TO ROAST CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Having trussed the ducks, put into each a thick piece of soft bread that has been soaked in port wine. Place them before a quick fire and roast them from three quarters to an hour.
Before they go to table, squeeze over each the juice of a lemon or orange, and serve them up very hot with their own gravy about them. Eat them with currant jelly. Have ready also, a gravy made by stewing slowly in a sauce-pan the giblets of the ducks in b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and as little water as possible. Serve up this additional gravy in a boat.
CANVAS-BACK DUCKS DRESSED PLAIN.--Truss the ducks without washing, but wipe them inside and out with a clean dry cloth. Roast them before a rather quick fire for half an hour. Then send them to table hot, upon a large dish placed on a heater. There must also be heaters under each plate, and currant jelly on both sides of the table, to mix with the gravy, on your plate; claret or port wine also, for those who prefer it as an improvement to the gravy.
TO STEW CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Put the giblets into a sauce-pan with a very little water, and a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and a very little salt and cayenne. Let them stew gently to make a gravy, keeping the sauce-pan covered. In the mean time, half roast the ducks, saving the gravy that falls from them. Then cut them up, put them into a large stew-pan, with the gravy (having first skimmed off the fat,) and merely water enough to keep them from burning. Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let them stew gently till done. Towards the last, (having removed the giblets) pour over the ducks the gravy from the small sauce-pan, and stir in a large gla.s.s of port wine, and a gla.s.s of currant jelly. Send them to table as hot as possible.
Any ducks may be stewed as above. The common wild duck, teal, &c., should always be parboiled with a large carrot in the body to extract the fishy or sedgy taste. On tasting this carrot before it is thrown away, it will be found to have imbibed strongly that disagreeable flavor.
BROILED CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--To eat these ducks with their flavor and juices in perfection, they should be cooked immediately after killing.
If shot early in the morning, they will be found delicious, if broiled for breakfast. If killed in the forenoon, let them be on that day"s dinner table. When they can be obtained quite fresh they want nothing to improve the flavor. Neither do red-necks, or the other water fowl that are found in such abundance on the sh.o.r.es of the Chesapeake.
As soon as the ducks have been plucked, singed, drawn, and washed, split them down the back, (their heads, necks, and legs having been cut off,) rub with chalk the bars of a very clean gridiron, and set it over a bed of bright lively wood-coals. This gridiron (and all others) should have grooved bars, so as to save as much of the gravy as possible. Broil the ducks well and thoroughly, turning them on both sides. They will generally be done in half an hour. Dish them in their own gravy. The flesh should have no redness about it when dished. To half broil them on the gridiron, and to finish the cooking on a hot plate, set over a heater on the table, renders the ducks tough, and deadens the natural taste, for which no made-up sauce can atone. You may lay a few bits of nice b.u.t.ter on them after they are dished.
TERRAPIN DUCKS.--Take a fine large plump duck. Cut it in small pieces, and stew it in merely as much water as will cover it well, and keep it from burning. Let it stew gently, and skim it well. When it is done take it out, and cut all the meat off the bones in little bits. Return the meat to the stew-pan, and lay it in its own gravy. Add the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and make them into little b.a.l.l.s with beaten white of egg, a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter divided into eight bits, each bit dredged with flour, the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg.
Let it stew or simmer gently till it comes to a boil, keeping it covered. When it has boiled, stir in while hot two beaten yolks of raw egg, and two large wine gla.s.ses of sherry or Madeira. Set it over the fire again for two or three minutes, keeping it covered. Then serve it up in a deep dish with a cover.
For company, you must have two ducks, and a double portion of all the above ingredients.
ROAST FOWLS.--Stuff two fowls with a nice forcemeat, made in the best manner, or with good sausage meat, if in haste. Another nice stuffing for roast fowls is boiled chestnuts, stewed in b.u.t.ter, or in nice drippings. Mushrooms cut up and stewed in a very little b.u.t.ter, make a fine stuffing for roasted fowls. Secure the stuffing from falling out by winding a twine or tape round the body of the fowl, or sewing it. Roast the fowls before a very clear fire, basting them with b.u.t.ter. When the fowls are done, set them away to be kept warm, while you finish the gravy, having saved the heart, gizzard, and liver, to enrich it. Skim it well from the fat and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table in a sauce-boat. Serve up with roast fowls, dried peach sauce, or cranberry. Make all fruit sauces very thick and sweet. If watery and sour, they seem poor and mean.
Full-grown fowls require, (at least,) an hour for roasting. If very large, from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.
Nothing can be done with old tough fowls but to boil them in soup, till they are reduced to rags. The soup, of course, should be made chiefly of meat. The fowls will add nothing to its flavor but something to its consistence.
Capons are cooked in the same manner as other fowls. They are well worth their cost.
BOILED FOWLS.--Take a fine plump pair of young (but full-grown) fowls, and prepare them for boiling. Those with white or light yellow legs are considered the best. Make a nice forcemeat stuffing, and fill their bodies with it, and fasten the livers and gizzards under the pinions.
For boiled poultry they are not wanted in the gravy. Having trussed the fowls, and picked and singed them carefully, put them into a large pot containing equal quant.i.ties of boiling water and cold water. This will make it lukewarm. Let them boil steadily for an hour after the simmering has commenced, carefully removing the sc.u.m.
Serve them up with egg sauce, celery sauce, parsley sauce, or oyster sauce--or, with cauliflower or broccoli sauce.
For boiled fowls, you may make a nice stuffing of fresh oysters, cut in small pieces, but not minced. Omit the gristle. Mix them with an equal portion of hard-boiled eggs chopped, but not minced fine. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs, and season with powdered mace. Mix in, also, some bits of fresh b.u.t.ter. Where onions are liked, you may subst.i.tute for the oysters some onions boiled and minced.
Fowls boil very nicely in a _bain marie_, or double kettle, with the water outside. They require a longer time, but are excellent when done.
To quicken the boiling of a double kettle, put a handful of salt in the outside water.
Small chickens, of course, require a shorter time to cook.
PULLED FOWL.--This is a side dish for company. Select a fine tender fowl, young, fat, full-grown, and of a large kind. When quite done take it out of the pot, cover it, and set it away till wanted. Then, with a fork, pull off in flakes all the flesh, (first removing the skin,) and with a chopper break all the bones, and put them into a stew-pan, adding two calves" feet split, and the hock of a cold ham, a small bunch of parsley and sweet marjoram, and a quart of water. Let it boil gently till reduced to a pint. Then take it out. Have ready, in another stew-pan, the bits of pulled fowl. Strain the liquor from the bones, &c., over the fowl, and add a piece of fresh b.u.t.ter, (the size of a small egg,) rolled in flour, and a tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg, mixed. Mix the whole together, and let the pulled fowl stew in gravy for ten minutes. Serve it hot.
A turkey may be cooked in this manner, and will make a fine dish. For a turkey allow four calves" feet.
FRIED CHICKENS.--Cut up a pair of nice young fowls, flatten and quarter them, and season them with cayenne and powdered mace, rubbing it in well. Put some lard into a heated frying pan over the fire, or if you have plenty of nice fresh b.u.t.ter use that in preference. When the lard or b.u.t.ter boils, and has been skimmed, put in the pieces of chicken, and fry them brown on one side. Then turn them, and sprinkle them thickly all over with chopped parsley, or sweet marjoram, and fry them brown on the other side. You may fry with them a few thin slices of cold ham.
Before serving them up drain off the lard you have used for frying.
When there is no dislike to onions, they may be fried nicely with boiled onions cut in rings, and laid over the pieces of chicken.
BROILED CHICKENS.--These are very dry and tasteless if merely split and broiled plain, which is the usual way. It seems to be supposed by many that no chicken is too poor for broiling, and therefore it is often difficult to get more than two or three small mouthfuls of flesh off their bones. On the contrary, poor chickens are not worth broiling or cooking in any way. To have broiled chickens good, choose those that are fat and fleshy. Having cleaned them well, and washed them, and wiped them dry, split and divide them into four quarters; flattening the bones with a steak mallet. They will be much improved by stewing or boiling in a little water for ten minutes. Then draining them and saving the liquor for gravy. Boil in this the neck, feet, heart, gizzard and liver. Strain it after boiling, and save the liver to mash into the gravy. Season the gravy with grated carrot and minced parsley, or sweet marjoram, and a little cayenne, adding a small piece of fresh b.u.t.ter dredged in flour.
Have ready plenty of fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, and in another pan four yolks of eggs well beaten. The quarters of the chickens having become quite cold, dip each one first into the egg, and then into the crumbs. Set the gridiron over a clear fire, and broil the chicken well, first laying down the inside. Having prepared the gravy as above, give it a short boil, then send it to table in a sauce-boat with the chickens.
The excellence of chickens broiled in this way amply repays the trouble.
This is a breakfast dish.
Serve up with the broiled chicken a dish of mashed potato cakes, browned with a salamander or red-hot shovel.
FRICa.s.sEED CHICKEN.--Have ready a pair of fine plump full-grown fowls nicely prepared for cooking. Strip off all the skin, and carve the fowls neatly. Reserve all the white meat and best pieces for the frica.s.see, putting them in a dish by themselves, and save all the inferior pieces or black meat to make the gravy. Season with pepper and salt slightly, and add a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, and four small bits of fresh b.u.t.ter dredged with flour. Put the black meat, herbs, &c., into a stew-pan. Pour in a pint and a half of water, and stew it gently, skimming off every particle of fat. When reduced to less than one half, strain the gravy. Arrange the pieces of white meat in a very clean stew-pan, and pour over them the gravy of the inferior parts; add mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Mix into half a pint of boiling cream, a large tea-spoonful of arrow-root, and shake the pan briskly round, while adding the beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, mixed with more cream, (two table-spoonfuls.) Shake it gently over the fire till it begins to simmer again, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle in an instant.
Watch it carefully.
This is a fine side-dish for company. There is no better way of frica.s.seeing fowls. A frica.s.see is not a fry, but a stew.
Accompany this frica.s.see with a dish of asparagus tops, green peas, or lima beans. Also, mashed potatos.
CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.--Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out by fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin b.u.t.ter kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or saucepan of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,) and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer.
Occasionally take off the lid to remove the sc.u.m, and be sure to put it on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish it with more _hot_ water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard.
When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two table-spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, two table-spoonfuls of chopped oysters, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine, half a grated nutmeg, four blades of mace, and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish and send them to table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent way of cooking chickens. They do well in large _bain marie_.
FOWL AND OYSTERS.--Take a fine fat young fowl, and having trussed it for boiling, fill the body and craw with oysters, seasoned with a few blades of mace, tying it round with twine to keep them in. Put the fowl into a tall strait-sided jar, and cover it closely. Then place the jar in a kettle of water, set it over the fire, and let it boil at least an hour and a half after the water has come to a hard boil. When it is done take out the fowl, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy, of which you will find a quant.i.ty in the jar. Transfer this gravy to a saucepan, enrich it with the beaten yolks of two eggs mixed with three table-spoonfuls of cream, and add a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. If you cannot get cream, you must have a double portion of b.u.t.ter. Set this sauce over the fire, stirring it well, and when it comes to a boil, add twenty-five oysters. In five minutes take it off, put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with the fowl, which cooked in this manner will be found excellent.
Clams may be subst.i.tuted for oysters, but they should be removed from the fowl before it is sent to table. Their flavor being drawn out in the gravy, the clams themselves will be found tough, tasteless, and not proper to be eaten.
FRENCH CHICKEN PIE.--Parboil a pair of full-grown, but fat and tender chickens. Then take the giblets, and put them into a small sauce-pan with as much of the water in which the chickens were parboiled as will cover them well, and stew them for gravy; add a bunch of sweet herbs and a few blades of mace. When the chickens are cold, dissect them as for carving. Line a deep dish with thick puff paste, and put in the pieces of chicken. Take a nice thin slice of cold ham, or two slices of smoked tongue, and pound them one at a time in a marble mortar, pounding also the livers of the chickens, and the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs. Make this forcemeat into b.a.l.l.s, and intersperse them among the pieces of chicken. Add some bits of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and then (having removed the giblets) pour on the gravy. Cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste, rolled out thick; and notch the edges handsomely; placing a knot or ornament of paste on the centre of the top. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and bake it brown. It should be eaten warm.
This pie will be greatly improved by a pint of mushrooms, cut into pieces. Also by a small tea-cup of cream.
Any pie of poultry, pigeons, or game may be made in this manner.
CHICKEN GUMBO.--Cut up a young fowl as if for a frica.s.see. Put into a stew-pan a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter, mixed with a tea-spoonful of flour, and an onion finely minced. Brown them over the fire, and then add a quart of water, and the pieces of chicken, with a large quarter of a peck of ochras, (first sliced thin, and then chopped,) and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the pan, and let the whole stew together, till the ochras are entirely dissolved, and the fowl thoroughly done. If it is a very young chicken, do not put it in at first; as half an hour will be sufficient to cook it. Serve it up hot in a deep dish.
You may add to the ochras an equal quant.i.ty of tomatos cut small. If you use tomatos, no water will be necessary, as their juice will supply a sufficient liquid.
[D]FILET GUMBO.--Cut up a pair of fine plump fowls into pieces, as when carving. Lay them in a pan of cold water, till all the blood is drawn out. Put into a pot, two large table-spoonfuls of lard, and set it over the fire. When the lard has come to a boil, put in the chickens with an onion finely minced. Dredge them well with flour, and season slightly with salt and pepper; and, if you like it, a little chopped marjoram.
Pour on it two quarts of boiling water. Cover it, and let it simmer slowly for three hours. Then stir into it two heaped tea-spoonfuls of sa.s.safras powder. Afterwards, let it stew five or six minutes longer, and then send it to table in a deep dish; having a dish of boiled rice to be eaten with it by those who like rice.