Pick and draw the birds immediately after they are brought in.
Before you roast them, fill the inside with pieces of a fine ripe
orange, leaving out the rind and seeds. Or stuff them with grated
cold ham, mixed with bread-crumbs, butter, and a little yolk of
egg. Lard them with small slips of the fat of bacon drawn through
the flesh with a larding needle, Roast them before a clear fire.
Make a fine rich gravy of the trimmings of meat or poultry, stewed
in a little water, and thickened with a spoonful of browned flour.
Strain it, and set it on the fire again, having added half a pint
of claret, and the juice of two large oranges. Simmer it for a few
minutes, pour some of it into the dish with the game, and serve
the remainder in a boat.
If you stuff them with force-meat, you may, instead of larding,
brush them all over with beaten yolk of egg, and then cover them,
with bread-crumbs grated finely and sifted.
ANOTHER WAY TO ROAST PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, &c.
Chop some fine raw oysters, omitting the hard part; mix them with
salt, and nutmeg, and add some beaten yolk of egg to bind the
other ingredients. Cut some very thin slices of cold ham or bacon,
and cover the birds with them; then wrap them closely in sheets of
white paper well buttered, put them on the spit, and roast them
before a clear fire.
Send them to table with oyster-sauce in a boat.
Pies may be made of any of these birds in the same manner as a
pigeon pie.