Cut a chicken in quarters; put it into three or four quarts of water;
put in a cup of rice while the water is cold; season it with pepper
and salt; some use nutmeg. Let it stew gently, until the chicken falls
apart. A little parsley, shred fine, is an improvement. Some slice up
a small onion and stew with it. A few pieces of cracker may be thrown
in if you like.
A common sized goose should roast full three quarters of an hour. The
oil that drips from it should be nearly all turned off; it makes the
gravy too greasy; and it is nice for shortening. It should first be
turned into cold water; when hardened, it should be taken off and
scalded in a skillet. This process leaves it as sweet as lard.
Ducks do not need to be roasted more than fifteen or twenty minutes.
Butter melted in boiling flour and water is proper sauce for boiled
lamb, mutton, veal, turkeys, geese, chickens, and fish. Some people
cut up parsley fine, and throw in. Some people like capers put in.
Others heat oysters through on the gridiron, and take them out of the
shells, and throw them into the butter.
A good sized turkey should be roasted two hours and a half, or three
hours; very slowly at first. If you wish to make plain stuffing, pound
a cracker, or crumble some bread very fine, chop some raw salt pork
very fine, sift some sage, (and summer-savory, or sweet-marjoram,
if you have them in the house, and fancy them,) and mould them all
together, seasoned with a little pepper. An egg worked in makes the
stuffing cut better; but it is not worth while when eggs are dear.
About the same length of time is required for boiling and roasting.
Pigeons may be either roasted, potted or stewed. Potting is the best,
and the least trouble. After they are thoroughly picked and cleaned,
put a small slice of salt pork, and a little ball of stuffing, into
the body of every pigeon. The stuffing should be made of one egg
to one cracker, an equal quantity of suet, or butter, seasoned with
sweet-marjoram, or sage, if marjoram cannot be procured. Flour the
pigeons well, lay them close together in the bottom of the pot, just
cover them with water, throw in a bit of butter, and let them stew an
hour and a quarter if young; an hour and three quarters if old. Some
people turn off the liquor just before they are done, and brown the
pigeons on the bottom of the pot; but this is very troublesome, as
they are apt to break to pieces.
Stewed pigeons are cooked in nearly the same way, with the omission of
the stuffing. Being dry meat, they require a good deal of butter.
Pigeons should be stuffed and roasted about fifteen minutes before a
smart fire. Those who like birds just warmed through, would perhaps
think less time necessary. It makes them nicer to butter them well
just before you take them off the spit, and sprinkle them with nicely
pounded bread, or cracker. All poultry should be basted and floured a
few minutes before it is taken up.
The age of pigeons can be judged by the color of the legs. When young,
they are of a pale delicate brown; as they grow older, the color is
deeper and redder.
A nice way of serving up cold chicken, or pieces of cold fresh meat,
is to make them into a meat pie. The gizzards, livers, and necks of
poultry, parboiled, are good for the same purpose. If you wish to
bake your meat pie, line a deep earthen or tin pan with paste made of
flour, cold water, and lard; use but little lard, for the fat of the
meat will shorten the crust. Lay in your bits of meat, or chicken,
with two or three slices of salt pork; place a few thin slices of your
paste here and there; drop in an egg or two, if you have plenty. Fill
the pan with flour and water, seasoned with a little pepper and salt.
If the meat be very lean, put in a piece of butter, or such sweet
gravies as you may happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and put
it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook half an hour, or an hour,
according to the size of the pie. Some people think this the nicest
way of cooking fresh chickens. When thus cooked, they should be
parboiled before they are put into the pan, and the water they are
boiled in should be added. A chicken pie needs to be cooked an hour
and a half, if parboiled; two hours, if not.
If you wish to make a pot pie instead of a baked pie, you have only to
line the bottom of a porridge pot with paste, lay in your meat, season
and moisten it in the same way, cover it with paste, and keep it
slowly stewing about the same time that the other takes. In both
cases, it is well to lift the upper crust, a little while before you
take up the pie, and see whether the moisture has dried away; if so,
pour in flour and water well mixed, and let it boil up.
Potatoes should be boiled in a separate vessel.
If you have fear that poultry may become musty before you want to
cook it, skin an onion, and put in it; a little pepper sprinkled in is
good; it should be kept hung up in a dry, cool place.
If poultry is injured before you are aware of it, wash it very
thoroughly in pearlash and water, and sprinkle pepper inside when you
cook it. Some people hang up poultry with a muslin bag of charcoal
inside. It is a good plan to singe injured poultry over lighted
charcoal, and to hold a piece of lighted charcoal inside, a few
minutes.
Many people parboil the liver and gizzard, and cut it up very fine, to
be put into the gravy, while the fowls are cooking; in this case, the
water they are boiled in should be used to make the gravy.