ROAST WILD DUCK

MRS. J. P. f6sTER.

Parboil in water with a little salt, placing an onion in each duck to absorb the fishy taste that some ducks have; if onion is not agreeable, a carrot is said to answer the same purpose. When boiled, take the duck and stuff as you would turkey, except that onion seems to be necessary. Roast till brown and tender, bast- ing with butter and water at first, then with the drippings. Make a gravy by taking off the superfluous fat and thickening with browned flour.

HE most desirable requisite to make the following re- ceipts good and practical, is good meat. There is no

[[^^ ^ cook in the world who can broil a "chuck steak" into a kj^ sirloin, or roast old ox-beef into a tender "rib roast," or Y make a savory bit of mutton out of an old, tough sheep.

' The cook may do much towards supplying the want of real goodness in the meat, by skillful labor, but to place on the table the choicest dishes, the best of meats are necessary. Every good cook should know how to select the best meats, instead of de- pending on the butcher.

Beef, to be the best, should be from a young steer — killed at three to four years old — after having been fattened as quickly as possible, on good, rich food. THe quicker beef is fattened, the richer and more tender it is, and beef of this class has a bright, rich, red, juicy look, while poor beef looks dark, dry, acid a brown- ish red color.

The best cuts for steaks are from the hind quarter, the loin being generally chosen as the best, but many prefer the round, because, while not so tender, it is more juicy.

For roasting, rib cuts are the best, the bone being removed from the meat, it being skewered so that it comes on the table rolled. There is, however, a difference of taste and fancy as to removing the bones before cooking. Some real epicures think the bones give the meat a richness of flavor not attainable with- out them.

The fore-shoulder furnishes nice pieces for stewing and boiling, and an experienced butcher will supply a few very eatable steaks from it. Corned beef usually comes from the fore-quarter, but butchers generally corn nearly every part which they fail to sell fresh.

36 MEATS.

The calf matures much more rapidly than the lamb and, if well fed and cared for, may be killed at five weeks old, though, in the great majority of cases, the veal improves very rapidly during the sixth and seventh weeks of the calf's age, and it will pay the owner to feed a calf during these two weeks. Calves are some- times killed at four weeks old, but the meat is soft, and too tender

to either cook or eat, and is very unwholesome.

In selecting mutton, choose, as a rule, a medium sized sheep, or a small one. The flesh should have a clear, fresh hue, and the fat, especially around the kidneys, look fat, rich, and rather oily, and a clear white, not a dull whitish color, and not dry. For roasting, the loin is the choice cut; but the fore-shoulder, when properly boned, stuffed and basted, is very nice. The leg is for boiling, or chops.

The age at which lambs furnish the best meat, extends from three to ten months, and at ten, most lambs become sufficiently developed to be called mutton. Like mutton, the hind-quarter is the best; but if the fore-quarter be prepared properly, it is rich and good, and many prefer it to the hind- quarter.