Part 62

_Grouse_ (Coq de bruyère).--For roasting, grouse should be young, and in selecting them the wing feathers should be examined. If these are sharp and clearly defined at the ends, the bird is young and may be safely roasted. Very young grouse, partridges, and all woodcock and snipe are never better than on the day of their death; but when this opportunity of eating them in perfection has once been allowed to pass over and the flesh has been permitted to get thoroughly cold and stiff, it is the better for a few days “hanging,” to allow it to grow tender again. An old-fashioned rule is to wait till the feathers come away at the slightest tug, but the complete adoption of that plan is apt to make game too “high” for delicate palates. Grouse are very good about the 6th or 7th day after shooting, and when drawn, singed, and trussed with the head under the wing--the decapitation of a game bird is a barbarous innovation--should be skewered together and fastened to the spit. Then set them down before a very sharp clear fire, and keep them well basted with butter during the whole time they are cooking, about 30 minutes. When nearly done sprinkle over them a little flour, and put them to the fire again, and serve on a buttered toast soaked in the dipping pan; garnish with watercress, and accompany the grouse with good beef gravy, bread sauce, and fried crumbs in boats.

To make fried breadcrumbs, toast carefully in the oven a few thin slices of bread with the crusts cut off, and then rub them done and pass them through a colander. Put a liberal allowance of lard into a stewpan or frying pan, make it very hot, and take care that the fat is perfectly clear and transparent. Fry the prepared crumbs, taking care not to overdo them, and drain them before the fire very thoroughly and completely, as the whole success of fried crumbs consists in their being sent to table perfectly dry and quite hot. To make bread sauce take ¾ lb. stale breadcrumbs rubbed through a colander and put it in a stewpan with a little white stock, white peppercorns, salt, a blade of mace, and an onion. When this has soaked, add 1 pint of milk and a little butter; simmer gently, and keep stirring the sauce till it is smooth. Then remove the peppercorns, mace, and onion, beat up the sauce well with a spoon, make it hot and serve in a sauceboat.

Cold roast grouse are very well in a _salmis_ made as follows: Cut the bird into pieces, and put the best of these into a stewpan. Take the bones and odds and ends, break them up and put them into another stewpan with some good gravy, a few fragments of cooked ham, a bit of lemon peel, 6 shallots, 2 glasses white wine, a bay leaf, parsley, pepper, and a little salt. Let this boil for about 1 hour, and strain it on to the grouse in the other stewpan. Simmer all together without letting it boil, and serve very hot with sippets around.

Excellent soup may be made either of roasted or half roasted old birds--let them be as tough as they may; or the soup may be made as follows: Skin 3 or 4 old grouse, cut them up, and fry them with slices of lean ham, sliced onions, carrots, turnips, and 2 shallots. Put the fry into a saucepan, and add 2 qt. good stock. Throw in a little chopped celery, minced parsley, and a faggot of sweet herbs. Let this simmer for 2 hours, strain, and serve. Fillets from a young bird, deftly prepared by frying, may be put into this soup, which should be very strong. In the north of England grouse pie is very popular, and is made either as a pastry or as a raised pie, and differs from other simple and compound game pie in no single particular.

Braised.--Truss as for boiling. Place the birds in an oval stewpan, the bottom of which must be first covered with slices of streaky bacon, a carrot sliced, a head of celery cut up, a good sized onion stuck with six cloves, a small bunch of parsley and sweet herbs, and 18 black peppercorns. Fry a raw beetroot in butter, after peeling and slicing it, and with it a few slices of onion, moistening it with about ½ pint broth; pour this over the grouse, add a teaspoonful of brandy, covered with buttered paper, put on the lid covered with live embers, or, if not, place the pan in the oven and let it remain until the birds are done, when they must be taken out and put on a dish to keep hot. Then strain the liquor from the vegetables, skim off the grease, and boil it down until it is a semi-glaze; add to it a spoonful or two of good brown sauce and a very little red wine; let this boil by the fire for 5 minutes; skim it and pass it through a tammy into a small stewpan to keep hot. Set the birds on their dish, garnish with the slices of bacon cut in neat pieces, and some small balls of carrot; pour the sauce over and serve. The carrot balls should be previously dressed by boiling them down in a stewpan with a little butter, about a wineglassful of vinegar, a little pounded sugar, grated nutmeg, and salt; let them stew steadily, turning them over occasionally, for about an hour, or until the moisture is absorbed. There should be enough liquid to cover them.

Broiled.--Cut off the pinions and legs and tuck the thighs inside the birds; split them down the back, season well with pepper and salt, and brush them over with clarified butter: place them on a gridiron, and when the fire is perfectly clear, broil them carefully, taking care they are not at all smoked. When done glaze them nicely and serve them with a border of fried potatoes or of small balls of mashed potato fried brown. Mix a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce with a pat of fresh butter, let it melt on the dish in which the grouse is to be served. When melted, place the grouse over it, and serve directly with a squeeze of lemon juice over the bird. It may be done in the same way, but instead of on the gridiron, which is not always convenient, the grouse may be placed in a sautépan with a little butter, setting the pan in the oven and basting them well until done.

Larded.--Lard the breasts in close rows, place slices of streaky bacon in an oval braising-pan, with vegetables; on these place the grouse, with enough liquor to cover them, the liquor being composed of ⅓ French vinegar and ⅔ of good stock; baste them frequently, and when done set them on a baking-sheet in the oven for a few minutes to dry the larding; after this glaze and dish them, garnish them with a border of stewed red cabbages, and on this some very small sausages, made of chopped calves’ liver, bacon, and breadcrumbs, seasoned with pepper, salt, lemon peel, chopped fine, a little nutmeg, chopped parsley, thyme, and bay leaf, and 2 yolks of eggs, mix thoroughly, and fry, in small round or flat cakes, a nice brown colour. Reduce the liquor in which the birds were stewed to a glaze, having first cleared it from all grease, strain it over the birds and serve.

Roast.--Pluck and truss them as a fowl for roasting. They should be well hung but not high. Draw the inside and well-wipe, but do not wash them. Place a round of buttered toast in the dripping-pan, and let the birds roast over it. The fire must be sharp and clear, and they must be kept well basted the whole of the time they are cooking. They should be well cooked, but not at all over-done, or they would be spoilt; they ought to look just a little pink near the bone when cut. When done remove the toast on to the hot dish, set the birds on it, and pour over each just enough melted butter to cover the breast. Fried breadcrumbs may be round them in the dish, or handed separately. No gravy is sent up with roast grouse; there is sufficient moisture in the toast. If more than 2 birds are sent up, one round of toast would not be sufficient; there should be a piece under each bird just large enough for it to rest upon.

_Guinea Pigs._--Though in England the animal is usually treated as a pet, in its native country it has been reared for ages as a food supply. They should be in good condition, and 8-18 months old, as that is the period when they are in perfection, when older they are more fit for soup or stock. Kill them by dislocating the neck, and it is desirable to bleed them in the throat afterwards to avoid discolouration. The hair should be scalded off, and they must be emptied in the usual way. They present very much the appearance of little sucking pigs, and are ready for the best offices of the cook. They are generally cut up and stewed in a savoury way until the skin is quite soft and the meat comes easily from the bones. Being small, they may be tossed up quickly in a great many delicate ways, and are very useful as a game course when game is out of season. They are excellent in stews, curry, pies, puddings, brown or white soup, and make a first rate colourless stock for velouté, &c. They may be served as entrées in a great many ways. The pure white breed is the best for table use, as the skin of the darker varieties does not look so delicate when cooked. The easiest way for anyone to proceed who wishes to try guinea pig as food is to buy one or two, and hand them over to their pork butcher to be killed and scalded. It is essentially a delicacy, and must be paid for as such. (C. Cumberland.)

_Hare_ (Lièvre).--Hares vary much in quality, according to the nature of their feeding ground. Mountain hares have their admirers, and for soup are excellent; but for a roast or jug most people justly prefer the plump natives of the Eastern Counties. When a hare is fresh the body is stiff, and if she is young the claws will be smooth and sharp, and the cleft in the lips not spread much. The ear, moreover, will tear easily. A leveret has a knob or small bone near the fore-foot; when this disappears it is a hare. In this country it is customary to dress hare either as a roast, jugged, or in soup. For a roast it is indispensable that the animal be young; in fact a ¾-grown hare makes a far more tender and succulent roast than when fully developed.

Fillets.--Take a fine fat hare, carefully clean and prepare it, then with a sharp knife take off at the joint the shoulders and legs. Make a sharp cut lengthways on each side close to the backbone, take off the slices of meat; also bone the legs; take the liver and scald it; then heat a pan on the fire, place in it 2 or 3 slices of fat bacon; when the drip or essence is boiling put in the meat cut from the back and that of the legs; it must be cut into pieces. Add 2 minced shallots and a little pepper and salt; fry of a nice brown colour. Meanwhile make some good hare stuffing, made into little balls, with a well-beaten egg; fry them also of a nice colour. Mince the liver finely, and stew it in some good gravy, flavour with 2 tablespoonfuls mushroom ketchup, a little taragon or chili vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice; thicken with a bit of butter, into which some flour has been rubbed, when ready pour this over the hare fillets and let all boil up. Serve very hot, garnish with crisp, hot sippets of fried bread alternately with stuffing balls and a few slices of lemon.

Jugged.--(_a_) The carcase and rest of the hare cut into joints, fry with some bacon until browned; take it out, dust over the meat some pounded dry parsley, thyme, savory, and a little pounded mace and allspice. Mince 2 shallots, put all into a jug or jar, cover the meat with some brown stock, add pepper and salt. Close the jug with a bladder, and place it over the fire in a saucepan of boiling water. Let it boil well for some 3 hours, more or less according to age of hare. When tender take the meat out, strain off the fat from the gravy, thicken with a little flour, boil it up, place the hare in a deep dish, and pour the gravy over. Care should be taken to keep the saucepan full of boiling water all the time. Some add to the seasoning given the juice of a lemon and ½ gill claret instead of stock. This, however, takes away the hare flavour.

(_b_) Put 1 lb. gravy beef in an earthenware stew mug, a bunch of herbs, consisting of celery top, parsley, sweet marjoram stems, and an onion, stuck with 6 cloves. Season each joint of the hare with a little pounded mace, pepper, and salt, lay them in the stew-mug, and cover with spring water, put on the lid, and place in the oven to stew for 2½ hours or longer. When quite done, lift out each joint in a hot soup tureen, strain the gravy, and thicken it with flour and a little butter; boil it up, add ¼ pint port wine, pour over the hare and serve.

(_c_) After skinning, let it soak in water for several hours, changing it 3 or 4 times. Then cut it up and wash it again; drain it in a colander. Put it in a jar with a sheep’s milt, lemon thyme, parsley, a very little sweet marjoram, nutmeg, mace, pepper and salt to taste. Tie it down with a cloth, and put it into a saucepan of water up to the neck. Boil for 3-4 hours, according to the size of the hare. Mix a little flour with Indian soy, ketchup, or any sauce that is approved of. Put it into a jar, and boil for another ¼ hour. Add forcemeat balls if preferred. (E. P.)

(_d_) This may be made with hare only, but the flavour is much improved by cooking some beefsteak with it in the proportion of 1½ lb. to a good sized hare. In any case about 1 lb. or rather less of fat streaky bacon should be added, cut into small slices. The beef should be cut up into small pieces, and the hare into joints. Flour these well on both sides, and sprinkle with black pepper and a little salt; lay them in alternate layers in a jar that will stand in a large saucepan of cold water. To this add a small onion stuck with 6 cloves, a very little allspice, and a bunch of sweet herbs tied in muslin. The best pieces of hare should be at the bottom. Pour into the jar about a pint of cold water, set the saucepan on the fire, and let it stew for about 4 hours after the water boils. Just before taking up add a tablespoonful of ketchup and ½ glass port wine. The beef and bacon will have almost disappeared, and if preferred, may be quite removed by straining the gravy over the hare, after having nicely arranged the several joints on the dish in which it is to be served; care must be taken to keep it very hot while straining. Should any of this dish be left from dinner, it will be quite as good when warmed up if it be again put into the jar and set in a saucepan of water to boil as before; as soon as it is quite hot through it should be taken off the fire, as it of course does not require any more cooking. Forcemeat balls should be made and fried in butter to serve in the dish with the jugged hare, keeping them hot in the oven until wanted.

(_e_) In France, _civet de lièvre_ is a well-known stew of hare, varying in some important particulars from the national English jug. Having cased your hare, put by the liver, lungs, and heart, taking care to throw away the gall, and mix the juice of a lemon with the hare’s blood. Joint the hare into neat pieces, seasoning each with salt and pepper.

Take ¾ lb. lean bacon, chop it and plunge it into boiling water for 5 minutes, then throw it into a stewpan with 1½ oz. butter until it takes colour, when put the pieces of hare into the pan, and add a large onion stuck with cloves, a few peppercorns, and a little thyme, bay leaf, &c. Fry the meat for 12-15 minutes, and when its moisture is reduced add a bottle of red wine and reduce the liquid to ¾. Sprinkle the meat with a little flour, fill up with good hot stock, and stir the sauce until it boils. Cover the stewpan, and let it simmer over a moderate fire for 3-3½ hours. When the hare is done, take up the pieces and put them into another stewpan. Add to the sauce a glass of port wine or a little gravy, pass it through a sieve, and reduce it over a brisk fire. Thicken with the hare’s blood, let the sauce boil up, and pour it over the meat, adding at the same time 1-1½ doz. mushrooms (previously trimmed, blanched, and stewed in butter and lemon juice). Let simmer gently for a few minutes, and dish up garnished with small onions “glazed.”

Roast.--The trussing of a hare for roasting requires great attention. It is of the last importance that the ears and tail be carefully skinned, and that the ears be propped up with a skewer to keep them in an erect position. In casing a hare it is always well to preserve the blood, as this is an useful adjunct by no means to be thrown recklessly away. When the hare is properly trussed, prepare a stuffing as follows: Take the crumb of a penny loaf rubbed fine, ¼ lb. chopped beef suet, a little fresh butter, some parsley, sweet herbs, and a rather liberal proportion of lemon peel chopped fine. Season with pepper, salt, and a little powdered nutmeg. Remove the gall carefully from the liver, chop the liver very fine, and mix it together with the other ingredients of the stuffing, adding at the same time the yolks of 2 eggs and a glass of red wine. Fill the cavity with the stuffing, and sew or skewer it up. Then put the hare to roast before a sharp fire for about an hour--according to size--and baste it thoroughly well with butter, or, still better, put 1 qt. milk and ½ lb. butter into the dripping-pan, and baste constantly. When done the hare must be finally basted with butter, sprinkled with salt, and dredged with flour till it froths. Then serve it in a hot dish with gravy under, and gravy and red currant jelly served separately. Leverets may be roasted in the same way, but will not require more than 35-40 minutes’ cooking. Both hares and leverets may be larded previously to roasting, on the back and thighs, and when one is so unlucky as to have a full-grown hare to roast, this process of larding should never be omitted. When it is desired to get two dishes, an _entrée_ and a roast, out of a hare, the animal should be cut in two, the hindquarters larded, stuffed, and roasted as above, and the forequarters cut in pieces, stewed with a pint of water, a gill of red wine, an onion stuck with cloves, a fagot of sweet herbs, a blade of mace, and a little pepper. When the hare is done take it out, then put a large lump of butter into a stewpan, melt it, put in a spoonful of flour, stir till it is smooth, and then by degrees pour in the strained gravy. Stir it well, put in the hare and a little ketchup, season with pepper and salt, give it a shake, serve hot, and garnish with lemon.

Salmis.--When the hare is trussed, fasten slices of fat bacon over the back, and lightly roast it, basting constantly to prevent its getting dry. Let the hare get cold, then divide the meat into neat pieces, using all the bones and trimmings to make gravy. Put these on to boil, with 1 lb. gravy meat cut small and fried, 4 onions fried, a carrot, a turnip, a slice of lean ham, a lump of sugar, and a small teaspoonful of salt and of black pepper, add 2 qt. water, and boil gently for 3 hours; then strain, cool, and take off all fat. This done, put the gravy into a stewpan, and boil it without the lid until it is reduced to a pint, and is very rich and thick, then stir in the juice of a lemon, and a gill of claret. Put the hare into the gravy, and let it stand for an hour, taking care it does not boil or even simmer.

Shape.--The remains of jugged hare may be used much in the same way as the veal. Remove the meat from the bones and pound it. Warm the gravy, adding a large glass of port, a tablespoonful of red jelly, and ½ oz. Nelson’s gelatine, making about 1¼ pints. Take a quart mould, ornament with small forcemeat balls, stir the strained gravy into the pounded meat, and, when nearly cold, pour on the balls. When set, turn out and ornament with rings of lemon and parsley, putting (last thing) a few dabs of jelly on the top.

_Larks_ (Mauviettes).--The following recipes for cooking larks are mainly from the pen of A. G. F. Eliot-James:--

Broiled.--Chop some parsley very fine, mixing it with butter, pepper, and salt. Stuff the birds with this, tie them at both ends, and broil on a gridiron over a clear fire or gas. Serve on slices of fried bread on a very hot dish, and send melted butter to table with them.

Croustade.--A favourite _entrée_. The birds are prepared by being boned and stuffed (q.v.), after which they are baked in a croustade of fried bread, with a rich sauce.

In Cases.--Bone the larks skilfully, put the livers on one side, and set the bones and trimmings to boil in some good stock, broth, or even water, with carrots, onions, parsley, pepper, salt, a few cloves, a bay leaf, and a few pieces of ham or bacon. When well reduced, train this gravy, and put it by. Cut up the larks’ livers, as also some fowls’ livers, or some calf’s liver, all in small dice; do the same with half their quantity of bacon. Fry a few shallots a light yellow in plenty of butter, then put in the liver and bacon, with minced parsley, pepper, and salt, and a little powdered spices. Toss the whole on the fire for a few minutes, then turn out on a sieve, and pass them through while hot. Have some paper cases ready oiled, put a layer of this _farce_ in each, then a moderate-sized piece in each lark, roll up the birds neatly, and place one in each case, with a thin slice of fat bacon over it. Bake them in the oven not longer than 10-15 minutes. At the time of serving, thicken the gravy by mixing a little flour with some butter, and then adding the gravy to it. Fill the cases with gravy, and stew a little finely-minced parsley over each. The pieces of bacon may be removed or not before serving.

Pie.--Pluck, singe, draw, and truss 1 doz. larks, save the trails, chop them fine, mixing with them some scraped bacon, 6 mushrooms, some sage, parsley, and sweet herbs, all finely chopped, with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and mace. Mix all thoroughly well together, divide into 12 portions, and stuff the birds with it. Spread over the bottom of a pie dish fat bacon pounded to a paste, with a seasoning of pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, with a little mace and nutmeg. Put in the larks, sprinkling some more seasoning over them. Fill up any hollows with scraped or pounded bacon; lay some thin slices of fresh butter, and then over them some very thin slices of fat bacon. Have ready some rich pastry, of which form the top crust; egg it over and bake. When ready, lift the crust, remove the bacon, and pour in some rich gravy; replace the crust, heat up again, and serve.

Potted.--An excellent breakfast dish. The birds must be very carefully picked, singed, and drawn, dried well, and seasoned inside and out with pepper, salt, and mace, then put into a stone jar with plenty of butter, tied down, and baked in a moderate oven. When quite cooked, the gravy should all be drained off, and the larks put into potting jars. Have clarified butter poured over them, be closely tied down, and kept in a dry place.

Roast.--The most usual method of dressing larks is, of course, by roasting. For plain roasting, they are simply plucked, singed, drawn, and trussed, have thin slices of bacon pinned over their breasts, and are set down before a brisk fire, being basted the whole time. The last 5 minutes or so the bacon is removed, and bread crumbs sprinkled over them until they are well covered. They are, of course, tied to the spit or else strung on a wooden skewer. The best way is to put each bird on a separate skewer, as they then get more thoroughly basted than when several are close together on one stick. They should be served on a layer of well-fried breadcrumbs, and the dish prettily garnished. Some people omit the breadcrumbs while roasting. The bacon should in that case be left on until quite the last thing, and the breast just frothed up with a little flour before serving. Either butter or bacon fat can be used for basting; if the latter, substitute butter for it for the last five minutes.