the geese side by side in the bottom, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper; placing, if you choose, a laurel leaf on each. Then put in two wings, and season them also. Next a layer of the slices cut from the breast, seasoned in the same manner. When the pots are almost full of the goose, fill them up to the top with the boiling fat, and set them away till the next day to get cold. The upper layer must be covered at least an inch thick with the fat.
Tie up the pots with covers of parchment wet with brandy, and keep them in a cold but not in a damp place.
In France great numbers of geese are fattened for this purpose.
DUCKS WITH TURNIPS.
Stew some turnips with butter, salt, and a little sugar. When soft, take them out and drain them. Cut up your ducks, season them, and put them into the same pan that has held the turnips. Stew the ducks with a piece of butter rolled in flour, a little water, and a bunch of sweet-herbs tied up. When the ducks are nearly done, put the turnips in again, and let all stew slowly together for ten minutes, skimming it well. Withdraw the sweet-herbs before you send the dish to table.
A DUCK WITH OLIVES.
Having larded your duck, stew it whole, with butter, pepper, salt, and a little water. Take half a pint of olives, cut them in half and take out the seeds or stones. When the duck is nearly done, throw in the olives, and let all stew together about five minutes or more. Serve up the duck with the olives round it.
A DUCK WITH PEAS.
Stew the duck whole, with some lard and a little salt, till about half done. Then take it out and drain it. Put into the stew-pan a large piece of butter rolled in flour. When it has melted, pour in a quart of shelled green peas, and add a bunch of mint, or other sweet herbs, and some pepper and salt. Then put in the duck, adding a little warm water. Let it stew slowly till quite done, skimming it well.
TURKEY PUDDINGS.
Mince thirty small onions and mix them with an equal quantity of bread crumbs that have been soaked in milk. Chop an equal quantity of the flesh of cold turkey. Mix all together, and pound it very well in a mortar. Pass it through a cullender, and then return it to the mortar and beat it again, adding gradually the yolks of six hard eggs, and a pint of cream or half a pound of butter. Season it to your taste with salt, mace and nutmeg.
Have ready some skins, nicely cleaned as for sausages. Fill the skins with the mixture, and tie up the ends. Then simmer your puddings, but do not let them boil. Take them out, drain them, and put them away to get cold.
When you wish to cook them for immediate use prick them with a fork, wrap them in buttered paper, and broil them on a gridiron.
Similar puddings may be made of cold fowls.
BAKED PIGEONS, OR PIGEONS À LA CRAPAUDINE.
Split the pigeons down the back. Take out the livers, which you must mince with bacon and sweet-herbs, adding to them the livers of fowls or other birds, if you have them, and bacon in proportion. Or you may substitute sausage-meat. Add bread-crumbs soaked in milk, and the yolks of two eggs or more, with salt, pepper, mace and nutmeg to your taste. Mix all together, and stuff your pigeons with it, and then glaze them all over with beaten white of egg. Place them in a buttered pan, and set them in the oven. Bake them half an hour. Before you serve them up, squeeze some lemon-juice into the gravy.
BROILED PIGEONS.
Split your pigeons and flatten them. Make a seasoning of sweet oil, salt, pepper, chopped shalots, and chopped parsley. Rub this seasoning all over the pigeons. Then cover them with grated bread crumbs. Wrap each in a sheet of white paper, and broil them on a slow fire. Serve them up with a sauce made of minced onions, butter rolled in flour, lemon-juice or vinegar, and salt and pepper.
PIGEONS PEAR-FASHION. (Pigeons au Poire.)
First, bone your pigeons. To do this, take a sharp knife, and slipping it under the flesh carefully loosen it from the bone, and do not tear the skin. Begin at the upper part of the bird, just above the wings, scrape gradually down, and finish at the legs. Then take hold of the neck, and draw out the whole skeleton at once. Make a good force-meat or stuffing (as directed for baked pigeons), and fill them with it, making them each into the shape of a large pear. Fasten them with skewers. Glaze them all over with yolk of egg, and then roll them in grated bread-crumbs. Stick in the top of each, the lower end of the leg, to look like the stem of a pear. Lay them in a buttered dish (but not so close as to touch each other) and bake them. Make a good gravy, thickened with the yolk of an egg, and some butter rolled in flour.
PIGEONS WITH PEAS.
Take two or four pigeons (according to their size), and truss them with the feet inwards. Put them into a stew-pan with a piece of butter rolled in flour, and two or three slices of cold ham, or bacon, and a little water. Let them stew gently till brown. Then add a quart of green peas, and a bunch of mint, with another piece of butter, and a little warm water or milk. Let them stew slowly, and when they are quite done, stir in some more butter. Serve up the pigeons with the peas under them.
ROASTED PARTRIDGES.
Lard the partridges, and put in the inside of each a laurel leaf, and an orange cut in pieces. If you omit the laurel leaf, do not peel the orange, but put in the pieces with the rind on them. These must be taken out before the partridges are sent to table. Be careful not to roast them too much.
PARTRIDGES WITH CABBAGE.
Having trussed the partridges, put them into a stew-pan with a large piece of butter rolled in flour; a quarter of a pound of bacon or ham cut into dice; a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water. Put into another stew-pan a fine Savoy cabbage, with a pint of the dripping of beef or pork. Let it stew slowly till nearly done. Then take out the cabbage and drain it, and put it into the stew-pan to cook with the partridges for half an hour. Lay the cabbage under the partridges when you send them to table.
A PARTRIDGE PIE.
Take three pair of large partridges and truss them as you do fowls. Rub them all over with a mixture of pepper, salt, powdered mace and powdered nutmeg. Take a pound of fat bacon and two pounds of lean veal, and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter. Add a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a few shalots or small onions, all minced fine. Stew them till the meat seems to be quite done, and then put it into a cullender to drain. Afterwards put the meat into a mortar, season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg and mace, and pound it to a smooth paste; moistening it at times with some of the liquor in which it was stewed.
Prepare a rich paste, and spread a sheet of it over the bottom of a large and deep buttered dish. Put in the partridges, side by side, pour in a little water, add a piece of butter, and cover them with the pounded meat. Lay on the top a few slices of cold ham. Roll out a thick piece of paste for the lid, and cover the pie with it; cutting the edges into square notches, and folding over the half of each notch. Ornament the lid with leaves and flowers made of paste. Bake it three hours, and see that the oven is not so hot as to scorch it. When done, glaze it all over with white of egg.
This pie will be greatly improved by the addition of some truffles. If you cannot procure truffles, mushrooms cut in pieces may be substituted.
ROASTED PHEASANTS.
Make a stuffing of fresh raw oysters, chopped, and seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and mace. Mix with it some sweet oil, some yolk of egg, and fill the pheasants with this stuffing. Cover the pheasants with thin slices of bacon or cold ham; wrap them in buttered sheets of white paper, and roast them. Serve them up with oyster sauce.
BROILED QUAILS.
Split the quails down the back, and flatten them. Put them into a stew-pan with sweet-oil, salt, pepper, and a leaf or two of laurel. Cover them with thin slices of bacon or ham, and let them stew slowly on hot coals. When nearly done, take them out, strew over them grated breadcrumbs, and broil them on a gridiron.
Put into the stew-pan a little warm water, and scrape down whatever adheres to the sides; skim it, and let it come to a boil. Pour this gravy into the dish in which you serve up the quails, and lay the bacon round it.
ROASTED PLOVERS.
Scald and pick your plovers, but do not draw them. Lard them, and lay slices of toasted bread in the dripping-pan to receive what falls from the birds while roasting. Serve them up with the toast under them.
Woodcocks and snipes are roasted in the same manner.
