Common Sense in the Household 27

Common Sense in the Household 27

HASHED VENISON. ✠

 

The remains of cold roast venison—especially a stuffed shoulder—may

be used for this dish, and will give great satisfaction to cook and

consumers. Slice the meat from the bones. Put these with the fat and

other scraps in a saucepan, with a large teacupful of cold water, a

small onion—one of the button kind, minced, parsley and thyme, pepper

and salt, and three or four whole cloves. Stew for an hour. Strain and

return to the saucepan, with whatever gravy was left from the roast,

a tablespoonful currant jelly, one of tomato or mushroom catsup, a

teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, and a little browned flour. Boil for

three minutes; lay in the venison, cut into slices about an inch long,

and let all heat over the fire for eight minutes, but do not allow the

hash to boil. Stir frequently, and when it is smoking hot, turn into a

deep-covered dish.

 

 

ROAST FAWN.

 

Clean, wash thoroughly; stuff with a good force-meat made of

bread-crumbs, chopped pork, pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg,

the juice of a lemon. Moisten with water and cream, bind with beaten

egg and melted butter. Sew up the fawn, turning the legs under, and

binding close to the body. Cover with thin slices of fat pork, bound

on with pack-thread, crossing in every direction, and roast at a quick

fire. Allow twenty-two minutes to a pound. Twenty minutes before it is

dished, remove the pork, and set down the fawn to brown, basting with

melted butter. At the last, dredge with flour, let this brown, froth

with butter, and serve.

 

Garnish with abundance of curled parsley, dotted with drops of red

currant jelly. A kid can be roasted in the same way—also hares and

rabbits.

 

 

VENISON PASTY. ✠

 

This is a name dear to the heart of the Englishman since the days when

Friar Tuck feasted the disguised Cœur de Lion upon it in the depths of

Sherwood Forest, until the present generation. In this country it is

comparatively little known; but I recommend it to those who have never

yet been able to make venison “tolerably eatable.”

 

Almost any part of the deer can be used for the purpose, but the neck

and shoulders are generally preferred.

 

Cut the raw venison from the bones, and set aside these, with the

skin, fat, and refuse bits, for gravy. Put them into a saucepan with

a shallot, pepper, salt, nutmeg and sweet herbs, cover well with cold

water, and set on to boil. Meanwhile, cut the better and fairer pieces

of meat into squares an inch long, and cook in another saucepan until

three-quarters done. Line a deep dish with good puff-paste. That for

the lid should be made after the receipt appended to this. Put in the

squares of venison, season with pepper, salt, and butter, and put in

half a cupful of the liquor in which the meat was stewed, to keep it

from burning at the bottom. Cover with a lid of the prepared pastry an

inch thick. Cut a round hole in the middle, and if you have not a small

tin cylinder that will fit this, make one of buttered paper; stiff

writing-paper is best. The hole should be large enough to admit your

thumb. Bake steadily, covering the top with a sheet of clean paper so

soon as it is firm, to prevent it from browning too fast. While it is

cooking prepare the gravy. When all the substance has been extracted

from the bones, etc., strain the liquor back into the saucepan; let it

come to a boil, and when you have skimmed carefully, add a glass of

Port wine, a tablespoonful of butter, the juice of a lemon, and some

browned flour to thicken. Boil up once, remove the plug from the hole

in the pastry, and pour in through a small funnel, or a paper horn, as

much gravy as the pie will hold. Do this very quickly; brush the crust

over with beaten egg and put back in the oven until it is a delicate

brown, or rather, a golden russet. The pie should only be drawn to

the door of the oven for these operations, and everything should be

in readiness before it is taken out, that the crust may be light and

flaky. If you have more gravy than you need for the dish, serve in a

tureen.

 

 

CRUST OF PASTY.

 

1½ lb. of flour.

12 oz. butter.

Yolks of 3 eggs.

Salt.

Ice-water.

 

Dry and sift the flour and cut up half the butter in it with a knife

or chopper until the whole is fine and yellow; salt, and work up with

ice-water, lastly adding the yolks beaten very light. Work out rapidly,

handling as little as possible, roll out three times _very_ thin,

basting with butter, then into a lid nearly an inch thick, reserving

a thinner one for ornaments. Having covered in your pie, cut from the

second sheet with a cake-cutter, leaves, flowers, stars, or any figures

you like to adorn the top of your crust. Bake the handsomest one upon a

tin plate by itself, and brush it over with egg when you glaze the pie.

After the pasty is baked, cover the hole in the centre with this.

 

If these directions be closely followed the pasty will be delicious.

Bake two or three hours, guiding yourself by the size of the pie. It is

good hot or cold.

 

 

VENISON HAMS.

 

These are eaten raw, and will not keep so long as other smoked meats.

 

Mix together in equal proportions, salt and brown sugar, and rub them

hard into the hams with your hand. Pack them in a cask, sprinkling

dry salt between them, and let them lie eight days, rubbing them over

every day with dry salt and sugar. Next mix equal parts of fine salt,

molasses, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre to every two hams. Take the

hams out of the pickle, go over them with a brush dipped in cider

vinegar, then in the new mixture. Empty the cask, wash it out with cold

water, and repack the hams, dripping from the sticky bath, scattering

fine salt over each. Let them lie eight days longer in this. Wash off

the pickle first with tepid water, until the salt crystals are removed;

then sponge with vinegar, powder them with bran while wet, and smoke a

fortnight, or, if large, three weeks. Wrap in brown paper that has no

unpleasant odor, stitch a muslin cover over this, and whitewash, unless

you mean to use at once. Chip or shave for the table.

 

 

VENISON SAUSAGES.

 

5 lbs. lean venison.

2 lbs. fat salt pork.

5 teaspoonfuls powdered sage.

4 teaspoonfuls salt.

4 teaspoonfuls black pepper.

2 teaspoonfuls cayenne.

1 small onion.

Juice of one lemon.

 

Chop the meat very small, season, and pack in skins or small stone

jars. Hang the skins, and set the jars, tied down with bladders, in a

cool, dry place.

 

Fry as you do other sausages.

 

 

 

RABBITS OR HARES.

 

The tame rabbit is rarely if ever eaten. The wild hare of the South—in

vulgar parlance, “old hare,” although the creature may be but a day

old—exactly corresponds with the rabbit of the Northern fields, and

when fat and tender may be made into a variety of excellent dishes.

 

Hares are unfit for eating in the early spring. There is thus much

significance in “Mad as a March hare.” The real English hare is a much

larger animal than that which is known in this country by this name. To

speak correctly, all our “old field hares” are wild rabbits.

 

 

ROAST RABBIT.

 

Clean, wash, and soak in water slightly salted for an hour and a half,

changing it once during this time. It is best to make your butcher

or hired man skin it before you undertake to handle it. Afterward,

the task is easy enough. Parboil the heart and liver, chop fine,

and mix with a slice of fat pork, also minced. Make a force-meat of

bread-crumbs, well seasoned, and working in the minced meat. Stuff the

body with this, and sew it up. Rub with butter and roast, basting with

butter and water until the gravy flows freely, then with the dripping.

It should be done in an hour. Dredge with flour a few minutes before

taking it up, then froth with butter. Lay in a hot dish, add to the

gravy a little lemon-juice, a young onion minced, a tablespoonful of

butter, and thicken with browned flour. Give it a boil up, and serve in

a tureen or boat.

 

Garnish the rabbit with sliced lemon, and put a dot of currant jelly in

the centre of each slice. Cut off the head before sending to table.

 

 

RABBITS STEWED WITH ONIONS.

 

Clean a pair of nice rabbits; soak in cold salt and water for an hour,

to draw out the blood; put on in a large saucepan with cold water

enough to cover them, salt slightly, and stew until tender. Slice into

another pot half a dozen young onions, and boil in a very little water

until thoroughly done. Drain off the water, and stir the onions into

a gill of drawn butter, pepper to taste, and when it simmers, add the

juice of a lemon. Cut off the heads of the hares, lay in a hot dish and

pour over them the onion-sauce. Let the dish stand in a warm place,

closely covered, five minutes before sending to table.

 

 

FRICASSEED RABBIT. (_White._) ✠

 

Clean two young rabbits, cut into joints, and soak in salt and water an

hour. Put into a saucepan with a pint of cold water, a bunch of sweet

herbs, an onion finely minced, a pinch of mace, one of nutmeg, pepper,

and half a pound of fat salt pork, cut into slips. Cover, and stew

until tender. Take out the rabbits and set in a dish where they will

keep warm. Add to the gravy a cup of cream (or milk), two well-beaten

eggs stirred in a little at a time, and a tablespoonful of butter. Boil

up once—when you have thickened with flour wet in cold milk—and take

the saucepan from the fire. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, stirring

all the while, and pour over the rabbits. Do not cook the head or neck.

 

 

FRICASSEED RABBIT. (_Brown._)

 

Cut off the head—joint, and lay in soak for an hour. Season the pieces

with pepper and salt, dredge with flour, and fry in butter or nice

dripping until brown. Take from the fat, lay in a saucepan, and cover

with broth made of bits of veal or lamb. Add a minced onion, a great

spoonful of walnut catsup, a bunch of sweet herbs, a pinch of cloves

and one of allspice, half a teaspoonful of cayenne. Cover closely, and

simmer for half an hour. Lay the pieces of hare in order upon a hot

dish and cover to keep warm. Strain the gravy, return to the saucepan, thicken with browned flour, put in a tablespoonful of butter, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, pour over the rabbits, and send to table.