Chapter 4

Take a well-hung cock pheasant and truss it for roasting. Farce it with a stuffing made of two woodcocks' flesh and internals (or snipes') finely minced with two ounces of fresh butter, some salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne, a bouquet garni finely powdered, and as many chopped truffles as will be required to fill the pheasant. Truss the bird and roast, basting it well with fresh butter. Whilst roasting, lay in the pan a round of toast, upon which a little of the stuffing has been spread, and serve the bird on it. Bread sauce and brown gravy should be handed round with it.

Salmi of Pheasant.

Half roast a pheasant, and when it is nearly cold cut it into neat joints, removing the skin. Put the bones and trimmings into a saucepan with an ounce of fresh butter, a bayleaf, and a bouquet garni, and stir these over a slow fire till lightly brown, then pour over half a pint of Espagnole sauce and a glassful of claret. Let all simmer for a quarter of an hour. Strain the gravy, skim it carefully, add a pinch of cayenne and the juice of half a lemon, then put it back into the saucepan with the pieces of game. Heat these up slowly. When cooked, dish up and pour the hot sauce over them and garnish with fried sippets. A little orange juice and a lump of sugar is an improvement to the sauce.

Pheasant Stewed with Cabbage.

Truss a pheasant for boiling. Divide a large cabbage into quarters, soak them after cutting off the stalks, plunge them into boiling water and boil for about ten minutes. Take them out, drain them and press all the water from them, then put them into the stewpan. Lay the pheasant well in the cabbage, add six ounces of good bacon, half a pound of Bologna sausage, three pork sausages, some parsley, a bayleaf, a bouquet garni, one carrot, an onion stuck with four cloves, a shalot, and some pepper. Pour in as much stock as will cover the whole, and cover the pan closely and bring to a boil and let it simmer slowly for an hour. Then take out the bird and the meat and keep them warm whilst the cabbage is drained, peppered, and salted, and steamed over fire till dry. Then place it on a dish, arrange the pheasant on it and all the other adjuncts round it. Serve poivrade sauce in a tureen.

Pheasant Stuffed with Oysters.

Truss a pheasant for roasting and fill it with forcemeat made of two dozen oysters pounded in the mortar, with a tablespoonful of brown breadcrumbs, half an ounce of fresh butter, a dessertspoonful of lemon juice, a boned anchovy, and a little cayenne. Mix these ingredients thoroughly and bind them with the yolk of an egg. Cover the bird with thin slices of fat bacon tied on securely, and roast before a clear fire. When done, dish up with clear gravy, and hand bread sauce in a tureen with it.

Pheasant Stuffed with Tomatoes.

Truss a pheasant for roasting, and fill it with a forcemeat made of six tomatoes pounded in the mortar, with a tablespoonful of breadcrumbs, a shalot, a mushroom, half a clove of garlic, a teaspoonful of parsley, and half an ounce of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Bind together with the yolk of an egg. Cover the bird with slices of bacon and roast before a clear fire. Mushroom or tomato sauce may be served in a tureen with it. Partridge and grouse are also very delicious stuffed in this way.

Pheasant en Surprise.

Take a pheasant, remove the skin from the breast and take away all the meat, removing any gristle there may be, and place it in a mortar. Have ready half a pint of good cream, and begin by pouring half the quantity over the pheasant and pound together for a few minutes, then rub it through a clean wire sieve. When passed, put it back into the mortar, add the remainder of the cream gradually into the fowl, stirring it round so that they blend together perfectly. Fill a mould with this mixture and twist a bit of buttered paper round the top; then fold a sheet of paper several times and place it in a stewpan, put about half a pint of boiling water into the stewpan, or more according to size of it, and let all simmer gently for twenty minutes. Add a little salt and a dust of cayenne pepper. Turn this out and mix with it half a pint of white aspic jelly. Have ready some very clear aspic jelly, and colour it red. Take a pretty shaped jelly mould, pour in a little of the red aspic to about rather more than a quarter of the mould. When this is cool, put in the pheasant and aspic mixture, and place on ice for four hours; when properly frozen, turn out, and garnish the top with a wreath of fresh chervil leaves. Serve chopped aspic in little mounds round the base alternately with mounds of mayonnaise salad or tomatoes.

Pheasant à la Suisse.

Take the remains of a cold pheasant, cut it into neat joints. Salt and pepper these highly, and strew over it finely chopped onion and parsley. Cover them with oil, and squeeze over them the juice of a lemon. Turn the pieces every now and then, and let them remain till they have imbibed the flavour, then dip the pieces in a batter made of four ounces of flour, with as much milk added as will make a thick batter. Stir into it half a wineglassful of brandy and an egg, the white and yolk beaten to a froth. This batter should rest for an hour in a warm place before using. Fry the pieces of chicken in the batter, and send it up piled on a dish garnished with fried parsley.

Pheasant à la Tregothran.

Bone a pheasant and stuff it with the meat from four woodcocks or six snipe, cut it up, and chop up some truffles and make it into forcemeat. Fry the trail of the woodcock or snipe in a little butter, and place on little rounds of fried bread and arrange round the dish. Stew the bones of the woodcocks or snipe to make the gravy, reduce it, and add a glass of Marsala to the broth and serve in a boat.

Pheasant à la Victoria.

Take a quarter of a pound of bacon, cut it up in pieces (frying the bacon first), add a small clove of garlic, a small shalot, a bayleaf, half a carrot, half a turnip, half a dozen stewing oysters, and salt and pepper to taste. Stew over the fire, and when cooked pound it all together with a few more oysters and pass through a wire sieve. Stuff a pheasant with this, and place it in a stewpan with carrots and turnips; let all stew till tender, well basting it with its own stock. Serve with rich Espagnole sauce or oyster sauce on a croustade of potato.

Pigeons à la Duchesse.

Split a couple of pigeons in halves, remove the breast bones and beat them flat, sauté them with two ounces of butter, pepper and salt. Press them flat between two plates with a weight on them, and when the pigeons are cold spread the quenelle meat over the cut side of the birds; then egg and breadcrumb them and fry in fat. Dish in a circle with brown sauce round and a macédoine of vegetables in the centre.

Pigeons à la Financière.

Take four pigeons, truss and braise them in stock, then glaze them, dish them up against a block of fried bread. Pour round half a pint of Financière sauce, and garnish with small quenelles of forcemeat, truffles, mushrooms, and cockscombs in the centre.

Pigeons à la Merveilleuse.

Blanch a brace of pigeons, and beat the backs so as to spread out the breasts, boil them in equal quantities of stock and Chablis, season with salt and pepper, a sprig of parsley, two shalots, and two cloves; when cooked, take them out of the stewpan, and cook some mushrooms, twelve shelled crayfish, and a little flour in the sauce of the pigeons, boil for half an hour, reduce and thicken the sauce with yolks of egg and cream, season with finely chopped parsley and pour over the pigeons, and serve garnished with the heads of the crayfish.

Ballotines of Pigeon à la Moderne.

Take four boned pigeons, cut them lengthways in two, and make a farce of half a pound of pork sausage meat, half a spoonful of chopped truffles, the same of mushrooms, a few pieces of tongue cut into dice shapes, a bouquet garni, pepper and salt, and one yolk of an egg, all well mixed together. Then divide it into eight equal parts, and fill the halves of the pigeons with it; make them into round balls, cutting off the feet. Tie each piece of pigeon in a little bit of calico, and braise them till nicely tender. Then let them cool, tie them up tightly, and let them get quite cold; place one of the feet in each ballotine, and arrange them on a sauté-pan. Take off the calico, make them hot and glaze them, and serve with mushrooms and peas, and with a rich brown sauce over them.

Pigeons en Poqueton.

Put some pâté de foie gras forcemeat, or any other forcemeat, into a small stewpan, and spread it all over at the bottom and sides, rubbing the stewpan first with butter. Put in a couple of pigeons trussed for roasting, some sweetbreads and tongue cut into neat pieces, and some button mushrooms; arrange all these tastily in the pan, place some more forcemeat on the top, cover it over with slices of bacon, and bake it in a gentle oven. Before closing it, pour some good gravy inside. The pigeons should be seasoned with pepper and salt, and just rubbed with garlic. When it is cooked, take it from the oven, and turn it carefully out into its dish, and pour a very rich sauce over it.

Pigeon en Ragoût de Crevettes.

Prepare a couple of pigeons, cut them in half, and put them in a stewpan with a glass of Sauterne, half a pint of stock, a sprig of parsley, two cloves, pepper, salt, and a shalot; simmer till cooked, strain the gravy. Now put an ounce of butter with a dozen button mushrooms and two or three dozen skinned prawns into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of flour and the gravy the pigeons were stewed in; simmer this for half an hour, then thicken it with a gill of cream and two yolks of eggs, add some finely chopped parsley and a grate of nutmeg. Dish up the pigeons with the mushrooms and prawns in the centre.

Pigeons au Soleil.

Take a couple of roasted pigeons and put them into a marinade of an ounce of butter, four shalots, an onion, and a carrot cut up into dice, a little parsley, a bayleaf, a little thyme, and a clove; put them into a stewpan and fry till they are of a light brown, then moisten with a little vinegar and water. When they have simmered for half an hour in the marinade let them cool, drain, and put them into a batter made of four spoonfuls of flour, a little salt, a little olive oil, and moisten with a sufficient quantity of water and two beaten whites of eggs; then fry them a good colour, and serve up with fried parsley in the middle, with a poivrade or piquant sauce around.

Pigeons à la Soussell.

Bone four pigeons, and make a forcemeat of some fillet of veal, some ham fat, some grated breadcrumbs, mushrooms, truffles, a shalot, a bouquet garni, a little cayenne, pepper and salt, mixed with butter cooked over the fire and then pounded in a mortar; put some of this forcemeat into the pigeons and stew them gently for half an hour. Take the pigeons out and mask them well with more of the forcemeat, brush some beaten egg over each, and put them in the fryingpan and fry them in good dripping. Take the gravy they were stewed in, skim off all fat, thicken well with a liaison of cream and eggs, season with a little pepper and salt, and mix all together. Make a mound of spinach purée in the centre of the dish, and place the pigeons around, standing up against the purée. Take some very small boiled tomatoes, of a good shape, make a wreath round the base, place a few button mushrooms on the top of the spinach, and pour the sauce all round.

Grey Plovers Cooked in Brandy.

After trussing the plovers, flatten them and warm them in a stewpan with a little melted bacon fat, a bouquet garni, two onions, three mushrooms, and two or three truffles (the latter may be left out). As soon as they begin to colour, add half a pint of brandy and toss over a quick fire till the brandy is in flames; as soon as the flames go out, moisten with gravy and simmer over a slow fire. When the birds are done, skim off all grease, add the juice of a lemon, and serve hot.

Golden Plover.

Trim, truss, leaving the inside in, cover with fat bacon, and roast or bake for twenty minutes. Put a piece of well-buttered toast one-third of an inch thick to catch the trails. Dress grey plovers exactly the same.

Golden Plover aux Champignons.

Take three golden plover, chop up the trails with parsley, shalots, salt, pepper, and scraped bacon, and stuff the plover with it; cover the breasts with slices of bacon and roast. When done, serve on stewed mushrooms.

Fried Plover with English Truffles.

Truss three plover for roasting, lay them breast downwards in a stewpan with plenty of butter, enough to entirely cover the breasts. Put in nine or ten well-washed raw truffles pared very thin and cut into slices about the size of a florin. Add a bayleaf, pepper and salt. Stir over a brisk fire for ten minutes, then pour in a pint of stock mixed with a spoonful of flour and a glass of sherry. Simmer by side of fire for twenty minutes, skimming carefully. Dish up the birds, and then boil the sauce till it is thick and smooth, add the strained juice of a lemon, a lump of sugar, and a few drops of some XL colouring, and pour over the birds.

Stuffed Pullet.

Bone the pullet, stuff with forcemeat made with minced veal, egg, ham, onions, foie gras, and mushrooms. First warm the veal, onion, and ham in melted butter, then add the mushrooms and foie gras, moisten with stock and boil. Stir in two yolks of eggs and a teaspoonful of lemon juice before taking off the fire, season with a little salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. After stuffing the fowl with this mixture, sew it up, turn the skin of the neck half over the head and cut off part of the comb, which will give it the appearance of a turtle's head. Blanch and singe four chickens' feet, cut off the claws and stick two where the wings ought to be and two in the thighs, so as to look like turtle's feet. Stew the pullet with a little ham, onions, and carrots, tossed previously in butter, moisten with stock, skim occasionally. When done, cut the string where it is sewn, lay it on its back in a dish, garnish the breast with sliced truffles cut in fancy shapes, and place a crayfish tail to represent the turtle's tail.

Velouté sauce may be handed with this dish, or it may be eaten cold and garnished with aspic.

Quails à la Beaconsfield.

Put, having trussed, six quails in a stewpan wrapped in slices of bacon. Moisten with two spoonfuls of stock, a bouquet garni, two bayleaves and a clove, pepper and salt to taste. Stew them for twenty minutes over a very slow fire. Drain them well, make a purée of peas in which a tablespoonful of aspic jelly has been mixed. Mask each quail with the purée, dish them in a crown shape with little rolls of bacon in front of each, have a few truffles or mushrooms cooked and placed in the centre, and pour over the quails a rich brown sauce.

Quails en Caisse.

Bone six quails and halve them, take the bones and trimmings and stew them in some stock with two carrots, one onion, one shalot, a bayleaf, a small piece of lean ham, a small piece of parsley, pepper and salt. This must be reduced, and then strained. Make a forcemeat of the quails' livers, a small piece of calf's liver, and half their quantity of bacon. Put these into a sauté-pan with a couple of shalots and an ounce of butter, and toss them over the fire for five minutes, then pass this mixture through a sieve. Have the paper cases ready oiled, and place at the bottom a layer of this farce, having already stuffed the half quails with it. The stuffed half quails, rolled, must now be put into the cases with a thin slice of very fat bacon over them. They must now be baked in the oven for about twelve minutes. Remove the bacon, and pour over the gravy, which must be thickened with flour rolled in butter. Strew a little very nicely minced parsley over each case.

Compôte of Quails.

Take six quails, cut the claws off, and truss them with the legs inside. Cut eight pieces of bacon rolled up like corks, blanch them to draw out any salt, and fry them till they are of a light brown; take them out and put in the quails, which must be stewed till they begin to be of a light brown, then remove them. Make a thickening with flour and butter, and put it into a good gill of veal stock; add a bouquet garni, some small onions and mushrooms. Skim the sauce well, and strain it over the quails, then dish the bacon, mushrooms, and small onions, and send up hot.

Quails and Green Peas.

Cook the quails in a stewpan with a slice of veal and a slice of ham, carrots, onions, and a bouquet garni; cover with rashers of bacon and buttered paper; place hot coals on the lid, and, when done, dish up the quails with green peas in the centre which have been cooked in butter.

Boudins of Rabbit à la Reine.

Cut the meat from a young very fine rabbit, which put into some reduced Béchamel sauce. When cold, roll it into large boudins the shape of sausages, egg and breadcrumb, and fry. Serve under them velouté sauce.

Boiled Rabbit à la Maintenon.

Cut a young rabbit into neat joints, and put them in a stewpan with enough white stock just to cover them; add a bouquet garni, a stick of celery, a shalot, an onion, a few peppercorns, a carrot, and six mushrooms. Let all simmer slowly for half an hour, or it might be a little longer, then take them up and drain them; then cut as many pieces of white foolscap paper as there are pieces of rabbit, butter them, sprinkle the pieces of rabbit, and lay on each a little piece of fat bacon, then roll them in the paper and broil over a fire till the bacon has had time to cook. Serve in the papers. Thicken the gravy in the usual way, and serve it in a tureen.

Galantine of Rabbit.

Take a couple of young rabbits, bone, and lay them on a linen cloth; lay over them a good meat stuffing seasoned to taste, putting over this stuffing, which should be laid on about the thickness of a crown, first a layer of ham cut in slices, and then a layer of hard eggs. Cover these layers with a little forcemeat, roll up the meat, taking care not to displace the layers, and cover it with thin slices of fat bacon, wrapping the whole in a cloth; wind some packthread round it and let it boil three hours in stock, adding salt and coarse pepper, some roots and onions, a large bunch of parsley, shalots, a clove of garlic, cloves, thyme, bayleaves, and basil. Allow this to cool, take off the cloth, and serve cold.

Gibelotte de Lapin.

Cut a rabbit into pieces. Sauté it in two ounces of butter, add an onion, two shalots, and a pint of poivrade sauce; put it in the oven for one hour, being careful not to burn it. Small pieces of cauliflower and croûtons of fried bread should garnish this dish.

Fillets of Rabbit with Cucumber Sauce.

Cut two cucumbers into thin slices and soak them in vinegar, with pepper, salt, and a bayleaf, for two hours, then half roast the rabbit, take the skin off, and fillet it. Make a sauce of white stock, and put the pieces of rabbit into it with the cucumber until it is quite done. Arrange the pieces of rabbit in a circle, put the cucumber in the middle, and pour the sauce over the fillets. Fried sippets should garnish this dish.

Fricandeau of Rabbit.

Take the fleshy portion of a good-sized rabbit, lard the flesh and lay it in a deep baking dish, cover it with some highly flavoured stock. Place a piece of buttered paper over the dish, and bake in a moderate oven till it is tender, basting it frequently. Lift the rabbit out and keep it hot whilst the gravy is boiling to thicken. Spread a teacupful of good tomato sauce on a hot dish, lay the rabbit on it, hold a salamander over the larding to crisp it, and pour the gravy over all.

Rabbit Fritters.

Cut the meat from a cold rabbit into small pieces, put them in a pie-dish and sprinkle over them parsley, chives, thyme, and a clove of garlic, all chopped very fine, salt, pepper, and a bayleaf; pour over all a glass of Chablis and the juice of a lemon. Let the pieces of rabbit soak in this for two hours, then take them out, dredge them well over with flour, and throw them into boiling fat till of a nice golden colour. Remove and drain them, pile them high in an entrée dish, and pour round the following sauce. Take the liquor the rabbit has been soaked in, add half a pint of stock and a little thickening of flour and butter, and let it boil well. Then strain through a sieve, put in a tablespoonful of piccalilli chopped fine, or some chutnee, give another boil, and serve.

Rabbit Klösse.

Take a cold dressed rabbit, mince all the meat, mix in with it an equal quantity of bread soaked in milk squeezed dry. Cut two slices of bacon into small squares, and fry slowly. Add the minced meat and stir in two eggs, and let it cook a few minutes. Turn it out on a dish to cool, and add one more egg. Form it into balls the size of an egg, then drop them into boiling water, and boil until set. Lift them out very tenderly, pile them up in a pyramid on a dish, and garnish them with fried potatoes. Send a sharp sauce to table with them.

Rabbits en Papillote.

Mince up some parsley, mushrooms, shalot, a clove of garlic, a slice of bacon, with salt and pepper to taste. Mix this in a little gravy on the fire to form a paste. Cut a rabbit into neat fillets and joints. Cover each with the paste, then wrap a thin slice of fat bacon and fix each piece neatly in an oiled paper. Cook them slowly in the oven, and serve in papers.

Rabbit Pie à la Provençale.

Take two small rabbits, cut them into joints, and lay them in a saucepan with two carrots, two onions, a clove of garlic, a bunch of herbs, and a pound of pickled pork (the belly). Boil in a very little water for half an hour, take out the rabbits and drain them, also drain the pork and place it at the bottom of a well-buttered pie-dish, and then lay the pieces of rabbit on it. Pour on a wine-glassful of Sauterne or vin de Grave, and strew over it some Spanish pimento. Pour in some good batter, and bake in a quick oven for half an hour. Reduce the liquor in which it was cooked and add the strained juice of a lemon. The sauce should be handed with it.

Rabbit Pilau.

Cut up a young rabbit into ten or twelve pieces. Rub each piece into a savoury pudding made as follows. Extract the juice of two onions, mix a teaspoonful of salt with it, half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, and the juice of a lemon. Boil half a pound of rice in a quart of broth till it is half cooked. Have ready four ounces of good dripping, and fry the pieces of rabbit in it, with two sliced onions. When they are brown remove them. Place the meat into a deep jar. Lay the onions on it and cover with the rice, add four cloves, eight peppercorns, some salt, and a little lemon peel cut very thinly, and pour half a pint of milk over; place some folds of paper over the jar and bake in the oven, adding a little broth when the rabbit is half cooked. When done, pile the rice on a dish, and lay the pieces of rabbit on the top and serve very quickly.

Rabbit Pudding.

Cut a rabbit into ten or twelve pieces, put these into a stewpan with a little pepper and salt, pour on as much boiling water as will cover them, and let them simmer for half an hour. Take them up and put in their place the head and liver of rabbit with some bacon rind and simmer for an hour, strain and skim it, and let it get cool. Line a pie-dish with suet crust, and then put in the pieces of rabbit with four ounces of fat bacon cut into narrow strips, pour in a cupful of the cool gravy, lay on the cover, and boil in the usual way. N.B.--The brains may be mixed in with the liver.

Rabbit à la Tartare.