Part 64

With Onion Sauce.--Place a tin of rabbit, when opened, in boiling water until the rabbit is thoroughly heated; pour off the liquid, and put a few pieces of butter on the top of the rabbit while in the tin. When the liquid butter has permeated all the rabbit, slide it out on a hot dish carefully, so as not to break the pieces, and cover it with good onion sauce. Serve with a piece of boiled bacon or streaky pork.

_Rook_ Pie.--(_a_) Soak the rooks in salt and water (having previously removed the backs and giblets) to draw out the bitterness, and then proceed as if making a pigeon pie. (A. O. H.)

(_b_) Skin and draw the rooks (6 will make a large pie), cut out the backbones, taking great care not to break the gall. Put these aside, as they are not used. Season the other parts well with pepper and salt, lay them in a deep pie dish, and pour over them ½ pint water, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Cover with a good light crust, and lay over that again a sheet of buttered paper, as the pie will take 2½-3 hours baking. (Bessie Tremaine.)

_Snipe_ (Bécassine).--Bisque. Take 6 nice plump snipes, cut the meat from the breasts, simmer half of them lightly in fresh butter, with a little salt, to be afterwards cut into scallops; make the rest into a forcemeat for quenelles to be served in the soup. Take out the larger bones from the carcases, roughly chopping the latter; put them all into a stewpan with a little butter, a sprig of thyme, a bayleaf, a little nutmeg, 3 shallots, and a pinch of pepper; fry them brown on a brisk fire, and add ½ a pottle mushrooms, chopped, and about a bottle of Sauterne wine; to this add ½ lb. rice which has been boiled in broth, 1 qt. white stock, letting it boil gently for 1 hour. Then drain this through a sieve into a basin, in which allow the liquor to remain, pounding the rest thoroughly in a mortar; replace this in the stewpan with the broth they were boiled in, stir it over the fire for a short time, and rub it through a tammy to remain till wanted. Let it remain in a cool place. Just before it is wanted for table, cut the fillets reserved from the breasts into small scallops, and make the forcemeat up into small quenelles or balls; put these into the soup tureen, and pour the bisque over them quite hot, but not boiling. Sippets of fried bread should be handed round with this soup; they should be cut round, and a small incision cut on one side of each before frying, so as to be easily able to take out a small piece from the centre, on which to place a little of the trail. This must be prepared by putting it into a stewpan with a small piece of butter, a little pepper and salt, and a spoonful or two of good brown sauce. They must be fried lightly, and then rubbed through a hair sieve with a wooden spoon. Fill the croutons with this, warm them for a minute or two in the oven, and serve them in a plate.

Fried.--Split them down the back, trussing like a spatchcock; put the trails and livers carefully aside. Heat a frying pan, put in sufficient lard to half fill it. When boiling, add a little salt; then fry the birds 10 minutes; place on a napkin in front of fire to drain and keep hot; pour off all the clear lard; throw a cupful of sifted breadcrumbs, with the trails and livers, into the gravy that remains in the pan; fry of a golden colour; serve up round the snipe: a dash of cayenne added to the crumbs is sometimes liked. All wildfowl cooked in this way are excellent, the larger birds being cut into joints.

Pie.--Take 6 couple of snipe, cut the birds into quarters, make a rich forcemeat of some cold ham, tongue, veal, or chicken, seasoning with a little sweet herbs, pepper, salt, cayenne, some breadcrumbs, mushrooms minced fine, mix all together with the yolks of 2 beaten eggs; place a layer of snipe breast downwards, either in the dish, or a raised crust--the latter is preferable--then forcemeat, then birds, then forcemeat, and so on; fill in with some rich gravy, and bake. When done raise the cover and fill up with gravy; next day place in ice, and serve cold. Drink Chablis or White Hermitage with this dish.

Roast.--Trim, but do not draw the birds, wrap each in a thin slice of fat bacon, and roast about 10-15 minutes at a brisk fire. Baste frequently with butter, keeping a piece of toast in the dripping pan. Serve on the toast.

Toast.--Half roast some snipe, plover, or woodcock, first removing the trails. When cold pound the meat, season with pepper, salt, and a little finely grated lemon peel, make into a mass with the beaten yolk of an egg; meanwhile place the bones and trimmings in a stewpan with a little brown stock, a glass of port wine, a little minced shallot, pepper and salt, let it simmer until the gravy is drawn; bruise the trails, add them with a little butter and flour to the gravy, bring to the boil, and strain, adding when ready a squeeze of lemon. Toast nicely on each side some thin slices bread, butter the toast and cut into shapes, spread the pounded snipe on these, place in a Dutch oven to warm, and when lightly brown serve in a hot dish, pouring the gravy over all.

_Turkey_ (Dinde). Blanched.--Cut the meat into small pieces free from the bone; season with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg; put this into a saucepan with sufficient white sauce to moisten it; let it simmer very gently for 5 minutes; turn it out on a hot dish, and serve with tiny fried pieces of bacon all round it. To make the white sauce, put ¼ pint milk into a saucepan, and simmer, with a strip of lemon rind in it for 5 minutes; mix a dessertspoonful of cornflour in a little cold milk, and thicken the sauce with it; stir the sauce gently over the fire for one minute; take out the lemon rind, and stir in ½ oz. butter after the sauce has cooled for a minute; then heat the turkey in it.

Boiled.--Wash the turkey in tepid water, and rub it all over with lemon juice; then put it into a saucepan full of boiling water, with a large piece of butter, 2 onions, a head of celery, some sliced carrots, a bunch of parsley and sweet herbs, whole pepper, mace, cloves, and salt to taste. Let it boil slowly, and remove carefully any scum that may rise. Serve with celery sauce, or oyster sauce.

Braised.--Truss the turkey as for boiling; stuff it with truffle and chestnut stuffing. Line the bottom of a braising pan with slices of bacon; lay the turkey on these, and place more slices of bacon on the top of it. Put in 2 carrots and 2 onions cut in slices, and sweet herbs, parsley, bay leaf, a clove of garlic, and whole pepper, and salt to taste; moisten with some stock and a tumblerful of sherry. Lay a round of buttered paper on the top, put on the lid, and braise on a moderate fire for about four hours, then serve with the gravy strained and freed from excess of fat. _Truffle and Chestnut Stuffing._--Remove the outer skin from a quantity of chestnuts, set them to boil in salted water with a handful of coriander seeds and 2 bay leaves. When nearly done, drain off the water, and remove the inner skin of the chestnuts. Mince 1 lb. fat bacon and 2 shallots, give them a turn on the fire in a saucepan, then put in 1 lb. of the chestnuts (boiled and peeled) and ½ lb. truffles, both cut up into moderate-sized pieces; add pepper, salt, and spices to taste, a little powdered thyme and marjoram; give the mixture another turn or two on the fire, and it is ready. A simple form of stuffing can be made by omitting the truffle. _Chestnut Stuffing._--Boil the chestnuts as above. When cooked (they must be rather underdone), drain and remove the inner skin, sprinkle with pepper, salt, and spices, and stuff the turkey, inserting while so doing ½ lb. butter (or beef suet) cut into small pieces. An onion, chopped finely, may be added to the stuffing.

Devilled.--Take a cooked leg of turkey or large fowl, cut it all over to the bone, pepper and salt it well, using black pepper and cayenne, then get some mixed mustard, mix it with about a third its quantity of flour, and plaster the leg over with this mixture as thick as it will stick, also stuffing the gashes with it. When this is done, put it on a gridiron on a clear fire, serve hot.

Galantine.--Take a turkey, bone and trim it. Take 1 lb. veal and ½ lb. fat bacon, pound them together in a mortar, season with powdered spice and sweet herbs, pepper and salt to taste, then pass the mixture through a wire sieve. Cut ½ lb. boiled tongue in pieces about 1 in. square, cut 6 truffles each into 3 or 4 pieces; lay the prepared turkey, skin downwards, on the table, sprinkle it with pepper, salt, and powdered spices; lay the pounded meat, the truffles, and the tongue on it, then roll it up neatly as a roly-poly pudding, and tie it up tightly in a cloth; put all the trimmings of the turkey into a saucepan large enough to hold the galantine; add a calf’s foot cut in pieces, the trimmings of the bacon (mind they are perfectly sweet), 2 or 3 onions, 2 carrots cut in pieces, a clove of garlic, a bundle of sweet herbs (thyme, marjoram, parsley, and bay leaf), cloves, whole pepper, mace, and salt in proportions according to taste; fill up with such a quantity of cold water as will leave room for the galantine to be put in, set the saucepan on the fire, and boil for 2 hours, strain, and when the liquor boils put in the galantine, let it boil 2-2½ hours; then lift it out, put it on a plate, and when it has cooled a little take off the cloth, tie it up afresh, and lay it between 2 dishes with a moderate weight upon it, to remain till cold. Care must be taken in this last operation that the “seam” of the galantine be made to come undermost. When quite cold, glaze the galantine, and garnish it with aspic jelly. _Aspic Jelly._--Pack into a stewpan 2 calves’ feet, chopped in small pieces, a few slices of ham, and the carcase of a fowl, with 2 onions and 2 carrots cut into slices, a head of celery, 1 shallot, and parsley, sweet herbs, spices, pepper, and salt to taste; fill up with the liquor in which the galantine was boiled or with any other common stock, and set the whole to simmer gently for 3-4 hours. Strain off the liquor into a basin, and when cold carefully remove all the fat. Then put the jelly into a saucepan, and add to it as much _suc colorant_ as may be required to give it the proper colour. Put the saucepan on the fire, and when the jelly is melted whisk into it the whites of 2 eggs and a wineglassful of tarragon vinegar; let it come to boiling point, and strain it through a jelly bag. If not quite clear warm it again, and strain it a second time. _Glaze._--Take a small quantity of the above jelly, freed from fat and strained, but not clarified; set it on the fire to reduce till it presents the appearance of treacle, and keep on skimming it all the time, then lay it on hot with a paste brush. _Boning._--There are two ways of boning. Knives are sold for the purpose, but a sharp pocket-knife will do. Lay the bird on its breast, and cut through the skin along the middle of the back. Keep the knife always close to the bone, and cut away the flesh on either side, turning it back as you go. Cut through the joints of the leg and wing bones, and keep cutting till you have separated the breast-bone, when the whole of the body will come out intact. The legs and wings are rather more difficult, but the only thing is to cut very carefully, and on no account to pierce the skin, turning the skin and flesh inside out, like a stocking, as you go along. The legs should be cut off at the first joint, and the last bone of the wing is sometimes left in. When all the bones are out, fill the bird with tongue, stuffing, chestnuts, or whatever else you may have, remaking it, as far as may be, into the shape of an unboned bird. Some persons prefer to lay it flat and roll it round, tying it with string. Another way is to make an incision at the back or the neck only, just as if the fowl were to be drawn, and to take all the bones out there, turning the skin back from the body, as directed above as for the limbs. The slits, whether intentional or accidental (and a beginner will probably have a few of these latter) should be sewn up with fine cotton.--(E. A. B.)

Grills.--For grilled fowl and turkey legs. Let them stand 10 minutes in boiling water, so as to get quite hot through, then well pepper them, and fry them in lard until they are nicely browned. (E. M. K.)

Patties.--A nice way of using up the small pieces of turkey. Mince some of the meat with grated lemon peel, nutmeg, a little salt, white pepper, cream and butter warmed, fill the patties, and bake as usual.

Roast.--Pluck, singe, draw, wipe thoroughly, and truss a fine turkey, stuff it with plain forcemeat, pack it up in some thin slices of fat bacon, and over that a sheet of buttered paper, roast before a clear fire, basting frequently with butter. ¼ hour before it is done, remove the paper and slices of bacon. Sprinkle with salt, just before serving. Garnish with pork sausages, and serve with a boat of gravy. Time of roasting 2-3 hours. _Forcemeat._--(1) Take 1 part finely-shredded suet and 2 of breadcrumbs, season with pepper, salt, powered spices, sweet herbs, and finely minced parsley; mix all well together; then add as many eggs as will bind the ingredients together into a stiff paste. (2) Pound to a paste in a mortar, slightly rubbed with garlic, equal parts of veal and fat ham or bacon, then pass them through a wire sieve, and return them to the mortar. Work into the paste thus obtained ¼ its bulk of butter, and about the same quantity of breadcrumbs, soaked in milk or in stock, with the yolks of one or more eggs, according to quantity. Add minced parsley and pepper, salt, spices, and powdered sweet herbs to taste. _Gravy._--Mince an onion finely, fry it in butter to a dark brown, then add ¾ pint of good stock, pepper and salt to taste, a small piece of ham minced small, a sprig of thyme, one of parsley, and a little Worcester sauce. Let the whole boil 5-10 minutes put it by till wanted, then strain it into a sauce boat.

With Mushrooms.--Open a tin of turkey, set in boiling water to melt the jelly, pour the melted jelly into a saucepan, slightly thicken it with cornflour and sufficient mushroom ketchup to make it a good flavour, season it, and keep hot while the turkey is being freed from bone and minced. Open a small tin of mushrooms, and mince them with the meat; mix well in the gravy; keep the mince hot for 10 minutes, and then serve on rounds of toast for breakfast. The turkey can be simply sliced, and the mushrooms left whole, if preferred.

With Oysters.--Open a tin of oysters and mince them finely, saving the liquor, and mix well together with them 5 oz. grated breadcrumbs, 1 oz. fresh butter slightly melted, the rind of ½ lemon chopped small, 1 tablespoonful minced parsley, a pinch of cayenne, a small teaspoonful of salt, and ½ teaspoonful white pepper. Cut into neat pieces the contents of a tin of turkey, leaving the bones in; butter a pie-dish, and put alternate layers of turkey and oyster forcemeat. Put a teacupful of the oyster liquor into a saucepan, melt a large teaspoonful of butter in it, and thicken with cornflour. Pour over the turkey and oysters, and bake 15 minutes in a hot oven.

To use up a Turkey.--If roasted, stuff it with pork sausage meat. Instead of paying 10_d._ per lb. for a mixture of pork, bread, and water, buy 1 lb. trimmings, and let the cook mince it herself. Roast turkey comes in cold several times in a small family. Sometimes the legs may be devilled. The meat should be carefully picked off the wing bones, back, &c. Let it be minced very finely, stewed in milk, a little pounded mace, salt, and thickening; then let it get cold, and make a top-and-bottom-crust pie of it. If economy be the order of the day, make the crust of “fleed” or “flick,” in this way: Pull all the skin off, beat it well with a mallet or rolling-pin till about the consistency of lard, then, having made 1 lb. flour into paste with water, roll it out, and dot the “flick” over it; give it a good coat of flour; repeat this process till you have put in ¾ lb. of “flick;” bake in a quick oven. If for tarts, 1 lb. “flick” to 1 lb. flour. Now comes the most important part of all. Take all the bones that have not been on the plates, break up the back and breast bones, put them in a saucepan with 2 qt. water, a carrot, a turnip, a few peppercorns, a little bit of mace, lemon peel, a little bit of ham, &c.; let it boil hard all day till reduced to 1 qt., strain through muslin or fine flannel; put it into a clean saucepan, have ready nearly a breakfast cupful of batter, not too thick. While boiling hard pour in the batter with one hand, stir quickly with the other. Let it boil for a few minutes, strain through a sieve into the tureen. Excellent soup.

_Venison_ (Venaison).--This is of 3 kinds. The fallow deer, the red deer, and the roebuck supply venison of very different qualities. In the opinion of most competent judges, English park-fed buck venison is the best and richest, and is followed in order of excellence by the red deer venisons of Scotland and Germany, slightly coarser in fibre, and less abundantly supplied with fat. A great fuss is made on the Continent about the roe-deer or _chevreuil_, but this pretty little animal supplies rather poor venison--good as to flavour--but dry, and as a rule destitute of fat. A fat buck is usually divided into haunch, neck, shoulder, and breast. The haunch and neck are generally roasted, the shoulder and breast being reserved for pasties, stews, or chops. In buying venison for immediate cooking great caution should be observed, as if it has been hanging long enough to permit serious disintegration of the tissue, it will be uneatable. Its condition may be ascertained by running a skewer under the bone. If it smells sweet the meat is good. Venison may be hung 10-15 days, according to the weather, and should on no account be kept so long as to render overcooking necessary, as it is best cooked of all when, without being actually underdone, the meat still retains its gravy. While hanging--if possible in a clear draught of air--venison should be wiped and peppered occasionally, especially on the “cut” parts. The haunch, both on account of its size and the delicate quality of its fat, requires great care in cooking. It should be wiped, almost washed, rubbed over with butter, and sprinkled with salt. The next operation is to cover the haunch with a large sheet of buttered paper all over it, again covering with a sheet of common water paste about ½ in. thick. When the paste has been carefully applied and thoroughly joined, 3 sheets of buttered paper should be securely fastened with string over all. Placed then in a cradle-spit before a large fire, a fine haunch will take about 3-3½ hours roasting. It should be frequently basted. When done the paper and paste must be taken off, and the haunch salted, basted with butter, dredged with flour till it assumes a brown colour, and served on a hot-water dish. The best sauce for venison is made with a little of the gravy, ½ lb. red currant jelly, 2 or 3 knobs of sugar, and 1 gill red wine simmered together till the jelly is melted. Jelly should also be served separately. Roast venison may be accompanied by French beans, white haricots, or perhaps, best of all, with stuffed tomatoes. The neck is dressed in the same manner as the haunch, pasted and papered, and requires in roasting about ¼ hour to 1 lb. Venison should be carved as quickly as possible on to silver or hot-water plates.

Collops.--Venison collops or minced collops are both excellent, and must be made from the uncooked meat as follows: Cut the meat into collops (small thin cutlets or _emincés_, or mince it if you wish “minced” collops), and season this with pepper, salt, and mixed spices. Throw some butter into a stewpan, put in the collops, brown them and then add equal quantities of good brown gravy and red wine. Add to this a little fine sugar, a dash of vinegar, and a spoonful of ketchup. Stew slowly till done. Then take out the collops, strain the sauce and serve quickly. These collops may be served within a wall of well cooked white haricots, garnished with baked tomatoes.

Roast Haunch.--(_a_) Trim the joint neatly, wipe it well with a cloth, rub it over with butter, and sprinkle it with salt; then wrap it up in a sheet of buttered kitchen paper Make a paste with flour and water, roll it out to the thickness of ½ in., wrap the joint in this, and close up all the openings carefully by wetting the edges of the sheet of paste; lastly, pack up the haunch into a final sheet of well-buttered paper; put it to roast at a good fire for about 3 hours, basting it occasionally; then remove the paste and paper coverings, baste the haunch plentifully with butter, and when nearly done dredge some flour over it and some salt. Serve on a hot-water dish.

(_b_) As roe-deer is very dry, a haunch of it is much improved by being closely larded with fat bacon and then placed to marinade in equal parts of oil and red wine, with sliced carrots and onions and judicious flavourings of whole pepper, cloves, salt, chopped parsley, and sweet herbs. The joint may be left in this pickle for some days, and should be well basted with it. Then wrap the joint up in oiled or buttered paper, and baste it well while roasting before a clear fire. When nearly cooked remove the oiled paper to let the meat take colour, glaze the joint, and serve with rich gravy and with red currant jelly. Roe-deer also may be braised, in which case it should also be well larded. The neck may be jugged like hare, or it can be made into cutlets, haricot, &c.

Hashed.--Hashed venison is a very popular dish, and the modes of preparing it are many. The following is a good plan: Cut some cold haunch or neck of venison into thin slices, and put these aside. Put any of the venison gravy that may be left, the bones and trimmings, ½ pint red wine, and a little stock into a stewpan, with 4 shallots chopped very fine, 4 cloves, and 2 spoonfuls of ketchup. Let it simmer very slowly for 1½ hour, and strain it off. Put a piece of butter rolled in flour into a stewpan, add the gravy, pepper, and salt, and let it gradually advance to a boil; then take it off the fire, and when almost cold put in the venison; let it get quite hot through without boiling (or the meat may be hardened), and put it into a hot dish garnished with forcemeat balls or sippets. This method may also be very successfully applied to cold mutton. Red currant jelly should be served with either dish.

Pasty.--Venison pasty may be made in 2 ways, either by stewing the venison first, and then putting it into a pie, or in the following fashion: Take the breast and shoulder of a buck, remove all the bones and every particle of skin and sinew, wash thoroughly, and cut the venison into handsome pieces, saving the fat to put at the top. Should the venison be short of fat, mutton fat may supply its place if it be laid in a marinade of vinegar and red wine for 12 hours. Next proceed to make the paste, by rubbing 2 lb. butter into ½ a peck flour, and mixing it into a paste with cold water till it is moderately stiff. Cover the edge and sides of a pasty dish, and lay in the venison closely, peppering and salting each piece, and put in 1 gill water. Cover the pie with a piece of paste ½ in. thick, leaving a hole at the top, and then take the remainder of the paste, roll it out, add to it ½ lb. butter in lumps, sprinkle some flour on it, double it and roll it out 4 times; then wet the paste which already covers the pie, and apply the second paste over it. Make a round place at the top, and put on a rose, or any ornament you may think of: put a sheet of paper over the top, and bake for 4 hours in a sharp oven. When it is done, lift up the rose, and pour in 1 pint venison gravy; shake it about and serve.