singe him carefully, saving the giblets (neck, heart, gizzard, and
liver,) for the gravy. After he is drawn, wash the inside well, wipe it
dry, and sprinkle it with black pepper. Make a large quantity of
stuffing or forcemeat. It increases his apparent size, and besides is
generally liked. Mince small some cold boiled ham, in equal portions of
fat and lean: grated lemon rind, minced sweet herbs, fresh butter, or
finely minced suet. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs or crumbled rusk;
also, hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Moisten the mixture with lemon
juice and some good white wine. Stuff the turkey well with this
forcemeat, sewing it up, or winding a small cord round the body to
secure the filling. Roast it before a clear and substantial fire,
basting it well with fresh butter. When done, take it up and keep it
hot.
Cut up the giblets and put them into a small sauce-pan, with a very
little water, and stew them while the turkey is roasting; adding a piece
of fresh butter dredged with flour. When done, remove the pieces of
neck, &c., retaining those of the heart, liver, and gizzard. Stir into
the gravy, after it comes from the fire, the yolk of a beaten egg.
Having skimmed the gravy in the dripping-pan, add it to the gravy that
has been made of the giblets, and send it to table in a sauce-boat.
Accompany the turkey with an oval dish, or tureen of cranberry sauce,
made very sweet.
A roast turkey may be stuffed with oysters, or with chestnuts boiled,
peeled, and mashed with butter. If with chestnuts, thicken the gravy
with whole boiled chestnuts. If with oysters, send oyster-sauce to table
with the turkey. If chestnuts cannot be obtained, any roasted poultry is
good stuffed with well-boiled sweet potatos, mashed with plenty of
butter or meat drippings.
The legs of turkeys are never helped to any one at table. They are
always sent away on the dish.
A BONED TURKEY.--For this purpose you must have a fine, large, tender
turkey; and after it is drawn, and washed, and wiped dry, lay it on a
clean table, and take a very sharp knife, with a narrow blade and point.
Begin at the neck; then go round to the shoulders and wings, and
carefully separate the flesh from the bone, scraping it down as you
proceed. Next loosen the flesh from the breast, and back, and body; and
then from the thighs. It requires care and patience to do it nicely, and
to avoid tearing or breaking the skin. The knife should always penetrate
quite to the bone; scraping loose the flesh rather than cutting it. When
all the flesh has been completely loosened, take the turkey by the neck,
give it a pull, and the whole skeleton will come out entirely from the
flesh, as easily as you draw your hand out of a glove. The flesh will
then fall down, a flat and shapeless mass. With a small needle and
thread, carefully sew up any holes that have accidentally been torn in
the skin.
Have ready a large quantity of stuffing, made as follows:--Take three
sixpenny loaves of stale bread; grate the crumb; and put the crust in
water to soak. When quite soft, break them up small into the pan of
grated bread-crumbs, and mix in a pound of fresh butter, cut into little
pieces. Take two large bunches of sweet marjoram; the same of sweet
basil; and one bunch of parsley. Mince the parsley very fine, and rub to
a powder the leaves of the marjoram and basil. You should have two large
heaping table-spoonfuls of each. Chop, also, two very small onions or
shalots, and mix them with the herbs. Pound to powder a quarter of an
ounce of mace; and two large nutmegs. Mix the spices together, and add a
tea-spoonful of salt, and a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper. Then
mix the herbs, spices, &c., thoroughly into the bread-crumbs, and add,
by degrees, four hard-boiled eggs crumbled fine.
Take up a handful of this filling; squeeze it hard, and proceed to stuff
the turkey with it--beginning at the wings; next do the body; and then
the thighs. Stuff it very hard; and, as you proceed, form the turkey
into its natural shape, by filling out, properly, the wings, breast,
body, &c. When all the stuffing is in, sew up the body and skewer the
turkey into the usual shape in which they are trussed; so that, if
skillfully done, it will look almost as if it had not been boned. Tie it
round with tape, and bake it three hours or more; basting it
occasionally with fresh butter. Make a gravy of the giblets, chopped,
and stewed slowly in a little water. When done, add to it the gravy that
is in the dish about the turkey, (having first skimmed off the fat,) and
enrich it with a glass of white wine, and two beaten yolks of eggs,
stirred in just before you take it from the fire.
If the turkey is to be eaten cold at the supper-table, drop
table-spoonfuls of currant or cranberry jelly all over it at small
distances, and in the dish round it.
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.