A turkey should be accompanied by ham or tongue. Serve up with it mushroom-sauce. Have stewed cranberries on the table to eat with it. Do not help any one to the legs, or drum-sticks as they are called.
Turkeys are sometimes stuffed entirely with sausage-meat. Small cakes of this meat should then be fried, and laid round it.
To bone a turkey, you must begin with a very sharp knife at the top of the wings, and sc.r.a.pe the flesh loose from the bone without dividing or cutting it to pieces. If done carefully and dexterously, the whole ma.s.s of flesh may be separated from the bone, so that you can take hold of the head and draw out the entire skeleton at once. A large quant.i.ty of force-meat having been prepared, stuff it hard into the turkey, restoring it by doing so to its natural form, filling out the body, breast, wings and legs, so as to resemble their original shape when the bones were in. Roast or bake it; pouring a gla.s.s of port wine into the gravy. A boned turkey is frequently served up cold, covered with lumps of currant jelly; slices of which are laid round the dish.
Any sort of poultry or game may be boned and stuffed in the same manner,
A cold turkey that has not been boned is sometimes sent to table larded all over the breast with slips of fat bacon, drawn through the flesh with a larding needle, and arranged in regular form.
TO BOIL A TURKEY.
Take twenty-five large fine oysters, and chop them. Mix with them half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, half a handful of chopped parsley, a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, two table-spoonfuls, of cream or rich milk, and the beaten yolks of three eggs. When it is thoroughly mixed, stuff the craw of the turkey with it, and sew up the skin. Then dredge it with flour, put it into a large pot or kettle, and cover it well with cold water. Place it over the fire, and let it boil slowly for half an hour, taking off the sc.u.m as it rises. Then remove the pot from over the fire, and set it on hot coals to stew slowly for two hours, or two hours and a half, according to its size, Just before you send it to table, place it again over the fire to get well heated. When you boil a turkey, skewer the liver and gizzard to the sides, under the wings.
Send it to table with oyster-sauce in a small tureen.
In making the stuffing, you may subst.i.tute for the grated bread, chestnuts boiled, peeled, and minced or mashed. Serve up chestnut-sauce, made by peeling some boiled chestnuts and putting them whole into melted b.u.t.ter,
Some persons, to make them white, boil their turkeys tied up in a large cloth sprinkled with flour.
With a turkey, there should be on the table a ham, or a smoked tongue.
TO ROAST PIGEONS.
Draw and pick four pigeons immediately after they are killed, and let them be cooked soon, as they do not keep well. Wash the inside very clean, and wipe it dry. Stuff them with a mixture of parsley parboiled and chopped, grated bread-crumbs, and b.u.t.ter; seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Dredge them with flour, and roast them before a good fire, basting them with b.u.t.ter. They will be done in about twenty-five or thirty minutes. Serve them up with parsley-sauce. Lay the pigeons on the dish in a row.
If asparagus is in season, it will be much better than parsley both for the stuffing and sauce. It must first be boiled. Chop the green heads for the stuffing, and cut them in two for the melted b.u.t.ter. Have cranberry-sauce on the table.
Pigeons may be split and broiled, like chickens; also stewed or frica.s.seed.
They are very good stewed with slices of cold ham and green peas, serving up all in the same dish.
PIGEON PIE.
Take four pigeons, and pick and clean them very nicely, Season them with pepper and salt, and put inside of every one a large piece of b.u.t.ter and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Have ready a good paste, allowing a pound of b.u.t.ter to two pounds of sifted flour. Roll it out rather thick, and line with it the bottom and sides of a large deep dish. Put in the pigeons, and lay on the top some bits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Pour in nearly enough of water to fill the dish. Cover the pie with a lid of paste rolled out thick, and nicely notched, and ornamented with paste leaves and flowers.
You may make a similar pie of pheasants, partridges, or grouse.
TO ROAST PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, OR GROUSE.
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, b.u.t.ter, 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 tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs 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 b.u.t.tered, 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.
TO ROAST SNIPES, WOODc.o.c.kS, OR PLOVERS.
Pick them immediately; but it is the fashion to cook these birds without drawing. Cut some slices of bread, allowing a slice to each bird, and (having pared off the crust) toast them nicely, and lay them in the bottom of the dripping-pan to catch the trail, as it is called. Dredge the birds with flour, and put them on a small spit before a clear brisk fire. Baste them with lard, or fresh b.u.t.ter. They will be done in twenty or thirty minutes. Serve them up laid on the toast, and garnished with sliced orange, or with orange jelly.
Have brown gravy in a boat.
TO ROAST REED-BIRDS, OR ORTOLANS.
Put into every bird, an oyster, or a little b.u.t.ter mixed with some finely sifted bread-crumbs. Dredge them with flour. Run a small skewer through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with lard or with fresh b.u.t.ter. They will be done in about ten minutes.
A very nice way of cooking these birds is, (having greased them all over with lard or with fresh b.u.t.ter, and wrapped them in vine leaves secured closely with a string,) to lay them in a heated iron pan, and bury them in ashes hot enough to roast or bake them.
Remove the vine leaves before you send the birds to table.
Reed birds are very fine made into little dumplings with a thin crust of flour and b.u.t.ter, and boiled about twenty minutes. Each must be tied in a separate cloth.
LARDING.
To lard meat or poultry is to introduce into the surface of the flesh, slips of the fat only of bacon, by means of a larding-pin or larding-needle, it being called by both names. It is a steel instrument about a foot long, sharp at one end, and cleft at the other into four divisions, which are near two inches in length, and resemble tweezers. It can be obtained at the hardware stores.
Cut the bacon into slips about two inches in length, half an inch in breadth, and half an inch in thickness. If intended for poultry, the slips of bacon should not be thicker than a straw.
Put them, one at a time, into the cleft or split end of the larding-needle. Give each slip a slight twist, and press it down hard into the needle with your fingers. Then push the needle through the flesh, (avoiding the places where the bones are,) and when you draw it out it will have left behind it the slip of bacon sticking in the surface. Take care to have all the slips of the same size, and arranged in regular rows at equal distances. Every slip should stand up about an inch. If any are wrong, take them out and do them over again. To lard handsomely and neatly requires practice and dexterity.
Fowls and game are generally larded on the breast only. If cold, they can be done with the fat of cold boiled ham. Larding may be made to look very tastefully on any thing that is not to be cooked afterwards.
FORCE-MEAT b.a.l.l.s.
To a pound of the lean of a leg of veal, allow a pound of beef suet. Mince them together very fine. Then season it to your taste with pepper, salt, mace, nutmeg, and chopped sage or sweet marjoram. Then chop a half-pint of oysters, and beat six eggs very well. Mix the whole together, and pound it to a paste in a marble mortar. If you do not want it immediately, put it away in a stone pot, strew a little flour on the top, and cover it closely.
When you wish to use the force-meat, divide into equal parts as much of it as you want; and having floured your hands, roll it into round b.a.l.l.s, all of the same size. Either fry them in b.u.t.ter, or boil them.
This force-meat will be found a very good stuffing for meat or poultry.