Common Sense in the Household 29

Common Sense in the Household 29

Bake three hours if your pie be large, covering with paper if it

threaten to brown too fast.

 

 

QUAIL PIE.

 

Clean, truss, and stuff the birds. Loosen the joints with a penknife,

but do not separate them. Parboil them for ten minutes, while you

prepare a puff-paste. Line a deep dish with this; put in the bottom

some shreds of salt pork or ham; next, a layer of hard-boiled eggs,

buttered and peppered; then the birds, sprinkled with pepper and

minced parsley. Squeeze some lemon-juice upon them, and lay upon the

breasts pieces of butter rolled in flour. Cover with slices of egg,

then with shred ham; pour in some of the gravy in which the quails were

parboiled, and put on the lid, leaving a hole in the middle. Bake over

an hour.

 

 

WILD PIGEONS. (_Stewed._) ✠

 

Clean and wash very carefully, then lay in salt and water for an hour.

Rinse the inside with soda and water, shaking it well about in the

cavity; wash out with fair water and stuff with a force-meat made of

bread-crumbs and chopped salt pork, seasoned with pepper. Sew up the

birds, and put on to stew in enough cold water to cover them, and allow

to each a fair slice of fat bacon cut into narrow strips. Season with

pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Boil slowly in a covered saucepan until

tender; take from the gravy and lay in a covered dish to keep warm.

Strain the gravy, add the juice of a lemon and a tablespoonful of

currant jelly, thickening with browned flour. Boil up and pour over the

pigeons.

 

 

WILD-PIGEON PIE. ✠

 

This is made precisely as is quail pie, except that the pigeons are cut

into four pieces each, and not stuffed. Parboil and lay in the dish in

alternate layers with the bacon and boiled eggs. Make the gravy richer

than for the quails, by the addition of a good lump of butter, rolled

in flour, stirred in and boiled up to thicken before you put it on the

fire. Wild pigeons are usually tougher and leaner than the tame.

 

 

 

WILD DUCKS.

 

Nearly all wild ducks are liable to have a fishy flavor, and when

handled by inexperienced cooks, are sometimes uneatable from this

cause. Before roasting them, guard against this by parboiling them

with a small carrot, peeled, put within each. This will absorb the

unpleasant taste. An onion will have the same effect; but, unless you

mean to use onion in the stuffing, the carrot is preferable. In my own

kitchen I usually put in the onion, considering a suspicion of garlic a

desideratum in roast duck, whether wild or tame.

 

 

ROAST DUCK. (_Wild._)

 

Parboil as above directed; throw away the carrot or onion, lay in fresh

water half an hour; stuff with bread-crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt,

sage, and onion, and roast until brown and tender, basting for half

the time with butter and water, then with the drippings. Add to the

gravy, when you have taken up the ducks, a tablespoonful of currant

jelly, and a pinch of cayenne. Thicken with browned flour and serve in

a tureen.

 

 

WILD DUCKS. (_Stewed._) ✠

 

Parboil ten minutes, when you have drawn them, and put in a raw carrot

or onion. Lay in very cold water half an hour. Cut into joints, pepper,

salt, and flour them. Have ready some butter in a frying-pan, and fry

them a light brown. Put them in a saucepan and cover with gravy made of

the giblets, necks, and some bits of lean veal. Add a minced shallot,

a bunch of sweet herbs, salt, and pepper. Cover closely and stew half

an hour, or until tender. Take out the duck, strain the gravy when you

have skimmed it; put in a half-cup of cream or rich milk in which an

egg has been beaten, thicken with browned flour, add a tablespoonful of

wine and the juice of half a lemon, beaten in gradually not to curdle

the cream; boil up and pour over the ducks. This is about the best way

of cooking wild ducks.

 

 

 

WILD TURKEY.

 

This stately stalker of Southern forests and Western prairies is

eagerly sought after by the lovers of good eating in those regions.

The dark meat and game flavor proclaim his birthright of lordly

freedom as truly after he is slain and cooked, as did his lithe grace

of figure, lofty carriage, and bright eye while he trod his native

wilds. I have heard sportsmen declare that when they have inveigled

him up to a blind by imitating the call of his harem or younglings,

they have stood in covert, gun at shoulder and finger on the trigger,

spell-bound by pitying admiration of his beauty. But I have never seen

that sensibility curbed appetite while they told the story at the

table adorned by the royal bird; have noted, indeed, that their mouths

watered rather than their eyes, as he crumbled, like a dissolving view,

under the blade of the carver.

 

Draw and wash the inside very carefully, as with all game. Domestic

fowls are, or should be, kept up without eating for at least twelve

hours before they are killed; but we must shoot wild when we can

get the chance, and of course it often happens that their crops are

distended by a recent hearty meal of rank or green food. Wipe the

cavity with a dry soft cloth before you stuff. Have a rich force-meat,

bread-crumbs, some bits of fat pork, chopped fine, pepper, and salt.

Beat in an egg and a couple of tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Baste

with butter and water for the first hour, then three or four times with

the gravy; lastly, five or six times with melted butter. A generous and

able housekeeper told me once that she always allowed a pound of butter

for basting a large wild turkey. This was an extravagant quantity, but

the meat is drier than that of the domestic fowl, and not nearly so

fat. Dredge with flour at the last, froth with butter, and when he is

of a tempting brown, serve. Skim the gravy, add a little hot water,

pepper, thicken with the giblets chopped fine and browned flour, boil

up, and pour into a tureen. At the South the giblets are not put in the

gravy, but laid whole, one under each wing, when the turkey is dished.

Garnish with small fried sausages, not larger than a dollar, crisped

parsley between them.

 

Send around currant jelly and cranberry sauce with it.

 

 

 

SMALL BIRDS.

 

 

ROAST SNIPE OR PLOVERS.

 

Clean and truss, but do not stuff. Lay in rows in the dripping-pan, or

tie upon a spit, sprinkle with salt, and baste well with butter, then

with butter and water. When they begin to brown, which will be in about

ten minutes, cut as many rounds of bread (without crust) as there are

birds. Toast quickly, butter, and lay in the dripping-pan, a bird upon

each. When the birds are done, serve upon the toast, with the gravy

poured over it. The toast should lie under them while cooking at least

five minutes, during which time the birds should be basted with melted

butter seasoned with pepper.

 

The largest snipe will not require above twenty minutes to roast.

 

 

WOODCOCK.

 

This is the most delicious of small birds, and may be either roasted or

broiled.

 

 

_Roast._

 

The English do not draw woodcock, regarding the _trail_ as a _bonne

bouche_, and I have known American housekeepers who copied them in this

respect. In this case roast precisely as you would snipe or plover,

only putting the toast under the birds so soon as they begin to cook,

to catch the trail.

 

To my taste, a better, and certainly to common sense people a less

objectionable plan, is to fill the birds with a rich force-meat of

bread-crumbs, peppered and salted, shortened with melted butter. Sew

them up and roast, basting with butter and water, from twenty minutes

to half an hour. When half done, put circular slices of buttered toast

beneath, and serve upon these when you take them up.

 

 

_Broiled._

 

Split down the back, and broil over a clear fire. Butter, pepper,

and salt when done, and let them lie between two hot dishes for five

minutes before sending to table. Small snipe are nice broiled in this

way; also robins and doves.

 

 

SALMI OF WOODCOCK OR SNIPE.

 

Clean and half-roast the birds; cut in quarters, and put in a saucepan

with gravy made of the giblets, necks, and some bits of fat pork,

stewed in a little water. Add a minced button onion, salt, and a

pinch of cayenne, and stew fifteen minutes or until tender, closely

covered. Take out the birds, and pile neatly upon buttered toast in

a chafing-dish. Strain the gravy and return to the fire, adding some

small pieces of butter rolled in flour, the juice of a lemon and a

little wine. Boil up, and pour over the salmi.

 

 

ORTOLANS, REED-BIRDS, RAIL, AND SORA

 

may be roasted or broiled. A good way is to roll an oyster in melted

butter, then in bread-crumbs seasoned with pepper and salt, and put

into each bird before roasting. Baste with butter and water three

times, put the rounds of toast underneath, and baste freely with melted

butter. They will require about twenty minutes to cook, and will be

found delicious.

 

 

TO KEEP GAME FROM TAINTING.

 

Draw so soon as they come into your possession; rinse with soda and

water, then with pure cold water; wipe dry, and rub them lightly with

a mixture of fine salt and black pepper. If you must keep them some

time, put in the cavity of each fowl a piece of charcoal; hang them in

a cool, dark place, with a cloth thrown over them. Small birds, unless

there are too many of them, may be kept in a refrigerator after you

have drawn, washed, and wiped them. The charcoal is an admirable preventive of decomposition.