Part 16

A very handsome way of serving it up cold is, after making a sufficiency of nice clear calves'-foot jelly, (seasoned, as usual, with wine, lemon, cinnamon, &c.,) to lay the turkey in the dish in which it is to go to table, and setting it under the jelly-bag, let the jelly drip upon it, so as to form a transparent coating all over it; smoothing the jelly evenly with the back of a spoon, as it congeals on the turkey. Apple jelly may be substituted.

Large fowls may be boned and stuffed in the above manner: also, a young roasting pig.

ROAST GOOSE.--A goose for roasting should be young, tender, and fat; so tender, that the skin can easily be torn by a pin; the bill and legs smooth and of a light yellow color, and the toes breaking when bent under. If the skin is thick and tough, and the bill and legs a dark reddish yellow, rough and hairy, do not buy the goose. It is old, and no cooking can make it eatable. A goose, from its profusion of feathers, looks like a large bird when walking about; but when plucked and prepared for the spit, it will be found very deceptive. It is much more hollow than a turkey; and, except the breast, there is but little eating on it. In large families it is usual to have a pair of roast geese, one not being sufficient. Geese are not good except for roasting, or in a pie.

In preparing a goose for cooking, save the giblets for the gravy. After the goose has been drawn, singed well, washed and wiped, inside and out; trussed so as to look round and short; make a quantity of stuffing, (as its hollow body will require a great deal.) For this purpose, parboil two good sized onions, and a large bunch of green sage. Mince both the sage and onions, seasoning them with a small salt-spoon of salt, half as much black pepper, and still less cayenne. Add a hard-boiled egg finely minced (yolk and white;) the chopped egg giving a nice smoothness to the sage and onion. If your goose is large, take two chopped eggs.

To make the stuffing very mild, (if preferred so,) add a handful of finely grated bread-crumbs; or two or three fine juicy chopped apples. Fill the body and craw with this stuffing, and secure it with a needle and thread from falling out. Set the goose before a clear, steady fire--having a little warm water in the dripping-pan to baste it till the gravy begins to fall. Keep it well basted all the time it is roasting. It must be thoroughly done all through. Roast it according to its size, from an hour and a half to two hours or more.

Boil the giblets in a sauce-pan by themselves, seasoned with a little salt and pepper, and having among them a bit of butter dredged with flour. When done, remove the neck, and retain the heart, liver, and gizzard, cut into pieces, and served in the gravy, which should be well skimmed. Also, skim carefully the fat off the gravy in the bottom of the dripping-pan. Put the two gravies together, and serve them up in a gravy tureen. To eat with the goose, have plenty of apple-sauce, made of fine juicy apples, stewed very dry, well sweetened, and flavored with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon; or with some rose-water and nutmeg stirred in after the sauce is taken from the fire. Rose-water evaporates in cooking, and should never boil or be kept on the fire. A _bain marie_, or double kettle, is excellent for stewing fruit; putting the fruit inside, and the water outside.

For a family dinner a goose is very good stuffed with well-boiled potatos, mashed smooth, with plenty of fresh butter or gravy. Sweet potatos make an excellent stuffing. So do boiled chestnuts, mashed with butter or gravy.

GOOSE PIE.--The old fashioned goose pie made with a standing crust, (the flour being mixed with boiling water, and therefore unfit for eating,) is now obsolete. They were generally sent as Christmas presents. Besides the goose, they contained chickens, pigeons, (all boned,) and various other things. They had standing sides like an oval wall, covered with a lid of the same paste, having, on the top, a knob, by which to lift off. These pies were expected to remain good a week; but generally the gravy became sour in a few days, even in winter, and however carefully kept from the air. The following is a receipt to make a fine goose pie for immediate use, and with a nice eatable paste.

Take a fine plump young goose, and parboil it, (in as little water as will cover it,) saving the gravy. Having removed the skin, cut all the flesh from the bones. Make a nice light short paste, allowing a large half pound of fresh butter to each quart of flour. For a goose pie you will require two quarts of flour and one pound of butter. Line a deep pie-dish with one sheet of paste, reserving the other sheet for the lid, which should be rolled out thick. Put in the pieces of goose, seasoned with pepper only, interspersing among it the best part of a smoked tongue, cut in thick round slices. Make a nice forcemeat into balls, about the size of a hickory nut, and add them to the filling of the pie; and some chestnuts boiled and peeled; or some round slices of boiled sweet potato. Having made a gravy of the giblets stewed, pour that over the other ingredients, filling the pie well, and heaping it high in the middle. Add a few bits of fresh butter dredged in flour. Pour in the gravy, and lay on the top the lid of the pie rolled out thick, ornamenting the edges handsomely. Cut a cross slit in the top, and fit into it a flower, or tulip cut out of paste. This pie is for dinner company, and to be eaten warm.

You may make a similar pie of a pair of fine ducks, either tame or wild. Canvas-backs and red necks are excellent for this purpose. To eat with it, have mashed potato, browned all over with a salamander.

On the shores of our southern rivers, where canvas-backs and other fine wild ducks are abundant, a pie affords an agreeable variety to the usual modes of cooking them.

A GIBLET PIE.--Clean, very nicely, the giblets of two geese or four ducks. Put them into a stew-pan, with a sliced onion; a bunch of tarragon, or sweet marjoram and sage; half a dozen pepper-corns; and four or five blades of mace. Add a very little water; cover the pan closely, and let them stew till the giblets are tender. Then take them out, and save all the gravy; having strained it from the seasoning articles. Make a rich paste, and roll it out into two sheets. With one sheet cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Put in the giblets--mixing among them a few raw potatos sliced very thin, the chopped yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, and some bits of butter rolled in flour. Pour the gravy over the giblets, &c. Cover the pie with the other sheet of paste, and notch the edges. Bake it brown, and send it to table hot.

A pigeon pie may be made in a similar manner: also, a rabbit pie.

ROAST DUCKS.--Take a pair of fine fat ducks, and having prepared them nicely for the spit, put them, for a few minutes, into boiling water to loosen the skin, which must be peeled entirely off, to have them very nice and tender. Wash their insides by pouring water through them, and wipe the outside all over with a dry cloth. Fill the body and craw of one duck with a seasoning of sage and onion, as for a goose. In case some of the company should have a dislike to onion, fill the other duck with a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, sweet herbs, &c., as for turkey. Place them before a quick fire, but not so near as to scorch. Roast them well, basting them all the time. Skim the fat off, and pour over the ducks their own gravy, mixed with what has been made of the necks, livers, hearts, and gizzards, stewed in a small sauce-pan with some butter dredged with flour. Send to table with the ducks either cranberry or apple sauce, made thick and sweet.

Let them be thoroughly roasted, which will require from an hour to an hour and a quarter.

WILD DUCKS.--To remove the fishy or sedgy taste so often found in wild ducks, parboil them with a large carrot, cut in pieces, and placed in the body of each. When the ducks are half boiled, take out the carrot and throw it away. It will have imbibed all the unpleasant taste, and taken it away from the ducks. Then cook them as you please.

BOILED DUCK.--Prepare for cooking a fine plump tame duck, and lay it five or six minutes in warm water. Then put it into a clean large bowl or deep dish, and pour over it a pint of rich boiling milk, in which has been melted two table-spoonfuls of nice fresh butter. Let the duck soak in the milk three hours, or till it has absorbed nearly all the liquid. Next, dredge the duck well with flour. Boil it in cold water for half an hour, till tender all through. Have ready a quantity of onion sauce made with milk and butter, and flavored with powdered mace or nutmeg. Cover the duck all over with the onion sauce, so as to smother it entirely. Then send it to table hot. This is a French dish, (_canard bouilli_.)

DUCKS AND PEAS.--Stuff a fine plump pair of ducks with potato stuffing, made of boiled potatos mashed very smooth with fresh butter; or, if for company, make a fine forcemeat stuffing, as for a turkey. Bake the ducks in an iron oven or bake-pan; and when nearly done, put in with them a quart of very young green peas, and a few bits of fresh butter, seasoning slightly with black pepper. When the peas and ducks are all quite done, serve them all up on one large dish.

FRICASSEED DUCKS.--Half roast a pair of ducks. Then cut them apart, as for carving. If they are _wild_ ducks, parboil them with a large carrot (cut to pieces) inside of each, to draw out the fishy or sedgy taste. Having thrown away the carrot, cut the ducks into pieces, as for carving. Put them into a clean stew-pan, and season them with pepper and salt. Mix in a deep dish a very small onion minced fine, a table-spoonful of minced or powdered tarragon leaves, (for which you may substitute sage and sweet marjoram, if you cannot procure tarragon,) and two or three large tomatos, scalded, peeled, and quartered, or two large table-spoonfuls of thick tomato catchup. Put in, also, two table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in grated bread-crumbs, and a glass of port wine, claret, or brandy, with a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace. Cover the pieces of duck with this mixture, and then add barely as much water as will keep the whole from burning. Cover the pan closely, and let the fricassee stew slowly for an hour, or till the duck, &c., are thoroughly done.

Venison or lamb cutlets may be fricasseed in this manner. Likewise, tame fat pigeons, which must previously be split in two. This, also, is a very nice way of dressing hares or rabbits.

TO ROAST CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Having trussed the ducks, put into each a thick piece of soft bread that has been soaked in port wine. Place them before a quick fire and roast them from three quarters to an hour. Before they go to table, squeeze over each the juice of a lemon or orange, and serve them up very hot with their own gravy about them. Eat them with currant jelly. Have ready also, a gravy made by stewing slowly in a sauce-pan the giblets of the ducks in butter rolled in flour, and as little water as possible. Serve up this additional gravy in a boat.

CANVAS-BACK DUCKS DRESSED PLAIN.--Truss the ducks without washing, but wipe them inside and out with a clean dry cloth. Roast them before a rather quick fire for half an hour. Then send them to table hot, upon a large dish placed on a heater. There must also be heaters under each plate, and currant jelly on both sides of the table, to mix with the gravy, on your plate; claret or port wine also, for those who prefer it as an improvement to the gravy.

TO STEW CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Put the giblets into a sauce-pan with a very little water, and a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a very little salt and cayenne. Let them stew gently to make a gravy, keeping the sauce-pan covered. In the mean time, half roast the ducks, saving the gravy that falls from them. Then cut them up, put them into a large stew-pan, with the gravy (having first skimmed off the fat,) and merely water enough to keep them from burning. Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let them stew gently till done. Towards the last, (having removed the giblets) pour over the ducks the gravy from the small sauce-pan, and stir in a large glass of port wine, and a glass of currant jelly. Send them to table as hot as possible.

Any ducks may be stewed as above. The common wild duck, teal, &c., should always be parboiled with a large carrot in the body to extract the fishy or sedgy taste. On tasting this carrot before it is thrown away, it will be found to have imbibed strongly that disagreeable flavor.

BROILED CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--To eat these ducks with their flavor and juices in perfection, they should be cooked immediately after killing. If shot early in the morning, they will be found delicious, if broiled for breakfast. If killed in the forenoon, let them be on that day's dinner table. When they can be obtained quite fresh they want nothing to improve the flavor. Neither do red-necks, or the other water fowl that are found in such abundance on the shores of the Chesapeake.

As soon as the ducks have been plucked, singed, drawn, and washed, split them down the back, (their heads, necks, and legs having been cut off,) rub with chalk the bars of a very clean gridiron, and set it over a bed of bright lively wood-coals. This gridiron (and all others) should have grooved bars, so as to save as much of the gravy as possible. Broil the ducks well and thoroughly, turning them on both sides. They will generally be done in half an hour. Dish them in their own gravy. The flesh should have no redness about it when dished. To half broil them on the gridiron, and to finish the cooking on a hot plate, set over a heater on the table, renders the ducks tough, and deadens the natural taste, for which no made-up sauce can atone. You may lay a few bits of nice butter on them after they are dished.

TERRAPIN DUCKS.--Take a fine large plump duck. Cut it in small pieces, and stew it in merely as much water as will cover it well, and keep it from burning. Let it stew gently, and skim it well. When it is done take it out, and cut all the meat off the bones in little bits. Return the meat to the stew-pan, and lay it in its own gravy. Add the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and make them into little balls with beaten white of egg, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter divided into eight bits, each bit dredged with flour, the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg. Let it stew or simmer gently till it comes to a boil, keeping it covered. When it has boiled, stir in while hot two beaten yolks of raw egg, and two large wine glasses of sherry or Madeira. Set it over the fire again for two or three minutes, keeping it covered. Then serve it up in a deep dish with a cover.

For company, you must have two ducks, and a double portion of all the above ingredients.

ROAST FOWLS.--Stuff two fowls with a nice forcemeat, made in the best manner, or with good sausage meat, if in haste. Another nice stuffing for roast fowls is boiled chestnuts, stewed in butter, or in nice drippings. Mushrooms cut up and stewed in a very little butter, make a fine stuffing for roasted fowls. Secure the stuffing from falling out by winding a twine or tape round the body of the fowl, or sewing it. Roast the fowls before a very clear fire, basting them with butter. When the fowls are done, set them away to be kept warm, while you finish the gravy, having saved the heart, gizzard, and liver, to enrich it. Skim it well from the fat and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table in a sauce-boat. Serve up with roast fowls, dried peach sauce, or cranberry. Make all fruit sauces very thick and sweet. If watery and sour, they seem poor and mean.

Full-grown fowls require, (at least,) an hour for roasting. If very large, from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

Nothing can be done with old tough fowls but to boil them in soup, till they are reduced to rags. The soup, of course, should be made chiefly of meat. The fowls will add nothing to its flavor but something to its consistence.

Capons are cooked in the same manner as other fowls. They are well worth their cost.

BOILED FOWLS.--Take a fine plump pair of young (but full-grown) fowls, and prepare them for boiling. Those with white or light yellow legs are considered the best. Make a nice forcemeat stuffing, and fill their bodies with it, and fasten the livers and gizzards under the pinions. For boiled poultry they are not wanted in the gravy. Having trussed the fowls, and picked and singed them carefully, put them into a large pot containing equal quantities of boiling water and cold water. This will make it lukewarm. Let them boil steadily for an hour after the simmering has commenced, carefully removing the scum.

Serve them up with egg sauce, celery sauce, parsley sauce, or oyster sauce--or, with cauliflower or broccoli sauce.

For boiled fowls, you may make a nice stuffing of fresh oysters, cut in small pieces, but not minced. Omit the gristle. Mix them with an equal portion of hard-boiled eggs chopped, but not minced fine. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs, and season with powdered mace. Mix in, also, some bits of fresh butter. Where onions are liked, you may substitute for the oysters some onions boiled and minced.

Fowls boil very nicely in a _bain marie_, or double kettle, with the water outside. They require a longer time, but are excellent when done. To quicken the boiling of a double kettle, put a handful of salt in the outside water.

Small chickens, of course, require a shorter time to cook.

PULLED FOWL.--This is a side dish for company. Select a fine tender fowl, young, fat, full-grown, and of a large kind. When quite done take it out of the pot, cover it, and set it away till wanted. Then, with a fork, pull off in flakes all the flesh, (first removing the skin,) and with a chopper break all the bones, and put them into a stew-pan, adding two calves' feet split, and the hock of a cold ham, a small bunch of parsley and sweet marjoram, and a quart of water. Let it boil gently till reduced to a pint. Then take it out. Have ready, in another stew-pan, the bits of pulled fowl. Strain the liquor from the bones, &c., over the fowl, and add a piece of fresh butter, (the size of a small egg,) rolled in flour, and a tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg, mixed. Mix the whole together, and let the pulled fowl stew in gravy for ten minutes. Serve it hot.

A turkey may be cooked in this manner, and will make a fine dish. For a turkey allow four calves' feet.

FRIED CHICKENS.--Cut up a pair of nice young fowls, flatten and quarter them, and season them with cayenne and powdered mace, rubbing it in well. Put some lard into a heated frying pan over the fire, or if you have plenty of nice fresh butter use that in preference. When the lard or butter boils, and has been skimmed, put in the pieces of chicken, and fry them brown on one side. Then turn them, and sprinkle them thickly all over with chopped parsley, or sweet marjoram, and fry them brown on the other side. You may fry with them a few thin slices of cold ham. Before serving them up drain off the lard you have used for frying.

When there is no dislike to onions, they may be fried nicely with boiled onions cut in rings, and laid over the pieces of chicken.

BROILED CHICKENS.--These are very dry and tasteless if merely split and broiled plain, which is the usual way. It seems to be supposed by many that no chicken is too poor for broiling, and therefore it is often difficult to get more than two or three small mouthfuls of flesh off their bones. On the contrary, poor chickens are not worth broiling or cooking in any way. To have broiled chickens good, choose those that are fat and fleshy. Having cleaned them well, and washed them, and wiped them dry, split and divide them into four quarters; flattening the bones with a steak mallet. They will be much improved by stewing or boiling in a little water for ten minutes. Then draining them and saving the liquor for gravy. Boil in this the neck, feet, heart, gizzard and liver. Strain it after boiling, and save the liver to mash into the gravy. Season the gravy with grated carrot and minced parsley, or sweet marjoram, and a little cayenne, adding a small piece of fresh butter dredged in flour. Have ready plenty of fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, and in another pan four yolks of eggs well beaten. The quarters of the chickens having become quite cold, dip each one first into the egg, and then into the crumbs. Set the gridiron over a clear fire, and broil the chicken well, first laying down the inside. Having prepared the gravy as above, give it a short boil, then send it to table in a sauce-boat with the chickens.

The excellence of chickens broiled in this way amply repays the trouble. This is a breakfast dish.

Serve up with the broiled chicken a dish of mashed potato cakes, browned with a salamander or red-hot shovel.

FRICASSEED CHICKEN.--Have ready a pair of fine plump full-grown fowls nicely prepared for cooking. Strip off all the skin, and carve the fowls neatly. Reserve all the white meat and best pieces for the fricassee, putting them in a dish by themselves, and save all the inferior pieces or black meat to make the gravy. Season with pepper and salt slightly, and add a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, and four small bits of fresh butter dredged with flour. Put the black meat, herbs, &c., into a stew-pan. Pour in a pint and a half of water, and stew it gently, skimming off every particle of fat. When reduced to less than one half, strain the gravy. Arrange the pieces of white meat in a very clean stew-pan, and pour over them the gravy of the inferior parts; add mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Mix into half a pint of boiling cream, a large tea-spoonful of arrow-root, and shake the pan briskly round, while adding the beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, mixed with more cream, (two table-spoonfuls.) Shake it gently over the fire till it begins to simmer again, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle in an instant. Watch it carefully.

This is a fine side-dish for company. There is no better way of fricasseeing fowls. A fricassee is not a fry, but a stew.

Accompany this fricassee with a dish of asparagus tops, green peas, or lima beans. Also, mashed potatos.

CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.--Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out by fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin butter kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or saucepan of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,) and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer. Occasionally take off the lid to remove the scum, and be sure to put it on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish it with more _hot_ water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard. When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, two table-spoonfuls of chopped oysters, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine, half a grated nutmeg, four blades of mace, and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish and send them to table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent way of cooking chickens. They do well in large _bain marie_.