Wild duck should not be dressed too soon after being killed. If the weather is cold it will be better for being kept several days. Bake in a hot oven, letting it remain for five or ten minutes without basting to keep in the gravy, then baste frequently with b.u.t.ter and water. If over-done it loses flavor, thirty to forty minutes in the right kind of an oven being sufficient. Serve on a very hot dish, and send to table as hot as possible with a cut lemon and the following sauce:--
Put in a tiny saucepan a tablespoonful each of Worcestershire sauce and mushroom catsup, a little salt and cayenne pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Mix well, make it hot, remove from the fire and stir in a teaspoonful of made mustard. Pour into a hot gravy boat.
_California Style, Lick House._
WILD DUCKS.
Most wild ducks are apt to have the flavor of fish, and when in the hands of inexperienced cooks are sometimes unpalatable on this account. Before roasting them, parboil them with a small peeled carrot put within each duck. This absorbs the unpleasant taste. An onion will have the same effect, but unless you use onions in the stuffing the carrot is preferable. Roast the same as tame duck. Or put into the duck a whole onion peeled, plenty of salt and pepper and a gla.s.s of claret, bake in a hot oven twenty minutes. Serve hot with the gravy it yields in cooking and a dish of currant jelly.
CANVAS-BACK DUCK.
The epicurean taste declares that this special kind of bird requires no spices or flavors to make it perfect, as the meat partakes of the flavor of the food that the bird feeds upon, being mostly wild celery; and the delicious flavor is best preserved when roasted quickly with a hot fire. After dressing the duck in the usual way by plucking, singeing, drawing, wipe it with a wet towel, truss the head under the wing; place it in a dripping-pan, put it in the oven, basting often, and roast it half an hour. It is generally preferred a little underdone. Place it when done on a hot dish, season well with salt and pepper, pour over it the gravy it has yielded in baking and serve it immediately while hot.
_Delmonico._
ROAST PIGEONS.
Pigeons lose their flavor by being kept more than a day after they are killed. They may be prepared and roasted or broiled the same as chickens; they will require from twenty to thirty minutes" cooking.
Make a gravy of the giblets or not, season it with pepper and salt, and add a little flour and b.u.t.ter.
STEWED PIGEONS.
Clean and stuff with onion dressing, thyme, etc.,--do not sew up; take five or more slices of corned pork, let it fry a while in a pot so that the fat comes out and it begins to brown a little; then lay the pigeons all around in the fat, leaving the pork still in; add hot water enough to partially cover them; cover tightly and boil an hour or so until tender; then turn off some of the liquid, and keep turning them so they will brown nicely; then heat and add the liquor poured off; add extra thyme, pepper, and keep turning until the pigeons and gravy are nicely browned. Thicken with a little flour, and serve with the gravy poured over them; garnish with parsley.
PIGEON PIE.
Take half a dozen pigeons; stuff each one with a dressing the same as for turkey; loosen the joints with a knife, but do not separate them.
Put them in a stewpan with water enough to cover them, let them cook until nearly tender, then season them with salt and pepper and b.u.t.ter.
Thicken the gravy with flour, remove and cool. b.u.t.ter a pudding dish, line the sides with a rich crust. Have ready some hard-boiled eggs cut in slices. Put in a layer of egg and birds and gravy until the dish is full. Cover with a crust and bake.
BROILED PIGEONS OR SQUABS.
Split them down the back and broil the same as chicken; seasoning well with salt, pepper and plenty of b.u.t.ter. Broil slices of salt pork, very thin; place a slice over each bird and serve.
SQUAB POT-PIE.
Cut into dice three ounces of salt pork; divide six wild squabs into pieces at the joints; remove the skin. Cut up four potatoes into small squares, and prepare a dozen small dough b.a.l.l.s.
Put into a yellow, deep baking dish the pork, potatoes and squabs, and then the b.a.l.l.s of dough, season with salt, white pepper, a dash of mace or nutmeg; add hot water enough to cover the ingredients, cover with a "short" pie-crust and bake in a moderate oven three-quarters of an hour.
_Palmer House, Chicago._
WOODc.o.c.k, ROASTED.
Skin the head and neck of the bird, pluck the feathers, and truss it by bringing the beak of the bird under the wing, and fastening the pinion to the thigh; twist the legs at the knuckles and press the feet upon the thigh. Put a piece of bread under each bird to catch the drippings, baste with b.u.t.ter, dredge with flour, and roast fifteen or twenty minutes with a sharp fire. When done, cut the bread in diamond shape, each piece large enough to stand one bird upon, place them aslant on your dish, and serve with gravy enough to moisten the bread; serve some in the dish and some in the tureen; garnish with slices of lemon. Roast from twenty to twenty-five minutes.
SNIPE.
Snipe are similar to woodc.o.c.k, and may be served in the same manner; they will require less time to roast.
REED BIRDS.
Pick and draw them very carefully, salt and dredge with flour, and roast with a quick fire ten or fifteen minutes. Serve on toast with b.u.t.ter and pepper. You can put in each one an oyster dipped in b.u.t.ter and then in bread crumbs before roasting. They are also very nice broiled.
ROAST QUAIL.
Rinse well and steam over boiling water until tender, then dredge with flour, and smother in b.u.t.ter; season with salt and pepper and roast inside the stove; thicken the gravy; serve with green grape jelly, and garnish with parsley.
TO ROAST PARTRIDGES, PHEASANTS, QUAIL OR GROUSE.
Carefully cut out all the shot, wash thoroughly but quickly, using soda in the water; rinse again, and dry with a clean cloth. Stuff them and sew them up. Skewer the legs and wings to the body, larder the breast with very thin slices of fat salt pork, place them in the oven, and baste with b.u.t.ter and water before taking up, having seasoned them with salt and pepper; or you can leave out the pork and use only b.u.t.ter, or cook them without stuffing. Make a gravy of the drippings thickened with browned flour. Boil up and serve in a boat.
These are all very fine broiled, first splitting down the back, placing on the gridiron the inside down, cover with a baking tin, and broil slowly at first. Serve with cream gravy.
GAME PIE.
Clean well, inside and out, a dozen small birds, quail, snipe, woodc.o.c.k, etc., and split them in half; put them in a saucepan with about two quarts of water; when it boils, skim off all sc.u.m that rises; then add salt and pepper, a bunch of minced parsley, one onion chopped fine, and three whole cloves. Cut up half a pound of salt pork into dice, and let all boil until tender, using care that there be enough water to cover the birds. Thicken this with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour and let it boil up. Stir in a piece of b.u.t.ter as large as an egg; remove from the fire and let it cool. Have ready a pint of potatoes cut as small as dice, and a rich crust made. Line the sides of a b.u.t.tered pudding dish with the crust; lay in the birds, then some of the potatoes, then birds and so on, until the dish is full. Pour over the gravy, put on the top crust, with a slit cut in the centre, and bake. The top can be ornamented with pastry leaves in a wreath about the edge, with any fancy design placed in the centre across the slit.
_Rockaway Beach._
s...o...b..RDS.
One dozen thoroughly cleaned birds; stuff each with an oyster, put them into a yellow dish, and add two ounces of boiled salt pork and three raw potatoes cut into slices; add a pint of oyster liquor, an ounce of b.u.t.ter; salt and pepper; cover the dish with a crust and bake in moderate oven.
SQUIRREL.
They are cooked similar to rabbits, are excellent when broiled or made into a stew, and, in fact, are very good in all the different styles of cooking similar to rabbit.
There are many species common to this country; among them the black, red, gray and fox. Gophers and chipmunks may also be cla.s.sed as another but smaller variety.
ROAST HARE OR RABBIT.