VENISON, &c.
TO ROAST A SADDLE OR HAUNCH OF VENISON.
Wipe it all over with a sponge dipped in warm water Then rub the skin with lard or nice dripping. Cover the fat with sheets of paper two double, b.u.t.tered, and tied on with packthread that has been soaked to keep it from burning. Or, what is still better, you may cover the first sheets of paper with a coa.r.s.e paste of flour and water rolled out half an inch thick, and then cover the paste with the second sheets of paper, securing the whole well with the string to prevent its falling off. Place the venison on the spit before a strong clear fire, such as you would have for a sirloin of beef, and let the fire be well kept up all the time. Put some claret and b.u.t.ter into the dripping-pan and baste the meat with it frequently. If wrapped in paste, it will not be done in less than five hours. Half an hour before you take it up, remove the coverings carefully, place the meat nearer to the fire, baste it with fresh b.u.t.ter and dredge it very lightly with flour. Send it to table with fringed white paper wrapped round the bone, and its own gravy well skimmed. Have currant jelly to eat with it. As venison chills immediately, the plates should be kept on heaters.
You may make another gravy with a pound and a half of sc.r.a.ps and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs or inferior pieces of venison, put into a sauce-pan with three pints of water, a few cloves, a few blades of mace, half a nutmeg; and salt and cayenne to your taste. Boil it down slowly to a pint. Then skim off the fat, and strain the gravy into a clean sauce-pan. Add to it half a pint of currant jelly, half a pint of claret, and near a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter divided into bits and rolled in flour. Send it to table in two small tureens or sauce-boats. This gravy will be found very fine.
Venison should never be roasted unless very fat. The shoulder is a roasting piece, and may be done without the paper or paste.
Venison is best when quite fresh; but if it is expedient to keep it a week before you cook it, wash it well with milk and water, and then dry it perfectly with cloths till there is not the least damp remaining on it. Then mix together powdered ginger and pepper, and rub it well over every part of the meat. Do not, however, attempt to keep it unless the weather is quite cold.
TO HASH COLD VENISON.
Cut the meat in nice small slices, and put the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and bones into a sauce-pan with barely water enough to cover them. Let them stew for an hour. Then strain the liquid into a stew-pan; add to it some bits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and whatever gravy was left of the venison the day before. Stir in some currant jelly, and give it a boil up. Then put in the meat, and keep it over the fire just long enough to warm it through; but do not allow it to boil, as it has been once cooked already.
VENISON STEAKS.
Cut them from the neck or haunch. Season them with pepper and salt. When the gridiron has been well heated over a bed of bright coals, grease the bars, and lay the steaks upon it. Broil them well, turning them once, and taking care to save as much of the gravy as possible. Serve them up with some currant jelly laid on each steak. Have your plates set on heaters.
VENISON PASTY.
The neck, breast, and shoulder are the parts used for a venison pie or pasty. Cut the meat into pieces (fat and lean together) and put the bones and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs into a stew-pan with pepper and salt, and water or veal broth enough to cover it. Simmer it till you have drawn out a good gravy. Then strain it.
In the mean time make a good rich paste, and roll it rather thick.
Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with one sheet of it, and put in your meat, having seasoned it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and mace. Pour in the gravy which you have prepared from the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, and two gla.s.ses of port or claret, and lay on the top some hits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Cover the pie with a thick lid of paste, and ornament it handsomely with leaves and flowers formed with a tin cutter. Bake it two hours or more, according to its size.
VENISON HAMS.
Venison for hams must be newly killed, and in every respect as good as possible. Mix together equal quant.i.ties of salt and brown sugar, and rub it well into the hams. Put them into a tub, and let them lie seven days; turning them and rubbing them daily with the mixture of salt and sugar. Next mix together saltpetre and common salt, in the proportion of two ounces of saltpetre to a handful of salt. Rub it well into your hams, and let them lie a week longer.
Then wipe them, rub them with bran, and smoke them a fortnight over hickory wood. Pack them in wood ashes.
Venison ham must not be cooked before it is eaten. It is used for the tea-table, chipped or shred like dried beef, to which it is considered very superior.
It will not keep as long as other smoked meat.
TO ROAST A KID.
A kid should be cooked the day it is killed, or the day after at farthest. They are best from three to four months old, and are only eaten while they live on milk.
Wash the kid well, wipe it dry, and truss it. Stuff the body with a force-meat of grated bread, b.u.t.ter or suet, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, grated lemon-peel, and beaten egg; and sew it up to keep the stuffing in its place. Put it on the spit and rub it over with lard, or sweet oil. Put a little salt and water into the dripping-pan, and baste the kid first with that, and afterwards with its own gravy. Or you may make it very nice by basting it with cream. It should roast about three hours. At the last, transfer the gravy to a small sauce-pan; thicken it with a little b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, give it a boil up, and send it to table in a boat. Garnish the kid with lumps of currant jelly laid round the edge of the dish.
A fawn (which should never be kept more than one day) may be roasted in the same manner; also, a hare, or a couple of rabbits.
You may send to table, to eat with the kid, a dish of chestnuts boiled or roasted, and divested of the sh.e.l.ls.
TO ROAST A HARE.
If a hare is old do not roast it, but make soup of it. Wash and soak it in water for an hour, and change the water several times, having made a little slit in the neck to let out the blood. Take out the heart and liver, and scald them. Drain, dry, and truss the hare. Make a force-meat richer and more moist than usual, and add to it the heart and liver minced fine. Soak the bread-crumbs in a little claret before you mix them with the other ingredients.
Stuff the body of the hare with this force-meat, and sew it up.
Put it on the spit, rub it with b.u.t.ter, and roast it before a brisk fire. For the first half hour baste it with b.u.t.ter; and afterwards with cream, or with milk thickened with beaten yolk of egg. At the last, dredge it lightly with flour. The hare will require about two hours roasting.
For sauce, take the drippings of the hare mixed with cream or with claret, and a little lemon-juice, a bit of b.u.t.ter, and some bread-crumbs.
Give it a boil up, and send it to table in a boat. Garnish the hare with slices of currant jelly laid round it in the dish.
FRICa.s.sEED RABBITS.
The best way of cooking rabbits is to frica.s.see them. Take a couple of fine ones, and cut them up, or disjoint them. Put them into a stew-pan; season them with cayenne pepper and salt, some chopped parsley, and some powdered mace. Pour in a pint of warm water (or of veal broth, if you have it) and stew it over a slow fire till the rabbits are quite tender; adding (when they are about half done) some bits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Just before you take it from the fire, enrich the gravy with a jill or more of thick cream with some nutmeg grated into it. Stir the gravy well, but take care not to let it boil after the cream is in, lest it curdle.
Put the pieces of rabbit on a hot dish, and pour the gravy over them.
TO STEW RABBITS.
Having trussed the rabbits, lay them in a pan of warm water for about fifteen minutes. Then put them into a pot with plenty of water and a little salt, and stew them slowly for about an hour, or till they are quite tender. In the mean time, peel and boil in a sauce-pan a dozen onions. When they are quite tender all through, take them out, and drain and slice them. Have ready some drawn, b.u.t.ter, prepared by taking six ounces of b.u.t.ter, (cut into bits and rolled in about three tea-spoonfuls of flour,) and melting it in a jill of milk. After shaking it round-over hot coals till it simmers, add to it the onions, and give it one boil up.
When the rabbits are done stewing lay them on a large dish (having first cut off their heads, which should not he sent to table) and cover them all over with the onion-sauce, to which you may add some grated nutmeg.
TO FRY RABBITS,
Having washed the rabbits well, put them into a pan of cold water, and let them lie in it two or three hours. Then cut them into joints, dry them in a cloth, dredge them with flour, strew them with chopped parsley, and fry them in b.u.t.ter. After you take them out of the frying-pan, stir a wine-gla.s.s of cream into the gravy, or the beaten yolk of an egg. Do not let it boil, but pour it at once into the dish with the rabbits.
Rabbits are very good baked in a pie. A boiled or pot-pie may be made of them.
They may he stuffed with force-meat and roasted, basting them with b.u.t.ter. Cut off their heads before you send them to table.
POULTRY, GAME, &c.
GENERAL REMARKS
In buying poultry choose those that are fresh and fat. Half-grown poultry is comparatively insipid; it is best when full-grown but not old. Old poultry is tough and hard. An old goose is so tough as to be frequently uneatable. When poultry is young the skin is thin and tender, and can be easily tipped by trying it with a pin; the legs are smooth; the feet moist and limber; and the eyes full and bright. The body should be thick and the breast fat. The bill and feet of a young goose are yellow, and have but few hairs on them; when old they are red and hairy.
Poultry is best when killed overnight, as if cooked too soon after-killing, it is hard and does not taste well. It is not the custom in America, as in some parts of Europe, to keep game, or indeed any sort of eatable, till it begins to taint; all food when inclining to decomposition being regarded by us with disgust.
When poultry or game is frozen, it should be brought into the kitchen early in the morning of the day on which it is to be cooked. It may be thawed by laying it several hours in cold water.
If it is not thawed it will require double the time to cook, and will be tough and tasteless when done. In drawing poultry be very careful not to break the gall, lest its disagreeable bitterness should be communicated to the liver.