Only macaroon custards are good enough to be served at this point and
these you make by covering half a pound of macaroons with hot cream
first. When cool, beat well. Then add the yolks and whites beaten
separately of six eggs and a tablespoonful of brandy. Butter some
moulds, fill with the mixture and bake for ten minutes. Unmould on
lace paper before serving. Yes, of course, have them cold. Who wants
hot custard?
For a drink? Cider cup. Not here, but elsewhere, a page or two away,
will you find directions for making this decoction.
* * * * *
A few pages back I related an account of some of the happenings of my
trip to market in search of game birds of the smaller kinds. Appended
to this recital were given in a more or less appetizing fashion a few
directions for preparing the birds which it seemed to me must find
favor with epicures and laymen alike; and, assuming that approval was
accorded these recipes, of which some were begged, others borrowed and
more stolen, I am giving herewith hints for use in the preparation of
the larger birds to be had now, with honors easy as to quantity and
quality. As to price, you may pay what you will, almost, from
seventy-five cents up to three and four and even five dollars per
pair.
To begin with, there are the toothsome canvas-backs that lead in price
and palate-tickling properties. Now, I know quite as well as you that
not every one who pleases may dine from canvas-back when fancy
dictates; in fact, with nine out of ten householders something very
like a dispute takes place between the purse and the palate in every
instance where canvas-back forms the _pièce de résistance_ at dinner.
But the next time the palate wins in the debate go straightway to
market and secure its indulgence from a marketman who will give you
his oath that the canvas-backs he has on sale have fed on the banks
where the wild celery grows, _i. e._, along the Gunpowder River, a
tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, and you may feel sure that you have
the best the market affords.