MEAT AND POULTRY

A FEW THINGS I OBJECT TO, THAT IS, NOT TO USE IN COOKERY COMESTIBLES WHEN OUT OF, OR BEFORE, THEIR PROPER SEASON.

FOR Butcher’s Meat, see page 637, Kitchen at Home.

IN POULTRY. I never use turkeys before Michaelmas, and not after the latter end of March.

Ditto turkey poults before the end of June, and not after September.

Capons, poulardes, pullets, and fowls, I use all the year round. I begin about March with the spring chickens, till the beginning of July.

Geese are in season almost all the year round.

Goslings, or green geese, commence early in the spring, and are called so till the end of September, thus there is hardly any difference between them and the Michaelmas geese.

Ducks and ducklings the same.

Rabbits and pigeons may be used all the year round; but it is only in the early part of the spring that I use tame rabbits.

Guinea-fowls are used when pheasants go out, which is about the latter end of January, and are used till the end of May. Their eggs are very good, more delicate than the common ones.

I never use grouse before the 14th Aug., nor after the 22d December.

Black cocks and gray hens about the same time as grouse, but they are more uncertain.

Ptarmigans are sent from Norway about the middle of January, and continue till March, but that depends upon the weather.

Though the shooting season for partridges is the first of September, and lasts till the end of January, I never cook one before the 3d, except being desired to do so, but I often keep some for three weeks after the shooting season is over.

The same with pheasants, which begins from the 1st of October till the end of January. By hanging them by the necks and putting a piece of garlic in the beak and a little cayenne, I one cold winter kept one six weeks after the shooting time had expired, which I afterwards presented to a party of real gourmets, who said it was the best they had partaken of during the season.

I always use wild ducks, widgeons, teal, pintails, larks, golden plovers, snipes, woodcocks from the commencement of November till the end of March, after which the flesh becomes rank and unfit for table.

Young pea-fowls are very good, and make a noble roast, see p. 401, and are in season from January till June, but they are very uncertain.

Plovers’ eggs, my favorite, an unparalleled delicacy, come about the middle of March, and are not considered good after the latter end of May; but when I can get them fresh in June, I do not discontinue their use, because they are, in my estimation, worthy of the patronage of the greatest gourmet. I have paid for them, at the beginning of the season, three shillings and sixpence each; they are the black plover or peweet’s eggs.

For the last few years there has been quite an alteration in the seasons for these golden and silvery inhabitants of the deep.

Except the Cod-fish, which come in September, and by strictness of rule must disappear in March, the season for all other sea-fish becomes a puzzle; but the method I follow during the season is as follows:

Crimped Gloucester is plentiful in June and part of July, but it may be procured almost all the year round.

Common Salmon from March to July.

Salmon Peale from June to July.

Spey Trout from May to July.

Sturgeon, though not thought much of, is very good in June.

Turbot are in season all the year round.

John Dories depend entirely upon chance, but may be procured all the year round for the epicure, May excepted.

The original season of Yarmouth Mackerel is from the 12th of May till the end of July; now we have Christmas mackerel; then the west of England mackerel, which are good at the beginning of April.

Haddock and Whiting all the year round.

Skate all the winter.

Smelts from the Medway are the best, and are winter fish, the Yarmouth and Carlisle are good, but rather large; the Dutch are also very large, which often lose in the estimation of the epicure.

Brill is like turbot as to season.

Slips are similar to soles, good all the year round.

Gurnets are rather a spring fish.

Flounders and Diamond Plaice, are in full season from June to July.

Red Mullets vary very much now, but the beginning of the season was formerly the 12th of May; we had none this year except at a very extravagant price. I always use them when they are to be obtained.

Fresh Herrings are in season from November to January.

River Eels all the year round.

Lobsters in the spring and part of the summer. Prawns ditto.

Crabs are best in May.

Oysters begin in August, but are not very good till September.

Barrelled Oysters begin on the 15th of September, and last till the end of February.

Barrelled Cod, Lent fish, are best in winter or about March.

Sprats come in about the 8th of November.

Crawfish is a very favorite dish of the greatest epicures of France, and also of a few of the English; the author regrets that in fulfilment of an agreement between himself and M. Sampayo he is restricted from giving the receipt of Crawfish à la Sampayo, which has appeared in his Bill of Fare, No. 609. The reason of the enormous expense of this dish is that two large bottles of truffes du Périgord, which do not cost less than four guineas, are stewed with them in champagne.