I shall say nothing about roast meat, or any of the routine of ordinary cooking; but I shall confine myself to a few extemporaneous dishes for the table; and on these occasions the poultry-yard and the dove-cot will be found of the utmost importance.
Any kind of poultry will be tender if cooked as soon as it is killed, though it will be tough if kept till the following day; and the feathers may be removed almost instantaneously by dipping the dead bird for a moment into boiling water. The only objection to fowls is, that many persons, particularly gentlemen, are very apt to become tired of them if they are served too frequently, and it is therefore advisable to vary the modes of dressing them as much as possible.
Sometimes a forcemeat may be made for roast fowl, by boiling about a dozen and a half of sweet chestnuts, and pounding part of them with the boiled liver of the fowl, and about a quarter of a pound of bacon, adding parsley and sweet herbs chopped very fine, with pepper, salt, and other spices, to the taste. Fill both the body and the crop with this mixture, and then roast the fowl; when it is done, make a sauce by pounding the remaining chestnuts very smooth, and putting them with a few spoonfuls of gravy and a glass of white wine into some melted butter. The sauce is generally poured over the fowl when it is served up.
A broiled fowl should be split open at the back, and made as flat as possible, and sometimes the breast-bone is removed. The thick parts are generally scored, and seasoned with salt and pepper, after which it is laid on the gridiron with the inside of the fowl next the fire. The fowl is, however, very much improved by putting it, after it has been split down and seasoned with pepper and salt, into a stewpan, with a little butter, and only enough water to prevent it from burning. When the fowl has stewed in this manner for about twenty minutes, it should be laid for about five minutes over the fire on a gridiron previously made quite hot, and served with a sauce made of the liquor in the stewpan, flavoured with mushroom catsup, or in any other way that may be preferred. Fresh mushrooms stewed and added to the liquor are a great improvement to this dish.
For a Dunelm of chickens. Take a few mushrooms, peeled as if for stewing; mince them very small, and put to them some butter, salt, and cream. When put into a saucepan, stir over a gentle fire till the mushrooms are nearly done; then add the white part of a roasted fowl, after being minced very small. When sufficiently heated, it may be served up. If fresh mushrooms cannot be had, a very small quantity of mushroom powder or a little catsup may supply their place.
The French frequently put some rice tied quite loosely in a cloth into the pot with a fowl, when it is to be boiled; and, when the fowl is sufficiently done, they cut it up and fricassee it, by putting the pieces into a casserole, with a lump of butter worked into a paste with a dessert-spoonful of flour and a wine-glassful of water, and the same quantity of new milk, with salt, white pepper, mace, &c., to the taste. Sometimes they add mushrooms, and sometimes small Welsh onions, and artichoke bottoms which have been previously boiled, to the fricassée; and sometimes they make the sauce much richer by adding to it the yolks of four eggs well beaten, in which case they generally put in a little lemon-juice or a very small quantity of vinegar, just before serving up. In the mean time, a little salt is thrown into the water in which the fowl was boiled, and the rice is kept simmering in it till the fowl is ready. The rice is then drained, and, being taken out of the cloth, is heaped round a dish in the centre of which the fricassée is put. When the dish is wished to be of a superior description, only the best parts of the fowl are used, and the back and side bones are kept back.
Pigeons are still more useful in extemporaneous cooking than fowls, as, being smaller, they are sooner cooked; besides, they are said to lose their flavour when kept. They are very good roasted, either plain or larded (that is, covered with slices of fat bacon, over which are put vine leaves tied on with string): and when the pigeons are nearly done, the string and the remains of the larding are taken off, and the birds browned before the fire. Sometimes they are stuffed with forcemeat before roasting. Another way of dressing pigeons is to cut each in two, and put them into a casserole with a little butter and a few slices of bacon. The casserole should then be held over the fire for a few minutes, shaking it frequently to prevent the pigeons from burning; and, as soon as they have acquired a light brown, a few green peas should be added, and a sufficient quantity of the simple kind of stock I first mentioned poured over them to cover the whole. The pigeons should now stew gradually till they are done, and then a lump of butter worked into a paste with flour should be put into the casserole, to thicken the gravy before dishing up. This is a French dish called Pigeons aux petits pots; and the following is another, which is called Pigeons à la crapaudine. It is made by splitting pigeons down the back, and flattening them as much as can be done without breaking the bones too much. The pieces are then rubbed over with oil, salt, and pepper; and, some crumbs of bread having been prepared and mixed with parsley and Welsh onions chopped very fine, they are rolled in the mixture so as to be covered with it as much as possible, and then broiled. Sometimes the pieces of pigeon are dipped in yolk of egg instead of oil. They are served with a sauce made of shallots chopped fine, and mixed with pepper, salt, and vinegar, with a little melted butter or oil.
Ducks and geese are generally best plain roasted with green peas, or with apple or onion sauce. Dr. Hunter, however, gives the following receipt for a savoury sauce for a roasted goose:—"A table-spoonful of made mustard, half a tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and three spoonfuls of port wine. This mixture is to be made quite hot, and poured into the body of the goose through a slit in the apron, just before serving up."
Game is generally very abundant in a country house. Hares may be either roasted, jugged, or made into soup. Pheasants are generally roasted, either larded or plain. Dr. Hunter recommends the inside to be stuffed with the lean part of a sirloin of beef, minced small and seasoned with pepper and salt.
Partridges are cooked in various ways in France; but in England they are generally either roasted, or dressed in the French way with cabbages. The following is the French receipt for dressing Perdrix aux choux. Take two partridges, and put them into a casserole with butter, a very little flour, three cupfuls of gravy, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon cut into dice, a little bunch of sweet herbs and a laurel leaf, and let them stew gradually. In the mean time boil a savoy cabbage with three quarters of a pound of pickled pork, or two spoonfuls of dripping, filling the pot with water. When the savoy is tender, take it out and drain it, and then put it into the casserole with the partridges; let the whole stew for about half an hour, and then serve it quite hot. Sometimes a carrot is cut in round slices and stewed with the partridges, and this is a great improvement. Care must be taken to remove the bundle of sweet herbs and the laurel leaf before adding the cabbage, as otherwise it might be difficult to find them, and they would not look well if sent to table. Brussels' sprouts may be used instead of a savoy, and they render the dish more delicate. A half-roasted duck may be stewed in this way instead of the partridges, and is excellent.
Any kind of cold game makes an excellent salad, the meat being cut from the bones and mixed with lettuces cut small, and dressed in the usual manner. The French add capers, anchovies, or any other seasoning, to salads, and garnish them with the flowers of the nasturtium and the borage, which may be eaten without danger.
A Magnonnaise is a salad with alternate rows of cold fowl or roast veal, and lettuce, hard eggs cut in quarter slices, or carrot, or beet, gherkins, anchovy, &c. Cold potatoes cut in slices, and dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, make an excellent salad, which may be varied by the addition of fine herbs, slices of beet-root, or anchovies taken from the bones and chopped fine. Boulettes of cold meat, chopped small, and mixed with crumbs of bread or mashed potatoes, are also very useful impromptu dishes. The mixed meat and bread or potatoes is seasoned with pepper, salt, a little parsley, and other herbs, and a shallot or two cut very small; the yolk of an egg or two is then added, and the mixture is made into balls, which are just glazed over