The following is the epicure’s manner of cooking them, not mine.
Carefully pluck them, and take the skin off the heads and necks. Truss
them with the head under the wing. Twist the legs at the first joint,
pressing the feet against the thigh. Do not draw them. Now tie a thin
slice of bacon around each; run a small iron skewer through the birds,
and tie it to a spit at both ends. Roast them at a good fire, placing a
dripping-pan, with buttered slices of toast under them, to catch the
trail as it falls. Baste the snipe often with a paste-brush dipped in
melted butter. Let them roast twenty minutes; then salt the birds, and
serve them immediately on the pieces of toast.
[Illustration]
REED-BIRDS (_Henry Ward Beecher’s Receipt_).
Cut sweet-potatoes lengthwise; scoop out in the centre of each a place
that will fit half the bird. Now put in the birds, after seasoning them
with butter, pepper, and salt, tying the two pieces of potato around
each of them. Bake them. Serve them in the potatoes. Or, they can be
roasted or fried in boiling lard like other birds.