SO POULTRY, GAME, ETC

with pepper and salt, and baste them well with butter on both sides.

PAETEIDGES, MINCED. — Take the fillets from eight roasted partridges, mince, and put them into a saucepan ; make a light roux, in which put the livers and lights of the birds, a bay-leaf} a clove, three shallots, and a little sage; give them a few turns* and then add two large glasses of stock ; reduce the sauce to halfy strain and put it to the mince, stirring it till it is thick and smooth ; make it hot, but not boiling ; serve it over fried bread, and garnish your dish with either poached or hard eggs.

PAETEIDGES, BEOILED. — Take five partridges, cut them in halves, trim and dip them in melted butter, and bread them twice ; a quarter of an hour before dinner broil them.

QUAILS, ROASTED. — Truss the birds, and stuff them with beef- suet and sweet herbs, both shred very small, seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; fasten them to a spit, and put them to tha fire ; baste with salt and water when they first begin to get warm ; then dredge them with flour, and baste with butter. Put an anchovy, two or three shallots, and the juice of a Seville or- ange into a little rich gravy ; set it on the fire, shake it about, and when the anchovy is dissolved, serve it with the quails Garnish the dish with fried bread-crumbs. These birds are some- times roasted, wrapped first in a slice of bacon, and then in a vine- leaf They should be kept at a moderate distance from the fire.

PIGEON. — Take eight pigeons, cut down two of the oldest, and put them, with the necks, pinions, livers, and gizzards of the others, into four quarts of water ; let it boil till the substance be extracted, and strain it; season the pigeons with mixed spices and salt, and truss them as for stewing ; pick and wash clean a handful of parsley, chives, or young onions, and a good deal of spinach; chop them ; put in a frying-pan a quarter of a pound of butter, and when it boils, mix in a handful of bread-crumbs; keep stirring them with a knife till of a fine brown ; boil the whole pigeons till they become tender in the stock with the herbs and fried bread; if the soup be not sufficiently high- seasoned, add more mixed spices and salt.

PIGEONS may be either roasted, potted, stewed, or broiled.

Potting is the best, and the least trouble. After they are thoroughly picked and cleaned, put a small slice of salt pork, and a little ball of stuffing, into the body of every pigeon. The stuffing should be made of one egg to one cracker, an equal quantity of suet or butter seasoned with sweet marjoram, or sage, it' marjoram cannot b§ procured. Flour the pigeons well, lay them close together in the l»<>tt«»m of the pot, just cover

tnem with water, throw in a bit of butter, and let them stew an hour and a quarter, if young; an hour and three-quarters, if old. Some people turn off the liquor just before they are done, and brown the pigeons on the bottom of the pot; but this is very troublesome, as they are apt to break to pieces.

^teired pigeons are cooked in nearly the same way, with the omission of the stuffing. Being dry meat, they require a good deal of butter.

To roast pigeons, put them on a little spit, and tie both ends close. Baste with butter. They will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes.

In making & pigeon pie, put inside of every bird a piece of butter and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg.

WOODCOCK, SNIPE, &o.

To roast these birds, put them on a little spit, take a slice of wheaten bread, and toast it brown, then lay it in a dish under the birds; baste them with a little butter, and let the trail drop on the toast. When they are roasted, put the toast in the dish, lay the woodcocks on it, and have a quarter of a pint of gravy ; pour it in a dish, and set it over a lamp or chafingdish for three minutes ; and send them to table. Epicures say you should never take any thing out of a woodcock or snipe. The head of a woodcock is considered a great delicacy.

To roast pheasants, partridges, quails, and other small birds, pick and draw them immediately after they are brought in. If they are of a nature to be improved by it, lard them with small slips of the fat of bacon drawn through the flesh with a larding- needle.

To roast reed-birds or ortolans, put into every bird an oyster, or a little butter mixed with some finely sifted bread crumbs. Dredge them with flour. Kim a small skewer through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with lard or with fresh butter. They will be done in about ten minutes. Reed-birds are very fine made into little dumplings with a thin crust of Hour and butter, and boiled about twenty minutes. Each must be tied in a separate cloth.

WILD Duozs. — For roasting a wild duck, you must have a clear, brisk fire, and a hot spit ; it must be browned upon the outside, without being sodden within. To have it well frothed and full of gravy is the nicety. Prepare the fire by stirring and raking it just before the bird is laid down, and fifteen or twenty minutes will do it in the fashionable way ; but if } ou like it a little more done, allow it a few minutes longer; if it is too much, it will lose its flavor.

PARTEIDGE IN BREAD. — Take a nice shaped loaf, of about a pound weight; make a hole at one end, through which take all the crumbs ; rub the crust over with a little butter or lard, and set it in the oven for a few minutes to dry : fill this with minced partridge (see that article), and put the loaf, bottom upwards, into a stew-pan ; add two spoonfuls of veal blond, with any other garnish you please ; let it remain on the tire till the bread is soft enough to allow a straw to penetrate it, then take it out and dish it with the sauce round.

PARTRIDGES TO STKW. — Truss the partridges as fowls are done for boiling ; pound the livers with double the quantity o' fat bacon and bread-crumbs boiled in milk, and some chopped parsley, thyme, shallots, and mushrooms; season with pepper, salt, grated lemon-peel, and mace. Stuff the inside of the birds, tie them at both ends, and put them into a stew-pan lined with slices of bacon ; add a quart of good stock, half a pint of white wine, two onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a few blades of mace; let them stew gently till tender; take them out, strain and thicken the sauce with flour and butter, make it hot, and pour it over the partridges.

PARTRIDGE TO ROAST. — Take out the entrails, and singe the partridge over the stove, then roll a bit of butter in pepper and salt, and put it into the inside of the bird ; truss it neatly with the head turned on one side, keeping the breast as full as pos- sible ; over which should be laid slices of fat bacon tied on with pack-thread ; before it is put on the spit, break the back-bone, that it may lie the better on the dish. A good-sized partridge will take half an hour ; when nearly done, take away the bacon, brown the partridge well ; sprinkle it with flour and salt, and froth it with butter ; serve it with water-cresses, a good gravy under it, and bread sauce in a boat.

SNIPES. — When the snipes have been picked, they must be singed over a charcoal fire ; in trussing them press the legs close to the sides, and pierce the beak through them ; tie a slice of bacon over each bird, run a long iron skewer through the sides, and tie them to the spit; in the meantime cut two or three slices of bread, according to the number of the birds, fry them of a fine brown color in butter; put the birds to roast, and put the fried bread in a dish under them, to receive the in- side, which will drop after they have hung a few minutes : just before they are roasted sufficiently, cut off the bacon, that they may take color. Serve them on the dish with the bread under them, and plenty of good gravy. Some prefer eating them with butter only, considering that gravy takes off from the tine

GRAVIES, SAUCES, ETC. 63

flavor of the bird. They should be carved the same as fowls or pigeons, and the head should be opened, as some are fond of the brains. Snipes are generally dressed in the. same manner is woodcocks.