Chapter VIII: Preface (7)

TO CURE HAMS.--To make good hams the pork must be of the best quality. No animal tastes so much of its food as the pig. In America, we consider a pig "killed off the slop" as unfit to eat; and so he is. All our pigs are kept up in a pen, and fattened with Indian corn, or corn meal, for several weeks previous to killing. A hundred pounds of corn meal, (mixed with water to about the consistency of very thick mush,) is said to be equal in fattening pigs to two hundred pounds of dry-shelled corn. They should be kept up, and well fed for eight weeks; and occasionally, in the country, where such fruits are superabundant, the pigs should have a regale of melons, peaches, &c. This we have seen, and the pork was, of course, very fine. The hams or hind-quarters are considered the most valuable part of the animal. They are cured in various modes. But the Newbold receipt has hitherto been the most popular. Mr. Newbold was a Pennsylvania farmer. The following directions, we believe, are authentic.

For one hundred pounds of fine pork, take seven pounds of coarse salt, five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of pearlash, and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it on the meat. Let hams or tongues remain in the pickling-tub eight weeks. Before it is smoked, hang it up and dry it two or three days. Three weeks will be sufficient for pickling beef. Previous to sewing the hams in cases, rub them all over with ground black pepper.

Soap-suds given frequently to pigs, when kept up to fatten, will greatly promote their health.

BOILED HAM.--Having soaked a fine ham from early in the evening till near bed-time, putting it into warm water, and changing that water about ten or eleven o'clock--wash and brush it well in the morning, and trim it so as to look nicely all over. Lay at the bottom of the ham-boiler a bed of nice fresh hay, which will greatly improve the flavor. Let the hock bone be sawed off short. A long shank bone looks very awkward. Place the ham upon the hay--pour in plenty of cold water, and keep it simmering very slowly an hour before you allow it to boil. Then increase the heat gradually, and keep the ham boiling steadily for four, five, or six hours, according to its size and age. An old ham requires more soaking and boiling than a new one. Skim it frequently after the boiling begins. It will be much improved by transferring it to a spit, (having taken off the whole skin,) and roasting the ham, for the last two or three hours, basting it with its own essence. Save the skin to cover the cold ham, and keep it fresh. Before it goes to table cover the ham with grated bread-crumbs, sifted on so as to form a slight crust.

If the ham is to be eaten cold, and is intended for company, brush it all over with beaten yolk of egg. Then dredge on sufficient grated crumbs to form a crust half an inch thick, and finish by going all over it with cream. Set it to brown in an oven, or put it on the spit of a roaster. When cold, this glazing will be found surpassingly fine. Decorate the hock with white paper, handsomely cut, or with a bunch of flowers cut out of vegetables.

Carve a ham in very thin slices--if cut thick, they have not the same taste, besides looking ungenteelly.

BAKED HAM.--For baking, take a small ham, or part of a large one, trimmed and made of good shape, cutting away whatever looks unsightly. Have the bone sawed off at the knuckle, or end of the hock. The evening previous to cooking, lay the ham in soak in a large pan of hot water. At bed-time pour off the water, and renew it. Keep it closely covered all night. In the morning wash and brush it well. Make a coarse paste of coarse flour mixed with water only, and roll it out about an inch thick. Line a clean iron bake-oven with this, and put in the ham, reserving enough of paste to cover the top. Pour in a very little water, merely sufficient to keep the ham from burning. Put on the lid of paste, and having wet the edges slightly press them together, so as to unite closely the top and bottom crust. Bake it over a steady fire, from four to five or six hours, or more, according to its size. When done, skim the gravy, remove the paste, (which is of no farther use,) and take off the skin of the ham. Dredge it all over with finely grated bread-crumbs, before it goes to table. A ham can scarcely be cooked too much, and too slow. The general fault is in cooking them too little, and too fast. A ham of the smallest size will require at least four hours baking or boiling, even after it has been all night in soak. Save the skin whole, to cover the cold ham when it is put away in the pantry.

When a cooked ham is nearly all used up, take what remains, cut it all off from the bone, and stew the bits in a little water, till they are all to rags. You will find the essence an improvement to gravies, strained from the fragments.

MADEIRA HAM.--This is a dish only seen at dinner parties. No one can believe, for a moment, that hams really cooked in Madeira wine are served up every week at hotels, particularly at those houses where there is no other superfluity, and where most of the great dishes exist only in the bill of fare. A genuine Madeira ham is cooked as follows:--Take a ham of the very finest sort; should be a Westphalia one. Lay it in hot water, and soak it all day and all night, changing the water several times, and every time washing out the pan. Early in the morning of the second day, put the ham into a large pot of cold water, and boil it slowly during four hours, skimming it well. Then take it out, remove the skin entirely, and put the ham into a clean boiler, with sufficient Madeira wine to cover it well. Boil, or rather stew it, an hour longer, keeping the pot covered except when you remove the lid to turn the ham. When well stewed take it up, drain it, and strain the liquor into a porcelain-lined saucepan. Have ready a sufficiency of powdered white sugar. Cover the ham all over with a thick coating of the sugar, and set it into a hot oven to bake for an hour.

Mix some orange or lemon-juice with the liquor adding plenty of sugar and nutmeg. Give it one boil up over the fire, and serve it up in a tureen, as sauce to the ham.

What is left of the ham may be cut next day into small pieces, put into a stew-pan, with the remains of the liquor or sauce poured over it, and stewed for a quarter of an hour or more. Serve it up all together in the same dish. While it is on the fire, add a little butter to the stew.

BROILED HAM.--Ham for broiling or frying should be cut into thin slices the evening before, trimmed, and laid in a pan of boiling water, which, near bed-time, should be changed for cold water, and very early in the morning for boiling water, in which it should lie half an hour to soak still longer. If ham is not well soaked previously, it will, when broiled or fried, be disagreeably hard and salt; the salt frying out to the surface and forming a rough unpleasant crust, which will create thirst in the eaters for hours after. Much of the salt of a ham goes off in boiling, but if it is _not_ boiled or soaked, the salt comes out to the surface and there it sticks. The slices being cut thin and nicely trimmed, they should be broiled on a very clean gridiron over a clear fire, and so well done that they incline to curl up at the edges. Dish them hot, and lay on every slice a very small bit of fresh butter, and sprinkle them with pepper.

FRIED HAM.--Ham for frying need not be _quite_ so thin as for broiling. Put but little butter in the frying-pan, as their own fat is generally sufficient to cook them. Break an egg over the middle of each slice, and let it cook till the white is set, and the yolk appears round and yellow through it. Before it goes to table trim off nicely the discolored and ragged edges of the fried eggs. They look disgusting when left on.

Cold ham is excellent for broiling or frying, and very nice without any further cooking. Send it to table strewed with either nasturtion flowers, pepper-grass, or parsley. All these things have a fine flavor of their own, especially nasturtions.

NICE FRIED HAM.--Having scalded and soaked some nice ham, cut it into rather thick slices, and then cut these slices into mouthfuls or little narrow slips. Put them into a hot frying-pan, and fry them well. When done, season them with pepper and nutmeg, and serve them up in their own gravy. It will be an improvement to add a beaten egg just before they go to table.

You may add to the ham some bits of cold boiled chicken, pulled in little slips, from the breast, and fried with the ham, adding a little fresh butter.

SLICED HAM.--Slice very thin some cold boiled ham, and let the slices be nearly of the same size and appearance, making them look as handsome as you can. Cover them with fresh green pepper-grass at a summer breakfast or tea-table; and decorate the pepper-grass by interspersing with it some nasturtion flowers, which are very nice to eat, having a taste agreeably and slightly pungent. Pepper-grass and nasturtions, are very appetizing accompaniments to nice bread and butter.

DISGUISED HAM.--Scrape or grate a pound of cold boiled ham, twice as much lean as fat. Season it slightly with pepper and a little powdered mace or nutmeg. Beat the yolks only, of three eggs, and mix with them the ham. Spread the mixture thickly over slices of very nice toast, with the crust pared off, and the toast buttered while hot. Brush it slightly on the surface with white of egg, and then brown it with a red hot shovel or salamander. This is a nice breakfast dish.

HAM CAKE.--This should be made the day before it is wanted. Take the remains of a cold ham. Cut it into small bits, and pound it well (fat and lean together) in a marble mortar, adding some butter and grated nutmeg; or a little cream, sufficient to moisten it throughout. Fill a mould with the mixture, and set it for half an hour into a moderate oven. When ready for use, set the mould for a few minutes into hot water, and then turn out the ham cake on a dish. Cover the surface all over with a coating of beaten white of egg. And before it is quite dry, decorate it with capers, or pickled nasturtion seeds, arranged in a pattern.

Send small bread rolls to the supper table with the ham cake.

HAM OMELET.--Mince very fine some cold boiled ham, (twice as much lean as fat,) till you have a half pint. Break six eggs, and strain them into a shallow pan. Beat them till very light and thick, and then stir in gradually the minced ham. Have ready, in a hot omelet pan, three table-spoonfuls of lard. When the lard boils, put in the omelet mixture and fry it. Occasionally slip a knife under the edge to keep it loose from the pan. It should be near an inch thick, as a ham omelet is best not to fold over. Make it a good even shape; and when one side is done, turn the other and brown it. You can turn it easily with a knife and fork, holding carefully, close to the omelet, the hot dish on which it is to go to table. Dredge the surface with a little cayenne.

Omelets may be made in this manner, of smoked tongue, or oysters chopped, cold sweetbread, asparagus minced, boiled onions, mushrooms, &c. A good allowance for a small omelet is the above proportion of eggs and lard, or fresh butter; and a large tea-cup of the seasoning article, which must always have been previously cooked.

They are much lighter when served up of their full size, and not folded over in halfs. A large omelet must have from eight to ten, or a dozen eggs. It is best to bake all omelets of the six egg size, and have more in number if required.

HAM TOAST.--Make some very nice slices of toast, with all the crust trimmed off; and dip each toast for an instant into a bowl of hot water, then butter it slightly. Have ready some grated cold ham, and spread it thick over each slice of toast. Tongue toast is made in the same manner.

SANDWICHES.--Spread some thin slices of bread very thinly with nice fresh butter, and lay a thin slice of cold ham (the edges neatly trimmed) between every two slices of bread and butter. You may make them so thin, as to roll up--a number being piled on a plate.

BISCUIT SANDWICHES.--This is a very nice and very pretty dish for a supper table. Have ready one or two dozen of fresh soft milk biscuit. Split them, and take a very little of the soft crumb out of each biscuit, so as to make a slight hollow. Butter the biscuits with very nice fresh butter, and fill them liberally with grated ham or tongue. Stick round the inside of the edges, full sprigs of pepper-grass, or curled parsley, or the green tops of celery. Arrange the sprigs closely and handsomely, so as to project out all round the sides, forming a green border or fringe. We highly recommend biscuit sandwiches.

POTTED HAM.--Take some cold ham, slice it, and mince it small, fat and lean together. Then pound it in a mortar; seasoning it as you proceed with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and powdered nutmeg. Then fill with it a large deep pan, and set it in an oven for half an hour. Afterwards pack it down hard in a stone jar, and fill up the jar with lard. Cover it closely, and paste down a thick paper over the jar. If sufficiently seasoned, it will keep well in winter; and is convenient for sandwiches, or on the tea-table. A jar of this will be found useful to travelers in remote places.

Tongue may be potted as above.

TO PREPARE BACON.--All pieces of pork that, after pickling, are dried and smoked, come under the denomination of bacon; except the hind-quarters or legs, and they are always called ham, and are justly considered superior to any other part of the animal, and bring a higher price. The shoulders or fore-quarters, the sides or flitches, the jowl or head, and all the other parts, are designated as bacon; and in some places they erroneously give that name to the whole animal, if cured, or preserved by the process of smoking.

To prepare bacon for being cooked, examine it well, and scrape it carefully, and trim off all unsightly parts. If the fat is yellow, the meat is rusty or tainted, and not fit to eat. So, also, if on the lean there are brownish or blackish spots. All sorts of food, if kept too long, should be thrown away at once.

If perfectly good, prepare the bacon for cooking, by washing it well, and then soaking it for several hours in a pan full of cold water, removing the water once or twice during the process. If the bacon is salt and hard, soak it all night, changing the water at bed-time, and early in the morning.

Ham should also be soaked before cooking.

A dish of broiled ham is a nice accompaniment to one of calves' chitterlings, at breakfast.

TO BOIL BACON.--Put two or three pounds of nice bacon into a pot with plenty of cold water, and let it simmer slowly for an hour before it begins to boil. Skim it well, and when no more scum rises, put in the vegetables which are usually eaten with bacon, and which taste better for boiling with the meat. These are young greens, or sprouts, very young roots and leaves of the poke plant, and green beans--strung and cut in half--not smaller. On no account should any other vegetables be boiled with bacon. When the bacon is so tender as to be easily pierced through with a fork, even in the thickest places, take it up and drain it well in a cullender or sieve. Remove the skin. Then take up the vegetables and drain them also, pressing out _all_ the liquid. Season them with pepper only. Send the meat to table with the vegetables heaped round it, on the same large dish, (the cabbage being chopped, but not minced fine.) Potatos, squashes, peas, asparagus, &c., should never be boiled in the same pot, or served up in the same dish with bacon, which is too plain a dish for any but a country table; while a ham is a delicacy for the city, or for any place.

BACON AND BEANS.--Scrape and trim a nice piece of bacon, (not too fat,) and see that no part of it looks yellow or rusty, or shows any appearance of being too old. If so, do not cook it, as it is unwholesome, unpalatable, and unfit to eat. A shoulder is a good piece to boil. The best of the animal, when smoked, is, of course, the ham or leg. We are now speaking of the other pieces that, when cured, are properly called bacon, and are eaten at plain tables only.

The meat, if very salt, is the better for being put in soak early in the morning, or the night before. Afterwards put it into a pot, and boil and skim it till tender. Have ready a quart or two of fresh green string beans, cut into three pieces, (not more); put them into the pot in which the bacon is boiling, and let them cook with the meat for an hour or more. When done, take them out, drain them well; season them well with pepper, and send them to table on a separate dish from the bacon.

Many persons like so well this bacon flavor, that they _always_, when boiling string-beans, put a small piece of bacon in the pot, removing it before the beans are sent to table.

With bacon and beans, serve up whole potatos boiled and peeled--and in the country, where cream is plenty, they boil some with butter, and pour it over the potatos, touching each one with pepper.

BROILED HAM OR BACON.--Wash and trim a nice piece of bacon; soak it all night, or for several hours, in cold water. In the morning scald it with boiling water. Let it lie till cool, then throw away the water, and scald it again. Cut it into thin slices, very smooth and even; the rind being previously pared off. Curl up the slices, rolling them round, and securing them with wooden skewers. Broil them on a gridiron, or bake them in a Dutch oven. If cut properly thin, they will cook in a quarter of an hour. They must not be allowed to burn or blacken. Before you send them to table, take out the skewers. They may be cooked in flat slices, without curling, but they must be cut always very thin. Slice some hard-boiled eggs, and lay them on the meat. Season with black pepper.

_Cold_ boiled ham cooked as above, will require no soaking, and can be speedily prepared for a breakfast dish. Lay sprigs of parsley on the ham.

Serve up with them mashed potatos made into balls, or thick flat cakes, and browned on the surface with a red-hot shovel.

STEWED HAM.--Cut some thin slices of cold boiled ham. Season them slightly with pepper. No salt. Lay them in a stew pan with plenty of green peas or lima beans, or else cauliflowers, or young summer cabbage, quartered, and the thick stalk omitted. Add a piece of fresh butter, or _a very little lard_. Put in just water enough to keep the things from burning. When the vegetables are quite done, add a beaten egg or two, and in five minutes, take up the stew and send it to table.

STEWED BACON.--Take a small piece of bacon, not too fat or salt. It had best be soaked in cold water the night before. Put it into a pot, with a large portion of string beans, each cut into three pieces, (not more,) or else some cabbage, or young cabbage sprouts. Early in the spring, the young stalks of the pokeberry plant will be found excellent with stewed bacon. Stew the bacon and vegetables in just water enough to cover them all; skimming frequently. Drain all, through a cullender, when done. Have a dish of boiled potatos also. A molasses indian pudding is a good conclusion to this homely dinner.

PREPARED LARD.--As soon as it is cut off from the newly killed pork, put the fat into a crock, or deep earthen pot. Cover the crock with its own lid, and let it stand all night in a cool place. Next day, cut it into small bits, (carefully removing all the fleshy particles of lean); and then put the fat into a _very clean_ pot, without either water or salt. The pot should not be more than half full of pork-fat. Let it boil _slowly_, (stirring it frequently from the bottom, lest it burn,) till it becomes quite clear and transparent. Then ladle it into clean pans. When almost cold, put it into stoneware jars, which must be closely covered, and kept in a cool place. If it is to go to a distance, tie it up in new bladders.

There are two sorts of pork-fat for lard. The leaf-fat, which is best; and the fat that adheres to the entrails. These two fats should be boiled separately.

The large entrails, whose skins are to be used for sausages, must be cleaned out carefully, well scraped, and thrown into strong salt and water for two days, (changing the brine the second day,) and afterwards into strong lye for twenty-four hours. Lastly, wash them in fresh water. We think it much better to dispense with the skins altogether; keeping your sausage meat in jars, and frying it in cakes when wanted for use. Its own fat (as it exudes) will cook it.

Never use bad butter when you can obtain good lard, for frying, and other purposes.

VENISON.

You may judge of the age of venison by looking at the hoof, which is always left on the leg. The deer is young if the cleft of the hoof is small and smooth; but large and rough, if he is old. Buck venison is considered better than the meat of the doe. The haunch, or hind-quarter, is the best part, and the fat upon it should, be thick and white. The shoulder, or fore-quarter, is the next best piece. The saddle comprises both hind-quarters; and these, for a large company, are always cooked together.

To eat venison in perfection, it should be killed when the deer can find plenty of fresh food in the forest, and when they have fattened on the abundance of wild berries, which they can obtain during the autumn. In winter, they are brought into the cities, lean, hard, dry, and black, and the meat infested all through with small threadlike white worms; showing that decomposition has commenced, and requiring the disguise of spices, wine, currant jelly, &c., to render it _eatable_, not _wholesome_, for every sort of food in the slightest degree tainted is utterly injurious to health, and cannot often be eaten with impunity.

It never was very fashionable, in America, to eat spoiled victuals, and it is now less so than ever. Fortunately, in our land of abundance, "we do not see the necessity".

HAUNCH OF VENISON.--To prepare a haunch of venison for roasting (we will suppose it to be _perfectly_ good and well kept,) wipe it thoroughly all over with clean cloths, dipped in lukewarm water, and then go over it with clean dry cloths. Trim off all unsightly parts. Lay over the fat a large sheet of thick brown paper, well buttered, and securely tied on with twine. Or else make a coarse paste of brown meal, and cover it with that. Place it before a good steady fire, and let it roast from three to four hours, according to its size. After roasting well for three hours, remove the covering of paper or paste, and baste the meat well all over; first with dripping or butter, and then with its own gravy, dredging it very slightly with browned flour. Skim the fat off the gravy, and send the venison to table plain, with sweet sauce of black currant jelly, or raspberry jam, in a glass dish with a spoon in it.

VENISON STEAKS, BROILED.--Cut the steaks not quite an inch thick. Trim them nicely, and season them with a little black pepper and salt. Have ready, over a bed of clear bright hot coals from a wood fire, a gridiron with grooved bars to catch the gravy. Put down the steaks, and when one side is quite done turn the other, and broil that. Venison should always be very thoroughly done. Before you take up the steaks, lay a bit of nice fresh butter upon each. Take them up on a hot dish, and keep them warm. Pour off the gravy into a small saucepan. Give it a boil over the fire, and skim off all the fat from the surface. Stir into it some nice wine, and serve up with the steaks a deep dish of cranberry, or peach sauce, or a large cup of grape jelly.

STEWED VENISON STEAKS.--Take some fine steaks of _freshly killed_ venison. Cut them from the upper part of the leg. Make a forcemeat, or stuffing, with bread soaked in milk, mixed with fresh butter, with chopped sweet marjoram and sweet basil; or some boiled onions, minced small, and mixed with chopped sage, which may be boiled _with_ the onion, and seasoned with a very little salt and pepper. Spread the stuffing thickly over the inside of the steaks. Then roll them up, and tie them round with packthread, or secure them at the ends with wooden skewers. Put the steaks into a stewpan with some fresh butter or lard, or some drippings that have been left of roast venison--the day before. Let them stew (keeping the pan covered) till thoroughly done. Then dish them with the gravy round them. Serve up with them a sauce of stewed cranberries, or stewed dried peaches.

You may stew lamb or mutton cutlets in the same manner, but do not use mutton dripping. Water (a very small quantity) is best for them. Veal cutlets may be stewed exactly like venison.

HASHED VENISON.--Take the remains of cold roast venison, from which sufficient gravy or dripping has been saved to cook the meat again, without any water at all. It would be well if this were done in all hashes made from cold meat. For want of drippings, use butter or lard. Cold meat stewed in water is weak and unpalatable.

Two or three large spoonfuls of mushroom, or tomato catchup, are improvements to all hashes. If nothing better can be obtained use onions, always previously boiled to render them less strong.

Minced sweet herbs are excellent seasoning for hashes. Also minced tarragon leaves; they give a peculiar flavor that is very generally liked. Fresh tarragon is in season in July, August, and September.

French mustard (to be obtained at all the best grocery stores) is a great improvement to hashes and stews. Stir in at the last, one or two large table-spoonfuls. The chief ingredient of French mustard is tarragon.

A FINE VENISON PIE.--Cut steaks from a loin or haunch of venison, which should be as freshly killed as you can get it. The strange and absurd prejudice in favor of hard black-looking venison, (that has been kept till the juices are all dried up,) is fast subsiding; and no one now eats any sort of food in which decomposition has commenced. Those who have eaten venison fresh from the forest, when the deer have fattened on wild grapes, huckleberries, blackberries, cranberries, &c., will never again be able to relish such as is brought in wagon loads to the Atlantic cities, and which has been kept till full of those fine threads that are in reality long thin whitish worms, and which are often seen in very old hams.

Having removed the bones and cut the meat into steaks, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, put the venison into a pot, with merely as much water as will cover it well. Let it stew till perfectly tender, skimming it occasionally. Then take it out, and set it to cool, saving the gravy in a bowl. Make a nice puff paste; divide the paste into two equal portions, and roll it out rather thick. Butter a deep dish, and line it with one of the sheets of paste, rolled thin at the bottom. Then put in the stewed venison. Season the gravy with a glass of _very good_ wine, (either port or sherry,) a few blades of mace, and a powdered nutmeg. Stir into it the crumbled yolks of some hard-boiled eggs. Pour the gravy over the meat, and put on the other sheet of paste, as the lid of the pie. Bring the two edges close together, so as to unite evenly, and notch them handsomely. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. If a steady heat is kept up, it will be done in an hour. Send it to table hot.

Instead of wine, you may put into the gravy half a pint of _black_ currant jelly, which, for venison, is thought preferable to red. Either will do.

Any sort of game, partridges, pheasants, grouse, wild ducks, &c., may be made into a fine pie, exactly as above.

VERY PLAIN VENISON PIE.--Cut from the bone some good pieces of fine _fresh_ venison, season them slightly with salt and pepper, and put them into a pot with plenty of potatos, (either sweet or white,) split and quartered, and only as much water as will cover the whole. Set it over the fire, cover it, and let it stew slowly and steadily, till all is tender, skimming it several times. Meanwhile, make a nice paste of flour shortened with cold gravy, or drippings saved from roast venison, or of nice lard. Allow half a pint of shortening to each quart of flour. Put the flour into a pan, and rub the shortening into it as quickly as possible, adding a _very little_ cold water, to make it into a lump of paste. Then roll it out into a sheet, and spread over it with a broad knife the remaining half of the shortening. Dredge lightly with flour, fold it up, and roll it out in two sheets. With one of them line your pie-dish, and put into it the stewed venison and potatos. Pour in the gravy of the stew. The filling of this pie should be piled high in the centre. Lay on, as a lid, the other sheet of paste, which should be rather the largest. Pare off smoothly the edges of the two crusts, and crimp them nicely. Set the pie in the oven, and bake it well. It may be eaten either hot or cold, but is best hot.

The above quantity of paste is only sufficient for a very small pie. For one of moderate size allow two quarts of flour, and a pound of shortening.

VENISON POT-PIE.--Remove the bone from some fine venison steaks, cut near an inch thick. Season them lightly with pepper and salt, and score them each in several places. Stew them in a very little water till tender. Have ready an ample portion of nice suet paste. If you cannot obtain beef suet use cold venison fat, minced fine and made into a paste with double its quantity in flour, and as little water as possible. Lay some stewed venison at the bottom of the pot, and line the sides with paste almost up to the top. Put in the meat, adding among it boiled sweet potatos cut into pieces, or (if they are to be had in plenty,) chestnuts, boiled and peeled. Mushrooms will be a great improvement. Onion also, (if liked,) boiled and cut up. Intersperse the whole with square pieces of paste. Fill the pot almost to the top with the meat and other ingredients. Lay a thick paste over the whole, cut round to fit, but not too closely. Pour in a pint of warm water to increase the gravy. Make a cross slit in the middle of the upper crust. Cook the pie till all is well done. Serve it up with the brown crust in pieces, and laid on the top.

This pie, if well made, and with plenty of paste, will be thought excellent whenever fresh venison is to be had.

VENISON HAM.--Take fine freshly-killed venison. Mix together an ounce of saltpetre, a pound of coarse brown sugar, and a pound of salt. Let them be very thoroughly mixed and pounded. Rub this well into the meat, and continue rubbing hard till it froths. Keep the meat in the pickle for two weeks, turning it every day. Then take it out, and roll it in saw-dust, (which, on no account, must be the saw-dust of any species of pine.) Hang it for two weeks longer in the smoke of oak wood or of corn cobs. All hams, when being smoked, must be hung very high, and have the large end downwards. If hung too low, the heat softens or melts the fat.

Venison hams, if well cured, require no boiling. They are always eaten chipped or shaved like smoked beef, to which they are very superior. It may be stewed in a skillet with fresh butter and beaten egg, and cut into thin shavings, or very thin small slices--or, instead of butter, with the drippings of cold roast venison. Season with pepper only.

RABBITS.--Rabbits should be young and tender, but full-grown and fat. Two are required to make a dish. One rabbit, except for an invalid, is scarcely worth the trouble of cooking; and, being naturally insipid, it must have certain seasoning to make it taste well. The hare, so much prized in England, owes its reputation entirely to their mode of dressing it, which is troublesome, expensive, and in our country would never become popular, unless the animal had in itself more to recommend it. With all that can be done for a hare, it is, when cooked, black, dry, hard; and if it has been kept long enough to acquire what they call the "true game flavor," so much the worse. A fine fat well-fed tame rabbit is much better. In Virginia, the negroes frequently call a large rabbit "a hare"--or rather "a yar;" and though they know it to be young, they generally term it "that old yar." We opine that _with them_ "yars" are not admired. If a rabbit is really old his ears are tough, and his claws blunt and rough with coarse hairs growing between them. A young rabbit has short sharp claws, and ears so tender that on trying you can easily tear them. Rabbits should be cooked the day they are killed. Always cut off the head. A rabbit dished whole, with its head on, is, to most persons, a disgusting sight. The head of no small animal is worth eating, and always looks disagreeable when cooked.

The livers of rabbits should be added to the gravy.

ROASTED RABBITS.--Take a pair of fine well-fed young rabbits, and having drawn or emptied them, lay them, for about ten minutes, in a pan of warm water. Then dry them inside with a clean cloth, carefully wiping them out. Truss them short, and neatly, having removed the heads. Line the inside with very thin slices of fat bacon that has had most of the salt soaked out. Make a plentiful stuffing or forcemeat of bread steeped in milk, some fresh butter mixed with a very little flour; or, instead of butter, some beef suet finely minced; some chopped sweet herbs; and some crumbled yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Season with mace and nutmeg, and grated lemon rind. Fill the rabbits well with this--or, you may stuff them entirely with boiled potatos, mashed with plenty of nice butter, or the drippings of roast veal or pork. Or (if liked) you may make the stuffing entirely of minced onion, (previously boiled,) and minced sage leaves, moistened with a very little lard or sweet oil, and seasoned with powdered mace, nutmeg, and pepper. Having put in plenty of stuffing, sew up the bodies of the rabbits, flour them well, and put them on the spit and set them before a clear fire. Baste them with milk, or with fresh butter, tied up in thin muslin. They will be done in an hour or more. Thicken the gravy with flour, and pour it over them in the dish. Roasted rabbits make a good second dish at a small dinner. Take the livers of the rabbits, and chop them, to put into the gravy.

RABBITS WITH ONIONS.--Peel, boil, and slice six (or more) large onions, and season them with nutmeg, and a very little cayenne. Cover them, and set them aside till wanted. Cut two fine rabbits into pieces, and fry them in fresh butter or lard. When browned, and nearly done, cover them with the sliced onions, and brown _them_, having laid among them some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Dish the rabbits, with the pieces entirely hidden under the onions.

A plainer, and not so good a way, is to put the pieces of rabbit, and the sliced onions, into a stew-pan with a little water, and stew the whole together.

RABBIT POT-PIE.--Cut up the rabbits, and stew them in a little water. When nearly done, put the pieces into a pot and intersperse them with bits of cold ham. Add the gravy left from the stew. Season with pepper and mace. Have ready sufficient paste, (made with minced suet, and rather more than twice its quantity of flour.) There must be enough of paste to line the sides of the pot all round, nearly up to the top, and enough to make a thick lid, besides having plenty of extra pieces to lay among the other contents. Also have ready a few onions boiled and sliced. Cover the pie with the lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a cross slit in the top, and pour in a little water. When done, serve all up on one large dish.

This pie will be much improved by stewing with the rabbits a fresh beef steak. A beef steak in any pot-pie thickens and enriches the gravy.

PULLED RABBITS.--Boil, very tender, a fine pair of nice young rabbits. When cold, cut them in pieces as for carving, and peel off the skin. Then with a fork pull all the meat from the bones, first loosening it with a knife. Put it into a stew-pan with plenty of cream, or some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour; some minced sweet herbs, some grated fresh lemon rind, and some hard-boiled yolks of eggs crumbled. Season with cayenne and nutmeg. Cover it, and let it simmer till it comes to a boil. Then immediately take it off the fire, and transfer it to a deep dish. Serve it up hot. This is a side dish at dinner.

FRICASSEED RABBITS.--Cut up the rabbits as for carving, and go over every piece with lard or sweet oil. Lay them in a frying pan, and fry them in nice fresh butter. If you cannot procure this, use lard. Season them with a very little salt and cayenne, dredge them well with flour, and sprinkle them thickly with parsley, or sweet marjoram. When they are fried brown, take them up. Keep them warm in a heated dish with a cover. Skim the gravy that remains in the pan, and add to it some cream, or rich milk thickened with flour, enriched with the beaten yolk of an egg, and flavored with nutmeg.

Rabbits may be cut up, and fried in batter made of bread-crumbs and beaten egg. Dip every piece of rabbit twice into the batter.

A COATED HARE, OR LARGE RABBIT.--The hare, or rabbit, should be large and fat. Save the liver and heart to assist in the gravy, which ought to be made of some pieces of the lean of good fresh beef, seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, stewed in a small sauce-pan, till all the essence is extracted, adding the chopped liver and heart, and a bit of fresh butter, rolled in flour. Cold fresh meat, or meat that has to be recooked, is unfit for gravy, and so it is for soup. Line the inside of the hare with small thin slices of fat ham, or bacon, and then fill the cavity with a stuffing made of grated bread-crumbs, the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, or orange, a piece of fresh butter, some minced sweet marjoram, and the crumbled yolk of one or two hard-boiled eggs. Season the stuffing with a little pepper and salt, and some powdered nutmeg and mace. Fill the body of the hare with this mixture, and sew it up, to keep in the stuffing. Spit the hare, and roast it well, keeping it for a while at a moderate distance from the fire. To baste it, while roasting, make a dressing of the beaten yolks of four eggs, four spoonfuls of flour, a pint of milk, and three table-spoonfuls of salad oil, all well-beaten together. Baste the hare with this till it is thickly coated all over with the batter, taking care it does not burn. Send the gravy to table in a sauce-boat, accompanied by currant, or cranberry jelly.

A very young fawn, or a kid, may be drest in a similar manner. Kids are not eaten after three months old. Till that age their meat is white and delicate. Their flesh, _after_ that time, gradually becomes coarse and dark-colored. A very young kid, before it is weaned, is very delicious; but no longer. In the oriental countries, young kids are stuffed with chopped raisins and almonds, or pistachio nuts, previous to roasting; and basted with rich milk, or cream.

For sauce to a kid or fawn, use orange marmalade, or grape jelly.

POULTRY AND GAME.

Spring chickens bring a high price, and are considered delicacies, but they are so insipid, and have so little on them, that we think the purchase of them, when very young, a mere fashionable extravagance, and a waste of money that might be better employed in something that had really a fine flavor, and that when divided was more than a morsel for each person. We wonder that any but invalids should care for spring chickens. It is better to wait till the young chickens grow into nice plump fowls, that were well fed, and have lived long enough to show it. A fine full-grown young fowl, has a clear white skin, that tears easily when tried with a pin. It has a broad fleshy breast, the legs are smooth, and the toes easily broken when bent back. Fowls with whitish legs are considered the best for boiling; those with dark legs the best for roasting. The finest of all fowls are capons. They grow very large and fat, and yet are as tender as young chickens, have a fine delicate rich flavor of their own, and are well worth their cost. The great Bucks county fowls are profitable because they are large; but they are never very plenty in market, being difficult to raise. The best poultry feels heavy in proportion to its size. Hen turkeys are best for boiling.

Ducks and geese (particularly the latter) are so tough when old, that it is often impossible to eat them; therefore buy none that are not young. Geese are generally kept alive too long, for the sake of their feathers, which they always shed in August, and for which there is always a demand. And geese are not expensive to keep, as in summer they feed on grass, and will graze in a field like sheep. The feet and legs of an old goose are red and hard. So is her bill. The skin is rough, coarse, and tough, and full of hairs. Let nothing induce you to buy an old goose. You would find it too tough to carve, and too tough to eat. And no cooking can make her tender.

Poultry should be drawn, or emptied (taking care not to break the gall) as soon almost as killed. Then let it be well washed, inside and out, and wiped dry. In picking it, carefully remove every plug or vestige of feathers, and singe off the hairs, by holding the bird to the fire, with a lighted piece of writing paper. Brown paper will give it something of an unpleasant taste. Newspaper is worse, on account of the printing-ink.

If poultry is brought from market frozen, you need not hasten to thaw it, before it is actually wanted for use. Till then, put it in a cold place, and let it remain frozen. It will keep the better. When you thaw it, by all means use only _cold_ water. Any frozen poultry, or meat, thawed in warm water, will most certainly spoil. Let it be remembered that any food which has been frozen requires a much longer time to cook.

BOILED TURKEY.--For boiling, choose a fine fat hen turkey. In drawing it, be careful not to break the gall, or a bitter taste will be communicated to the whole bird. In picking, remove every plug and hair, and then singe it with _writing-paper_. Wash it very clean, and then wipe it dry, inside and out. In trussing, draw the legs into the body, having cut them off at the first joint. Let the turkey look as round and plump as possible. Fill the breast with a very nice forcemeat, or stuffing, made of a quarter of a pound of grated bread-crumbs, mixed with two large table-spoonfuls or two ounces of fresh butter, or finely minced suet, seasoned with a little pepper and salt, a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and mace mixed together, a table-spoonful of sweet herbs[C] (sweet basil and sweet marjoram) chopped small if green, and powdered if dry; and the crumbled yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Add the grated yellow rind, and the juice of a fresh lemon, and mix the whole very well. Skewer the liver and gizzard under the pinions, having first cut open the gizzard and cleared it of sand or gravel.

[C] The herbs summer savory and thyme (like the spices cloves and
allspice) are now seldom used in good cookery.

It is no longer customary to mix stuffing or forcemeat with beaten raw egg for the purpose of binding the ingredients together. Leave them loose, without this binding, and the forcemeat will be much lighter, better flavored, and more abundant. It will not fall out if a packthread, or very _small_ twine is wound carefully round the body, (to be removed before serving up,) and it may be secured by sewing it with a needle and thread.

Put the turkey into a large pot with plenty of cold water, and boil it gently, for two hours or more, in proportion to its size; carefully removing all the scum as it rises. It will be whiter if boiled in a large clean cloth, or in a coarse paste, (the paste to be thrown away afterwards,) and take care that it is thoroughly done. Serve up boiled turkey with oyster sauce, celery sauce, or cauliflower sauce. Sweet sauce is rarely eaten with boiled things--unless with puddings.

Boiled turkey should be accompanied by a ham or tongue.

To ascertain if boiled poultry is done, try the thickest parts with a large needle. If the needle goes through, and in and out easily, it is sufficient.

A turkey (boiled or roast) for a family dish, may be stuffed with nice sausage meat, in which case it requires no other stuffing. Surround it on a dish with fried sausage cakes, about the size of a dollar, but near an inch thick.

It is very convenient to keep always in the house, during the winter months, one or two large jars of nice home-made sausage-meat, well covered. The best time for making sausage-meat is in November. After March, sausages are seldom eaten.

OYSTER TURKEY.--(_French dish._)--Prepare a fine young hen turkey, for boiling; skewering the liver and gizzard under the pinions. Fill the body well with fine large fresh oysters, having removed their hard part or gristle. Add to the oysters a tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg and mace, and a tea-spoonful of celery seed or minced celery, and a piece of fresh butter dredged with flour. With this, stuff the turkey very full; securing the stuffing with packthread. Put the turkey into a large block-tin kettle, and let it stew in the oyster liquor only, without any water. Strain the oyster liquor before you put it in. Set the kettle into an outer kettle full of boiling water. This will cook the turkey very nicely. For such purposes, nothing is so convenient as the utensil called in French a _bain marie_, (pronounced _bine marée_.) This is a permanent double kettle with two covers, and a large tube or spout outside, for pouring in fresh hot water, without opening the lid and letting out the steam. They are to be had of all sizes at the furnishing stores in New York and Philadelphia, and are so excellent for stewing without water, that no family should be without them.

When the turkey is well boiled and quite done, keep it warm by wrapping it closely in a cloth, putting a dish cover over it, and placing it near the fire. A fine oyster gravy will be found in the kettle. Add to it some fresh butter, dredged with flour, and some mace and nutmeg, and some celery seed. Give it one boil up, and send it to table as sauce for the turkey. This is a very nice way of cooking a small turkey.

A pair of oyster chickens may be thus prepared, and stewed in the above manner in a _bain marie_, or double kettle.

ROAST TURKEY.--Take a fine large turkey, full-grown and fat, draw and singe him carefully, saving the giblets (neck, heart, gizzard, and liver,) for the gravy. After he is drawn, wash the inside well, wipe it dry, and sprinkle it with black pepper. Make a large quantity of stuffing or forcemeat. It increases his apparent size, and besides is generally liked. Mince small some cold boiled ham, in equal portions of fat and lean: grated lemon rind, minced sweet herbs, fresh butter, or finely minced suet. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs or crumbled rusk; also, hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Moisten the mixture with lemon juice and some good white wine. Stuff the turkey well with this forcemeat, sewing it up, or winding a small cord round the body to secure the filling. Roast it before a clear and substantial fire, basting it well with fresh butter. When done, take it up and keep it hot.

Cut up the giblets and put them into a small sauce-pan, with a very little water, and stew them while the turkey is roasting; adding a piece of fresh butter dredged with flour. When done, remove the pieces of neck, &c., retaining those of the heart, liver, and gizzard. Stir into the gravy, after it comes from the fire, the yolk of a beaten egg. Having skimmed the gravy in the dripping-pan, add it to the gravy that has been made of the giblets, and send it to table in a sauce-boat. Accompany the turkey with an oval dish, or tureen of cranberry sauce, made very sweet.

A roast turkey may be stuffed with oysters, or with chestnuts boiled, peeled, and mashed with butter. If with chestnuts, thicken the gravy with whole boiled chestnuts. If with oysters, send oyster-sauce to table with the turkey. If chestnuts cannot be obtained, any roasted poultry is good stuffed with well-boiled sweet potatos, mashed with plenty of butter or meat drippings.

The legs of turkeys are never helped to any one at table. They are always sent away on the dish.