Chapter 2

Boil eight eggs hard; shell them, and cut a thin slice off the bottom of each, cut each into four lengthwise. Make a very thin flat border of butter about one inch from the edge of the dish the salad is to be served on, fix the pieces of egg upright close to each other, the yolk outside, or alternately the white and yolk, lay in the centre a layer of fresh salad, and, having cut a freshly roasted young grouse into eight or ten pieces, prepare a sauce as follows: Put a spoonful of eschalots finely chopped in a basin, one ditto of castor sugar, the yolk of one egg, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, tarragon, and chervil, and a little salt. Mix in by degrees four spoonfuls of oil and two of white vinegar. When well mixed put it on ice, and when ready to serve up whip a gill of cream, which lightly mix with it. Then lay the inferior parts of the grouse on the salad, sauce over so as to cover each piece, then lay over the salad and the remainder of the grouse, sauce over, and serve. The eggs can be ornamented with a little dot of radish or beetroot on the point. Anchovy and gherkin, cut into small diamonds, may be placed between.

Grouse in Aspic.

Roast a brace of grouse, and skin them, and mask them with brown sauce in which aspic has been mixed. Cut some pistachio kernels into pretty shapes and ornament the birds. Take a large square tin mould (a baking tin will do), pour in a layer of pale aspic, and when it is all but cold place the grouse on it breast downward, one turned one way and one the other, then gradually fill it up with the aspic, and put on ice. Turn out and decorate the base with chopped aspic, truffles, parsley, and tomatoes.

Croustades of Grouse à la Diable.

Cut some fillets of grouse into cutlet shapes, also some slices of fried bread; sprinkle the latter with grated Parmesan cheese. Put the fillets of grouse on the cheesed bread. Mask them with a purée of tomatoes and a tiny dust of cayenne, then add a little more grated Parmesan, a little parsley, some breadcrumbs, and little pieces of butter. Salamander over and serve hot.

Grouse à l'Ecossaise.

Take a brace of grouse; put three ounces of good dripping or butter inside each, but not in the crop. Put them down to roast, and baste till cooked. Have a slice of toast in the pan under them just before they are cooked. Parboil the liver, pound with butter, salt, and cayenne, and spread it on the toast.

Grouse à la Financière.

Take a brace of grouse; boil the livers for a few minutes, and pound them in a mortar with three ounces of butter, a little salt, pepper, a grate of nutmeg, one tablespoonful of breadcrumbs, and three or four mushrooms. Stuff the grouse with this, truss and roast them, and baste plentifully. Take some sauce espagnole, add a few mushrooms and a dust of cayenne. Let all boil up together and serve with the grouse.

Friantine of Grouse.

Cut with two cutters, one larger than the other, twelve thin flat pieces of pastry, put on the centre of the largest a tablespoonful of quenelle meat and spread it out; in the centre of this put a tablespoonful of the breast of a grouse, cut up with two ounces of lean ham. Mix well and put it into a stewpan with three-quarters of a pint of white cream sauce. Warm up and let it get cold. Cover this with the smaller sized pieces of pastry, having wetted the inside of each with yolk of egg to make them adhere to the lowest pastry, press down tightly with the smallest cutters, and cut the bottom pastry to the size of the smaller cutter. Egg and breadcrumb. Arrange them in a frying basket and fry in boiling lard a nice brown. Serve garnished with fried parsley.

Grouse Kromesquis.

Take the remains of cold grouse and mince it very fine. Mix with it a couple of tablespoonfuls of grated ham or tongue. Divide into small sausage shapes, dip each in batter, fry a pale golden colour and serve very hot, garnished with crisped parsley.

Grouse Marinaded.

German Recipe.

Hang the birds as long as possible, then pluck and draw them and wipe their insides with a soft cloth. Mince an onion; take about a dozen peppercorns, twenty juniper berries, three bayleaves, and put these into a gill of vinegar. Let the grouse soak in this for three days, turning them two or three times daily, and pouring the marinade over them. Stuff the birds with turkey forcemeat and lard the breasts. Place them in front of a clear fire, baste constantly, and serve with slices of lemon round the dish.

Grouse au Naturel.

Grouse should be wiped inside, but never washed. Have a brisk fire, and when the bird is trussed, place it before a brisk fire, and before it is taken down the breast should be basted with a little butter, and frothed and browned before it is sent up. A good sized grouse requires nearly three-quarters of an hour to cook it. Serve fried breadcrumbs and bread sauce with grouse.

Grouse Pie.

Take two or three grouse, cut off the wings and legs, and tuck the drumsticks in through a slit in the thigh; singe the birds; split them in halves; season them with pepper and salt. Place some pieces of very tender beefsteak at the bottom of a pie dish, add chopped mushrooms, parsley, shalot, and two teaspoonfuls of chutnee sauce, and sprinkle over the steak. Place the halves of the grouse neatly on the top; add a little more seasoning; moisten with sufficient gravy made from the necks, legs, and wings. Cover with puff paste, and bake for about an hour and a half.

Pressed Grouse.

Boil a brace of grouse till very tender; season, and then take away all the meat and pull it out very fine, removing all skin. Add to the liquor in which they were boiled a tablespoonful of gelatine for each three pounds of grouse, and keep stirring it in the boiling liquor till it is quite dissolved; place the grouse in a deep tin basin, and pour the liquor over it whilst hot; stir it well, so that the meat may become thoroughly saturated with the liquor, then turn a plate over it, put on a heavy weight, let it get cold, and turn out. It may be made ornamental by boiling eggs hard, halving them, and putting the flat side on the basin or mould in which the grouse has to be pressed.

Grouse Salad.

Cut up a brace of cold grouse, and let them marinade in two tablespoonfuls of salad oil and the juice of a lemon, with a little salt and pepper, and let them remain in this for three hours. Pound the yolk of a hard-boiled egg very smooth, and mix it well with the yolk of a raw egg, a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, a dust of cayenne, and half a teaspoonful of finely-chopped onion, pouring in gradually drop by drop some fine salad oil; stir constantly, and, as it thickens, add a little tarragon vinegar, then add more oil and vinegar till there is enough sauce. Put some shred lettuce on a dish, place some marinaded grouse on it, pour the dressing over, and garnish with fillets of anchovies, slices of hard-boiled eggs, and sprigs of chervil. Chop up some savoury jelly, and place round it like a wreath.

Scallops of Grouse à la Financière.

Take a brace of grouse, remove the skin, take off all the flesh, and scrape the flesh into very fine shreds. Chop up all the bones and necks, and put them into a saucepan with an onion, five sprigs of thyme, three of parsley, and a small carrot; cover with water, and let it boil slowly for three hours, skimming when it boils. Make a mixture of about half a pint of stock and two ounces of butter, and let boil. When the stock boils take 3-1/4 ounces of fine Vienna flour, and stir it well over the fire for about three minutes; then add the yolks of three eggs, stirring over the fire again. Take it then from the saucepan, and place it on a plate to get cool; then pound the shredded grouse till quite fine, using a gill of cream; now pass it through a fine sieve. Take a plain round mould, holding a pint and a half, butter it, and ornament with truffles cut in devices. Cut up three or four mushrooms, and mix in with the grouse panada, and fill the mould. Place buttered paper over it, and let it steam for half an hour; then turn out and let it get cold, and when cold cut it into a number of scallops of the same size. Egg and breadcrumb them, dip them in clarified butter, and fry a pale gold colour, and serve on a border of mashed potatoes. Make a sauce as follows:--Boil one glass of Marsala in half a pint of brown sauce for five minutes; place in the centre of them some mushrooms, truffles, and cockscombs, and pour sauce over these, but do not put the sauce over the scallops.

Grouse Soufflé.

Take the breasts of two grouse already cooked, pound them in a mortar with two ounces of fresh butter and a very small piece of onion. Pass them through a sieve, add four eggs, beat the whites to a stiff froth, season with a little salt and dust of cayenne. Place it in a soufflé dish, and bake it in a quick oven.

Timbale of Grouse à la Vitellius.

Simmer a slice of tongue in a stewpan till nearly cooked. Cut it up into fine dice, and put it back into the saucepan with four truffles, four tomatoes, and an ounce of butter; add a little cornflour to thicken it. Moisten with half a pint of stock and a gill of claret. Reduce this, skim off all the fat; then add some finely-minced grouse, a sprig of parsley, and six anchovies which have been soaked in milk. Warm these over a slow fire, but do not let them boil; when done, pour into a fancy mould lined with light puff paste. Bake, turn out, and serve very hot, garnished with crisped parsley.

To Cook Hare.

The great object in cooking a hare is to keep it as moist as possible, and therefore the hare must not be put too close to the fire in the first stage of roasting. Prepare a stuffing of quarter of a pound of beef suet, chopped finely, two ounces of uncooked ham, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and two teaspoonfuls of dried mixed savoury herbs; add to this a quarter of the rind of a lemon, chopped very fine, a dust of cayenne pepper, salt, five ounces of breadcrumbs, and two whole eggs. Pound this in the mortar. The liver may be minced and pounded in with these ingredients if fresh. Place the stuffing in the hare, and place at a distance from the fire; have plenty of dripping melted in the dripping pan, and basting should go on and be continued from the very first. Then as the hare is getting on, baste with good milk, and then baste well with butter; put the hare near the fire so as to froth the butter, and at the same time dredge the hare with some flour, so as to get a good brown colour, and serve good rich gravy _round_ it with half a glass of port wine in a tureen, and currant jelly should be handed with it.

Hare Cutlets à la Chef.

Take a freshly-killed hare, save the blood, paunch and skin it. Roast it, then cut off the fillets and cut them aslant and flatten them. Put the bones of the hare into a saucepan with two onions sliced, one good-sized carrot, a tiny piece of garlic, two cloves, and a bouquet garni, and one bayleaf. Moisten with a glass of white wine, and let all this steep and stew for an hour; then pass through a sieve, add a quarter of a boiled Spanish onion, and thicken with the blood of the hare. Make some hare stuffing, and moisten with some of the sauce, and make it into cutlets. To form cutlets similar to the fillet cutlets, place them in a frying-pan, and let them poach in water. Place the hare fillets and the stuffing cutlets in the pan and fry to a good colour in clarified butter. Put a small piece of the small bones of the hare in every cutlet and dish them in a crown. Fill the centre with a mixture of small onions, mushrooms, and small pieces of bacon, cut into dice which have been stewed in some of the sauce. Hand red currant jelly with this dish.

Hare en Daube.

French Recipe.

The hare must not be too high; cut it into pieces as for jugged hare. Rub into a stewpan a bit of bacon cut into squares; put the hare into it, together with thyme, bayleaf, spices, salt, pepper, and as much garlic as will go on the point of a knife. Add a little bacon rind blanched and cut into the shape of lozenges. When the whole has a uniform colour, moisten with a good glass of white wine, put on a close lid, and stew for four hours upon hot cinders. When ready to be served, pour away the lard, the spice, and the fat, and add a little essence of ham, and send to table hot.

Hare Derrynane Fashion.

Take three or four eggs, a pint of new milk, a couple of handfuls of flour, three yolks. Make them into a batter, and when the hare is roasting baste it well, repeating the operation till the batter thickens and forms a coating all over the hare. This should be allowed to brown but not to burn.

Filet de Lièvre à la Muette.

Cut a hare into fillets and stew them with a mince of chickens' livers, truffles, shalots in a rich brown gravy with a tumblerful of champagne in it.

Gâteaux de Lièvre.

Mince the best parts of a hare with a little mutton suet. Season the mince highly with herbs and good stock. Pound it in a mortar with some red currant jelly and make up into small cakes with raw eggs. Flour and fry them and dish them in a pyramid.

Hare à la Matanzas.

Paunch, skin, and clean a hare marinaded in vinegar for a couple of days with four onions sliced, three shalots, a couple of sprigs of parsley, pepper and salt. After two days take the hare out and drain it. Farce it with a stuffing made of the flesh of a chicken, three whole eggs, the liver, and a slice of bacon, all finely chopped, mixed and seasoned with pepper, salt, and a bouquet garni. Now put the hare in a stewpan with slices of bacon all over it, some sliced carrots, two onions stuck with cloves, and half a pint of consommé. Put some live coals on the lid of the saucepan and let it cook for three hours.

Hare à la Mode.

Skin the hare and cut it up in into joints and lard with fine fillets of bacon; place in an earthenware pot, with some slices of salt pork, chopped bacon, salt, mixed spice, a piece of butter, and half a pint of port wine; lay two or three sheets of buttered paper over it; fix on the lid tightly and simmer over a slow fire. When nearly done, stir in the blood, boil up and serve.

Jugged Hare.

Have a wide-mouthed stone jar, and put into it some good brown gravy free from fat. Next cut up the hare into neat joints; fry these joints in a little butter to brown them a little. Have the jar made hot by placing it in the oven, and have a cloth ready to tie over its mouth. Put the joints already browned into the jar, and let it stand for fifteen minutes on the dresser. After this has stood some time untie the jar and add the gravy, with a dust of cinnamon, six cloves, two bayleaves, and the juice of half a lemon. The gravy should have onion made in it, and should be thickened with a little arrowroot. A wineglassful of port should be added, and a good spoonful of red currant jelly should be dissolved in it. Next place the jar up to its neck in a large saucepan of boiling water, only taking care the jar is well tied down. Let it remain in the boiling water from an hour to an hour and a half. Stuffing balls, made with the same as the stuffing for roast hare, rolled into small balls the size of marbles and thrown into boiling fat, should be served with it.

To Roast Landrail.

This bird should be trussed like a snipe, and roasted quickly at a brisk but not a fierce fire for about fifteen or sixteen minutes. It should be dished on fried breadcrumbs, and gravy served in a tureen.

Croustade of Larks.

Bone two dozen larks, season, and put into each a piece of pâté de foie gras (truffled). Roll the larks up into a ball, put them in a pudding basin, season them with salt and pepper, and pour three ounces of clarified butter over them, and bake in a hot oven for a quarter of an hour. Dish them in a fried bread croustade, made by cutting the crust from a stale loaf about eight inches long, which must be scooped out in the centre and fried in hot lard or butter till it is a good brown. Drain it, and then place it in the centre of a dish, sticking it there with a little white of egg. Put it into the oven to get hot; then put the larks into it, and let it get cold. Garnish with truffles and aspic jelly.

Larks à la Macédoine.

Take a dozen larks, fill them with forcemeat made of livers, a little veal and fat bacon, a dessertspoonful of sweet herbs; pepper and salt to taste, and pound all well together in a mortar, and then stuff the birds with it. Lay the larks into a deep dish, pour over them a pint of good gravy, and bake in a moderate oven for a quarter of an hour. Have a pyramid of mashed potatoes ready, and arrange the larks round it, and garnish with a macédoine of mixed vegetables.

Lark Pie.

Pluck, singe, and flatten the backs of two dozen larks, pound the trail and livers in a mortar with scraped bacon and a little thyme, stuff the larks with this, and wrap each in a slice of fat bacon. Line a plain mould with paste, fill it with the larks, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, spread butter all over them, and add two small bayleaves; cover with paste, and bake for two hours and a quarter. Can be eaten hot or cold. It must be turned out of the mould.

Salmi of Larks à la Macédoine, cold.

Take a dozen larks, bone and stuff them with pâté de foie gras, and make them as nearly as possible of the same size and shape. Make half a pint of brown sauce, adding a glass of sherry, a little mushroom ketchup, and an ounce of glaze; boil together, and reduce one half, adding a couple of spoonfuls of tomato juice; pass through a sieve, and, when nearly cold, add a gill of melted aspic. Mask the larks, and place them in a sauté pan, and cook them; take them out and remove neatly any surplus sauce, and dish them in the entrée dish in a circle. Take the contents of a tin of macédoine of vegetables boiled tender in a quart of water, add a dust of salt, a saltspoonful of sugar, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut; strain off, and, when cold, toss them in two tablespoonfuls of liquid aspic jelly. This macédoine should be piled up high and served in the centre. Garnish with chopped aspic round the larks, and sippets of aspic beyond this.

Lark Puffs.

Make some puff paste, and take half a dozen larks, and brown them in a stewpan with a little butter; then take them out and drain them, and put into the body of each bird a small lump of fresh butter, a little piece of truffle, pepper and salt, and a tablespoonful of thick cream. Truss each lark, and wrap it in a slice of fat bacon; cover it with puff paste rolled out to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, and shape it neatly; put the puffs in a buttered tin, and bake in a brisk oven for ten minutes.

Leveret à la Minute.

Skin, draw, and cut a leveret into joints; toss in a saucepan with butter, salt, pepper, and a bouquet garni. When nearly cooked, add some chopped mushrooms, eschalots, parsley, a tablespoonful of flour, a gill of stock, and a gill of claret; as soon as it boils, pour into a dish and serve.

Leveret à la Noël.

Take a leveret, cut off the fillets and toss them in the oven in a sauté-pan in butter; when cold, slice these fillets in shreds as for Julienne vegetables. Shred likewise some truffles, mushrooms, and tongue, and bind these together with two tablespoonfuls of good stock, in which a glass of port has been put, two cloves, the peel of a Seville orange, and a few mushrooms; thicken with butter and flour and tammy. Make some game forcemeat with the legs, and with it line some little moulds; fill up the empty space with the shredded game and vegetables and then cover with a layer of forcemeat. Poach these moulds in a deep sauté-pan, and when done dish them up round a ragoût composed of truffles, mushrooms, quenelles, and cockscombs. Sauce the entrée with gravy made from the bones and thickened. This entrée may be served cold, when it should be mixed with aspic, and garnished with it also.

Salmi of Moor Fowl or Wild Duck.

Carve the birds very neatly, and strip every particle of skin and fat from the legs, wings, and breasts, braise the bodies well and put them with the skin and other trimmings into a very clean stewpan. Add two or three sliced shalots, a bayleaf, a small blade of mace and a few peppercorns, then pour in a pint of good veal gravy, and boil briskly till reduced nearly half, strain the gravy, pressing the bones well, skim off the fat, add a dust of cayenne and squeeze in a few drops of lemon; heat the game very gradually in it, but it must not be allowed to boil. Place sippets of fried bread round the dish, arrange the birds in a pyramid, give the same a boil and pour over. A couple of wineglasses of port or claret should be mixed with the gravy.

Ortolans in Cases.

Bone as many ortolans as are required, have ready about three rashers of bacon chopped fine, which must be put into a sauté-pan with two shalots, one bayleaf, a bouquet garni, half a teaspoonful of black pepper and salt to taste. These must be fried till coloured; then add half a pound of calf's liver, cut small, and fried till brown; next place them in a mortar and pound them well, add the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and some truffle cuttings, pound again, and pass through a sieve; stuff the ortolans with this forcemeat, roll them up, and place them in a well-oiled paper case, and then bake in a quick oven. Pour over each case before serving a gravy made from the bones and trimmings of the birds, half a pint of rich gravy and a glass of claret, which should be reduced one half: send to table as hot as possible.

Ortolans à la Périgourdine.

Cover the ortolans with slices of bacon, and cook them in a bain-marie moistened with stock and lemon juice. Take as many truffles as there are ortolans, scoop out the centres and boil them in champagne (Saumur will do). When done, pour a little purée of game into each truffle, add the ortolans, warm for a few seconds in the oven, and serve.

Ortolans aux Truffes.

Take as many even large-sized truffles as ortolans; make a large round hole in the middle of each truffle, and put in it a little chicken forcemeat. Cut off the heads, necks, and feet of the birds, season with salt and pepper, and lay each bird on its back in one of the truffles. Arrange them in a stewpan, lay thin slices of bacon over them, pour over them some good stock, into which a gill of Madeira has been poured, and then simmer them very gently for twenty-five minutes. Dish the ortolans on toast, and strain the gravy over them.

Partridges à la Barbarie.

Truss the birds, and stuff them with chopped truffles and rasped bacon, seasoned with salt and pepper and a tiny dust of cayenne. Cut small pieces of truffles in the shape of nails; make holes with a penknife in the breasts of the birds; widen the holes with a skewer, and fill them with the truffles; let this decoration be very regular. Put them into a stewpan with slices of bacon round them, and good gravy poured in enough to cover the birds. When they have been stewed for twenty minutes glaze them; dish them up with a Financière sauce (see 'Entrées à la Mode').

Partridge Blancmanger aux Truffes.