Chapter IX: Preface (8)

A BONED TURKEY.--For this purpose you must have a fine, large, tender turkey; and after it is drawn, and washed, and wiped dry, lay it on a clean table, and take a very sharp knife, with a narrow blade and point. Begin at the neck; then go round to the shoulders and wings, and carefully separate the flesh from the bone, scraping it down as you proceed. Next loosen the flesh from the breast, and back, and body; and then from the thighs. It requires care and patience to do it nicely, and to avoid tearing or breaking the skin. The knife should always penetrate quite to the bone; scraping loose the flesh rather than cutting it. When all the flesh has been completely loosened, take the turkey by the neck, give it a pull, and the whole skeleton will come out entirely from the flesh, as easily as you draw your hand out of a glove. The flesh will then fall down, a flat and shapeless mass. With a small needle and thread, carefully sew up any holes that have accidentally been torn in the skin.

Have ready a large quantity of stuffing, made as follows:--Take three sixpenny loaves of stale bread; grate the crumb; and put the crust in water to soak. When quite soft, break them up small into the pan of grated bread-crumbs, and mix in a pound of fresh butter, cut into little pieces. Take two large bunches of sweet marjoram; the same of sweet basil; and one bunch of parsley. Mince the parsley very fine, and rub to a powder the leaves of the marjoram and basil. You should have two large heaping table-spoonfuls of each. Chop, also, two very small onions or shalots, and mix them with the herbs. Pound to powder a quarter of an ounce of mace; and two large nutmegs. Mix the spices together, and add a tea-spoonful of salt, and a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper. Then mix the herbs, spices, &c., thoroughly into the bread-crumbs, and add, by degrees, four hard-boiled eggs crumbled fine.

Take up a handful of this filling; squeeze it hard, and proceed to stuff the turkey with it--beginning at the wings; next do the body; and then the thighs. Stuff it very hard; and, as you proceed, form the turkey into its natural shape, by filling out, properly, the wings, breast, body, &c. When all the stuffing is in, sew up the body and skewer the turkey into the usual shape in which they are trussed; so that, if skillfully done, it will look almost as if it had not been boned. Tie it round with tape, and bake it three hours or more; basting it occasionally with fresh butter. Make a gravy of the giblets, chopped, and stewed slowly in a little water. When done, add to it the gravy that is in the dish about the turkey, (having first skimmed off the fat,) and enrich it with a glass of white wine, and two beaten yolks of eggs, stirred in just before you take it from the fire.

If the turkey is to be eaten cold at the supper-table, drop table-spoonfuls of currant or cranberry jelly all over it at small distances, and in the dish round it.

A very handsome way of serving it up cold is, after making a sufficiency of nice clear calves'-foot jelly, (seasoned, as usual, with wine, lemon, cinnamon, &c.,) to lay the turkey in the dish in which it is to go to table, and setting it under the jelly-bag, let the jelly drip upon it, so as to form a transparent coating all over it; smoothing the jelly evenly with the back of a spoon, as it congeals on the turkey. Apple jelly may be substituted.

Large fowls may be boned and stuffed in the above manner: also, a young roasting pig.

ROAST GOOSE.--A goose for roasting should be young, tender, and fat; so tender, that the skin can easily be torn by a pin; the bill and legs smooth and of a light yellow color, and the toes breaking when bent under. If the skin is thick and tough, and the bill and legs a dark reddish yellow, rough and hairy, do not buy the goose. It is old, and no cooking can make it eatable. A goose, from its profusion of feathers, looks like a large bird when walking about; but when plucked and prepared for the spit, it will be found very deceptive. It is much more hollow than a turkey; and, except the breast, there is but little eating on it. In large families it is usual to have a pair of roast geese, one not being sufficient. Geese are not good except for roasting, or in a pie.

In preparing a goose for cooking, save the giblets for the gravy. After the goose has been drawn, singed well, washed and wiped, inside and out; trussed so as to look round and short; make a quantity of stuffing, (as its hollow body will require a great deal.) For this purpose, parboil two good sized onions, and a large bunch of green sage. Mince both the sage and onions, seasoning them with a small salt-spoon of salt, half as much black pepper, and still less cayenne. Add a hard-boiled egg finely minced (yolk and white;) the chopped egg giving a nice smoothness to the sage and onion. If your goose is large, take two chopped eggs.

To make the stuffing very mild, (if preferred so,) add a handful of finely grated bread-crumbs; or two or three fine juicy chopped apples. Fill the body and craw with this stuffing, and secure it with a needle and thread from falling out. Set the goose before a clear, steady fire--having a little warm water in the dripping-pan to baste it till the gravy begins to fall. Keep it well basted all the time it is roasting. It must be thoroughly done all through. Roast it according to its size, from an hour and a half to two hours or more.

Boil the giblets in a sauce-pan by themselves, seasoned with a little salt and pepper, and having among them a bit of butter dredged with flour. When done, remove the neck, and retain the heart, liver, and gizzard, cut into pieces, and served in the gravy, which should be well skimmed. Also, skim carefully the fat off the gravy in the bottom of the dripping-pan. Put the two gravies together, and serve them up in a gravy tureen. To eat with the goose, have plenty of apple-sauce, made of fine juicy apples, stewed very dry, well sweetened, and flavored with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon; or with some rose-water and nutmeg stirred in after the sauce is taken from the fire. Rose-water evaporates in cooking, and should never boil or be kept on the fire. A _bain marie_, or double kettle, is excellent for stewing fruit; putting the fruit inside, and the water outside.

For a family dinner a goose is very good stuffed with well-boiled potatos, mashed smooth, with plenty of fresh butter or gravy. Sweet potatos make an excellent stuffing. So do boiled chestnuts, mashed with butter or gravy.

GOOSE PIE.--The old fashioned goose pie made with a standing crust, (the flour being mixed with boiling water, and therefore unfit for eating,) is now obsolete. They were generally sent as Christmas presents. Besides the goose, they contained chickens, pigeons, (all boned,) and various other things. They had standing sides like an oval wall, covered with a lid of the same paste, having, on the top, a knob, by which to lift off. These pies were expected to remain good a week; but generally the gravy became sour in a few days, even in winter, and however carefully kept from the air. The following is a receipt to make a fine goose pie for immediate use, and with a nice eatable paste.

Take a fine plump young goose, and parboil it, (in as little water as will cover it,) saving the gravy. Having removed the skin, cut all the flesh from the bones. Make a nice light short paste, allowing a large half pound of fresh butter to each quart of flour. For a goose pie you will require two quarts of flour and one pound of butter. Line a deep pie-dish with one sheet of paste, reserving the other sheet for the lid, which should be rolled out thick. Put in the pieces of goose, seasoned with pepper only, interspersing among it the best part of a smoked tongue, cut in thick round slices. Make a nice forcemeat into balls, about the size of a hickory nut, and add them to the filling of the pie; and some chestnuts boiled and peeled; or some round slices of boiled sweet potato. Having made a gravy of the giblets stewed, pour that over the other ingredients, filling the pie well, and heaping it high in the middle. Add a few bits of fresh butter dredged in flour. Pour in the gravy, and lay on the top the lid of the pie rolled out thick, ornamenting the edges handsomely. Cut a cross slit in the top, and fit into it a flower, or tulip cut out of paste. This pie is for dinner company, and to be eaten warm.

You may make a similar pie of a pair of fine ducks, either tame or wild. Canvas-backs and red necks are excellent for this purpose. To eat with it, have mashed potato, browned all over with a salamander.

On the shores of our southern rivers, where canvas-backs and other fine wild ducks are abundant, a pie affords an agreeable variety to the usual modes of cooking them.

A GIBLET PIE.--Clean, very nicely, the giblets of two geese or four ducks. Put them into a stew-pan, with a sliced onion; a bunch of tarragon, or sweet marjoram and sage; half a dozen pepper-corns; and four or five blades of mace. Add a very little water; cover the pan closely, and let them stew till the giblets are tender. Then take them out, and save all the gravy; having strained it from the seasoning articles. Make a rich paste, and roll it out into two sheets. With one sheet cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Put in the giblets--mixing among them a few raw potatos sliced very thin, the chopped yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, and some bits of butter rolled in flour. Pour the gravy over the giblets, &c. Cover the pie with the other sheet of paste, and notch the edges. Bake it brown, and send it to table hot.

A pigeon pie may be made in a similar manner: also, a rabbit pie.

ROAST DUCKS.--Take a pair of fine fat ducks, and having prepared them nicely for the spit, put them, for a few minutes, into boiling water to loosen the skin, which must be peeled entirely off, to have them very nice and tender. Wash their insides by pouring water through them, and wipe the outside all over with a dry cloth. Fill the body and craw of one duck with a seasoning of sage and onion, as for a goose. In case some of the company should have a dislike to onion, fill the other duck with a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, sweet herbs, &c., as for turkey. Place them before a quick fire, but not so near as to scorch. Roast them well, basting them all the time. Skim the fat off, and pour over the ducks their own gravy, mixed with what has been made of the necks, livers, hearts, and gizzards, stewed in a small sauce-pan with some butter dredged with flour. Send to table with the ducks either cranberry or apple sauce, made thick and sweet.

Let them be thoroughly roasted, which will require from an hour to an hour and a quarter.

WILD DUCKS.--To remove the fishy or sedgy taste so often found in wild ducks, parboil them with a large carrot, cut in pieces, and placed in the body of each. When the ducks are half boiled, take out the carrot and throw it away. It will have imbibed all the unpleasant taste, and taken it away from the ducks. Then cook them as you please.

BOILED DUCK.--Prepare for cooking a fine plump tame duck, and lay it five or six minutes in warm water. Then put it into a clean large bowl or deep dish, and pour over it a pint of rich boiling milk, in which has been melted two table-spoonfuls of nice fresh butter. Let the duck soak in the milk three hours, or till it has absorbed nearly all the liquid. Next, dredge the duck well with flour. Boil it in cold water for half an hour, till tender all through. Have ready a quantity of onion sauce made with milk and butter, and flavored with powdered mace or nutmeg. Cover the duck all over with the onion sauce, so as to smother it entirely. Then send it to table hot. This is a French dish, (_canard bouilli_.)

DUCKS AND PEAS.--Stuff a fine plump pair of ducks with potato stuffing, made of boiled potatos mashed very smooth with fresh butter; or, if for company, make a fine forcemeat stuffing, as for a turkey. Bake the ducks in an iron oven or bake-pan; and when nearly done, put in with them a quart of very young green peas, and a few bits of fresh butter, seasoning slightly with black pepper. When the peas and ducks are all quite done, serve them all up on one large dish.

FRICASSEED DUCKS.--Half roast a pair of ducks. Then cut them apart, as for carving. If they are _wild_ ducks, parboil them with a large carrot (cut to pieces) inside of each, to draw out the fishy or sedgy taste. Having thrown away the carrot, cut the ducks into pieces, as for carving. Put them into a clean stew-pan, and season them with pepper and salt. Mix in a deep dish a very small onion minced fine, a table-spoonful of minced or powdered tarragon leaves, (for which you may substitute sage and sweet marjoram, if you cannot procure tarragon,) and two or three large tomatos, scalded, peeled, and quartered, or two large table-spoonfuls of thick tomato catchup. Put in, also, two table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in grated bread-crumbs, and a glass of port wine, claret, or brandy, with a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace. Cover the pieces of duck with this mixture, and then add barely as much water as will keep the whole from burning. Cover the pan closely, and let the fricassee stew slowly for an hour, or till the duck, &c., are thoroughly done.

Venison or lamb cutlets may be fricasseed in this manner. Likewise, tame fat pigeons, which must previously be split in two. This, also, is a very nice way of dressing hares or rabbits.

TO ROAST CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Having trussed the ducks, put into each a thick piece of soft bread that has been soaked in port wine. Place them before a quick fire and roast them from three quarters to an hour. Before they go to table, squeeze over each the juice of a lemon or orange, and serve them up very hot with their own gravy about them. Eat them with currant jelly. Have ready also, a gravy made by stewing slowly in a sauce-pan the giblets of the ducks in butter rolled in flour, and as little water as possible. Serve up this additional gravy in a boat.

CANVAS-BACK DUCKS DRESSED PLAIN.--Truss the ducks without washing, but wipe them inside and out with a clean dry cloth. Roast them before a rather quick fire for half an hour. Then send them to table hot, upon a large dish placed on a heater. There must also be heaters under each plate, and currant jelly on both sides of the table, to mix with the gravy, on your plate; claret or port wine also, for those who prefer it as an improvement to the gravy.

TO STEW CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--Put the giblets into a sauce-pan with a very little water, and a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a very little salt and cayenne. Let them stew gently to make a gravy, keeping the sauce-pan covered. In the mean time, half roast the ducks, saving the gravy that falls from them. Then cut them up, put them into a large stew-pan, with the gravy (having first skimmed off the fat,) and merely water enough to keep them from burning. Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let them stew gently till done. Towards the last, (having removed the giblets) pour over the ducks the gravy from the small sauce-pan, and stir in a large glass of port wine, and a glass of currant jelly. Send them to table as hot as possible.

Any ducks may be stewed as above. The common wild duck, teal, &c., should always be parboiled with a large carrot in the body to extract the fishy or sedgy taste. On tasting this carrot before it is thrown away, it will be found to have imbibed strongly that disagreeable flavor.

BROILED CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.--To eat these ducks with their flavor and juices in perfection, they should be cooked immediately after killing. If shot early in the morning, they will be found delicious, if broiled for breakfast. If killed in the forenoon, let them be on that day's dinner table. When they can be obtained quite fresh they want nothing to improve the flavor. Neither do red-necks, or the other water fowl that are found in such abundance on the shores of the Chesapeake.

As soon as the ducks have been plucked, singed, drawn, and washed, split them down the back, (their heads, necks, and legs having been cut off,) rub with chalk the bars of a very clean gridiron, and set it over a bed of bright lively wood-coals. This gridiron (and all others) should have grooved bars, so as to save as much of the gravy as possible. Broil the ducks well and thoroughly, turning them on both sides. They will generally be done in half an hour. Dish them in their own gravy. The flesh should have no redness about it when dished. To half broil them on the gridiron, and to finish the cooking on a hot plate, set over a heater on the table, renders the ducks tough, and deadens the natural taste, for which no made-up sauce can atone. You may lay a few bits of nice butter on them after they are dished.

TERRAPIN DUCKS.--Take a fine large plump duck. Cut it in small pieces, and stew it in merely as much water as will cover it well, and keep it from burning. Let it stew gently, and skim it well. When it is done take it out, and cut all the meat off the bones in little bits. Return the meat to the stew-pan, and lay it in its own gravy. Add the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs, and make them into little balls with beaten white of egg, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter divided into eight bits, each bit dredged with flour, the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon or orange, and a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg. Let it stew or simmer gently till it comes to a boil, keeping it covered. When it has boiled, stir in while hot two beaten yolks of raw egg, and two large wine glasses of sherry or Madeira. Set it over the fire again for two or three minutes, keeping it covered. Then serve it up in a deep dish with a cover.

For company, you must have two ducks, and a double portion of all the above ingredients.

ROAST FOWLS.--Stuff two fowls with a nice forcemeat, made in the best manner, or with good sausage meat, if in haste. Another nice stuffing for roast fowls is boiled chestnuts, stewed in butter, or in nice drippings. Mushrooms cut up and stewed in a very little butter, make a fine stuffing for roasted fowls. Secure the stuffing from falling out by winding a twine or tape round the body of the fowl, or sewing it. Roast the fowls before a very clear fire, basting them with butter. When the fowls are done, set them away to be kept warm, while you finish the gravy, having saved the heart, gizzard, and liver, to enrich it. Skim it well from the fat and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table in a sauce-boat. Serve up with roast fowls, dried peach sauce, or cranberry. Make all fruit sauces very thick and sweet. If watery and sour, they seem poor and mean.

Full-grown fowls require, (at least,) an hour for roasting. If very large, from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

Nothing can be done with old tough fowls but to boil them in soup, till they are reduced to rags. The soup, of course, should be made chiefly of meat. The fowls will add nothing to its flavor but something to its consistence.

Capons are cooked in the same manner as other fowls. They are well worth their cost.

BOILED FOWLS.--Take a fine plump pair of young (but full-grown) fowls, and prepare them for boiling. Those with white or light yellow legs are considered the best. Make a nice forcemeat stuffing, and fill their bodies with it, and fasten the livers and gizzards under the pinions. For boiled poultry they are not wanted in the gravy. Having trussed the fowls, and picked and singed them carefully, put them into a large pot containing equal quantities of boiling water and cold water. This will make it lukewarm. Let them boil steadily for an hour after the simmering has commenced, carefully removing the scum.

Serve them up with egg sauce, celery sauce, parsley sauce, or oyster sauce--or, with cauliflower or broccoli sauce.

For boiled fowls, you may make a nice stuffing of fresh oysters, cut in small pieces, but not minced. Omit the gristle. Mix them with an equal portion of hard-boiled eggs chopped, but not minced fine. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs, and season with powdered mace. Mix in, also, some bits of fresh butter. Where onions are liked, you may substitute for the oysters some onions boiled and minced.

Fowls boil very nicely in a _bain marie_, or double kettle, with the water outside. They require a longer time, but are excellent when done. To quicken the boiling of a double kettle, put a handful of salt in the outside water.

Small chickens, of course, require a shorter time to cook.

PULLED FOWL.--This is a side dish for company. Select a fine tender fowl, young, fat, full-grown, and of a large kind. When quite done take it out of the pot, cover it, and set it away till wanted. Then, with a fork, pull off in flakes all the flesh, (first removing the skin,) and with a chopper break all the bones, and put them into a stew-pan, adding two calves' feet split, and the hock of a cold ham, a small bunch of parsley and sweet marjoram, and a quart of water. Let it boil gently till reduced to a pint. Then take it out. Have ready, in another stew-pan, the bits of pulled fowl. Strain the liquor from the bones, &c., over the fowl, and add a piece of fresh butter, (the size of a small egg,) rolled in flour, and a tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg, mixed. Mix the whole together, and let the pulled fowl stew in gravy for ten minutes. Serve it hot.

A turkey may be cooked in this manner, and will make a fine dish. For a turkey allow four calves' feet.

FRIED CHICKENS.--Cut up a pair of nice young fowls, flatten and quarter them, and season them with cayenne and powdered mace, rubbing it in well. Put some lard into a heated frying pan over the fire, or if you have plenty of nice fresh butter use that in preference. When the lard or butter boils, and has been skimmed, put in the pieces of chicken, and fry them brown on one side. Then turn them, and sprinkle them thickly all over with chopped parsley, or sweet marjoram, and fry them brown on the other side. You may fry with them a few thin slices of cold ham. Before serving them up drain off the lard you have used for frying.

When there is no dislike to onions, they may be fried nicely with boiled onions cut in rings, and laid over the pieces of chicken.

BROILED CHICKENS.--These are very dry and tasteless if merely split and broiled plain, which is the usual way. It seems to be supposed by many that no chicken is too poor for broiling, and therefore it is often difficult to get more than two or three small mouthfuls of flesh off their bones. On the contrary, poor chickens are not worth broiling or cooking in any way. To have broiled chickens good, choose those that are fat and fleshy. Having cleaned them well, and washed them, and wiped them dry, split and divide them into four quarters; flattening the bones with a steak mallet. They will be much improved by stewing or boiling in a little water for ten minutes. Then draining them and saving the liquor for gravy. Boil in this the neck, feet, heart, gizzard and liver. Strain it after boiling, and save the liver to mash into the gravy. Season the gravy with grated carrot and minced parsley, or sweet marjoram, and a little cayenne, adding a small piece of fresh butter dredged in flour. Have ready plenty of fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, and in another pan four yolks of eggs well beaten. The quarters of the chickens having become quite cold, dip each one first into the egg, and then into the crumbs. Set the gridiron over a clear fire, and broil the chicken well, first laying down the inside. Having prepared the gravy as above, give it a short boil, then send it to table in a sauce-boat with the chickens.

The excellence of chickens broiled in this way amply repays the trouble. This is a breakfast dish.

Serve up with the broiled chicken a dish of mashed potato cakes, browned with a salamander or red-hot shovel.

FRICASSEED CHICKEN.--Have ready a pair of fine plump full-grown fowls nicely prepared for cooking. Strip off all the skin, and carve the fowls neatly. Reserve all the white meat and best pieces for the fricassee, putting them in a dish by themselves, and save all the inferior pieces or black meat to make the gravy. Season with pepper and salt slightly, and add a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, and four small bits of fresh butter dredged with flour. Put the black meat, herbs, &c., into a stew-pan. Pour in a pint and a half of water, and stew it gently, skimming off every particle of fat. When reduced to less than one half, strain the gravy. Arrange the pieces of white meat in a very clean stew-pan, and pour over them the gravy of the inferior parts; add mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Mix into half a pint of boiling cream, a large tea-spoonful of arrow-root, and shake the pan briskly round, while adding the beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, mixed with more cream, (two table-spoonfuls.) Shake it gently over the fire till it begins to simmer again, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle in an instant. Watch it carefully.

This is a fine side-dish for company. There is no better way of fricasseeing fowls. A fricassee is not a fry, but a stew.

Accompany this fricassee with a dish of asparagus tops, green peas, or lima beans. Also, mashed potatos.

CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.--Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out by fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin butter kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or saucepan of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,) and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer. Occasionally take off the lid to remove the scum, and be sure to put it on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish it with more _hot_ water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard. When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, two table-spoonfuls of chopped oysters, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine, half a grated nutmeg, four blades of mace, and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish and send them to table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent way of cooking chickens. They do well in large _bain marie_.

FOWL AND OYSTERS.--Take a fine fat young fowl, and having trussed it for boiling, fill the body and craw with oysters, seasoned with a few blades of mace, tying it round with twine to keep them in. Put the fowl into a tall strait-sided jar, and cover it closely. Then place the jar in a kettle of water, set it over the fire, and let it boil at least an hour and a half after the water has come to a hard boil. When it is done take out the fowl, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy, of which you will find a quantity in the jar. Transfer this gravy to a saucepan, enrich it with the beaten yolks of two eggs mixed with three table-spoonfuls of cream, and add a large table-spoonful of fresh butter rolled in flour. If you cannot get cream, you must have a double portion of butter. Set this sauce over the fire, stirring it well, and when it comes to a boil, add twenty-five oysters. In five minutes take it off, put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with the fowl, which cooked in this manner will be found excellent.

Clams may be substituted for oysters, but they should be removed from the fowl before it is sent to table. Their flavor being drawn out in the gravy, the clams themselves will be found tough, tasteless, and not proper to be eaten.

FRENCH CHICKEN PIE.--Parboil a pair of full-grown, but fat and tender chickens. Then take the giblets, and put them into a small sauce-pan with as much of the water in which the chickens were parboiled as will cover them well, and stew them for gravy; add a bunch of sweet herbs and a few blades of mace. When the chickens are cold, dissect them as for carving. Line a deep dish with thick puff paste, and put in the pieces of chicken. Take a nice thin slice of cold ham, or two slices of smoked tongue, and pound them one at a time in a marble mortar, pounding also the livers of the chickens, and the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs. Make this forcemeat into balls, and intersperse them among the pieces of chicken. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour, and then (having removed the giblets) pour on the gravy. Cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste, rolled out thick; and notch the edges handsomely; placing a knot or ornament of paste on the centre of the top. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and bake it brown. It should be eaten warm.

This pie will be greatly improved by a pint of mushrooms, cut into pieces. Also by a small tea-cup of cream.

Any pie of poultry, pigeons, or game may be made in this manner.

CHICKEN GUMBO.--Cut up a young fowl as if for a fricassee. Put into a stew-pan a large table-spoonful of fresh butter, mixed with a tea-spoonful of flour, and an onion finely minced. Brown them over the fire, and then add a quart of water, and the pieces of chicken, with a large quarter of a peck of ochras, (first sliced thin, and then chopped,) and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the pan, and let the whole stew together, till the ochras are entirely dissolved, and the fowl thoroughly done. If it is a very young chicken, do not put it in at first; as half an hour will be sufficient to cook it. Serve it up hot in a deep dish.

You may add to the ochras an equal quantity of tomatos cut small. If you use tomatos, no water will be necessary, as their juice will supply a sufficient liquid.

[D]FILET GUMBO.--Cut up a pair of fine plump fowls into pieces, as when carving. Lay them in a pan of cold water, till all the blood is drawn out. Put into a pot, two large table-spoonfuls of lard, and set it over the fire. When the lard has come to a boil, put in the chickens with an onion finely minced. Dredge them well with flour, and season slightly with salt and pepper; and, if you like it, a little chopped marjoram. Pour on it two quarts of boiling water. Cover it, and let it simmer slowly for three hours. Then stir into it two heaped tea-spoonfuls of sassafras powder. Afterwards, let it stew five or six minutes longer, and then send it to table in a deep dish; having a dish of boiled rice to be eaten with it by those who like rice.

[D] Pronounced Fee_lay_.

This gumbo will be much improved by stewing with it three or four thin slices of cold boiled ham, in which case omit the salt in the seasoning. Whenever cold ham is an ingredient in any dish, no other salt is required.

A dozen fresh oysters and their liquor, added to the stew about half an hour before it is taken up, will also be an improvement.

If you cannot conveniently obtain sassafras-powder, stir the gumbo frequently with a stick of sassafras root.

This is a genuine southern receipt. Filet gumbo may be made of any sort of poultry, or of veal, lamb, venison, or kid.

TOMATO CHICKEN.--Take four small chickens or two large ones, and cut them up as for carving. Put them into a stew-pan, with one or two large slices of cold boiled ham cut into little bits; eight or ten large tomatos; an onion sliced; a bunch of pot-herbs,(cut up;) a small green pepper, (the seeds and veins first extracted;) half a dozen blades of mace; a table-spoonful of lard or of fresh butter, rolled in flour; or a handful of grated bread-crumbs. Add a tumbler or half a pint of water. Cover the sauce-pan closely with a cloth beneath the lid; set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire; and let it stew slowly till the chickens are thoroughly done, and the tomatos entirely dissolved. Turn it out into a deep dish.

Rabbits may be stewed in this manner. Also, veal steaks, cut thin and small.

TURKEY AND CHICKEN PATTIES.--Take the white part of some cold turkey or chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced; a very little cayenne; and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh butter. Have ready some puff-paste shells, that have been baked empty in patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture.

Cold fillet of veal minced, and mixed with chopped ham, and grated yolk of egg, and seasoned as above will make very good patties.

CHICKEN RICE PUDDING.--Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till soft and dry, a pint of rice; and while warm, mix with it a large table-spoonful of fresh butter. Beat four eggs very light; and then mix them, gradually, with the rice. Spread a coating of the fresh butter, &c., over the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of the parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was boiled--seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with the remainder of the rice; set the pudding immediately into the oven and bake it brown.

Cold chicken or turkey, cooked the day before, may be used for this purpose. The pudding may be improved by the addition of a few very thin, small slices of cold ham, or smoked tongue.

RICE CROQUETTES.--Boil half a pound of rice till it becomes quite soft and dry. Then mix with it two table spoonfuls of rich (but not strong) grated cheese, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and sufficient fresh butter to moisten it. Mince very fine, six table-spoonfuls of the white part of cold chicken or turkey, the soft parts of six large oysters, and a few sprigs of tarragon or parsley; add a grated nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon. Mix the whole well, moistening it with cream or white wine. Take of the prepared rice, a portion about the size of an egg, flatten it, and put into the centre a dessert-spoonful of the mixture; close the rice round it as you would the paste round a dumpling-apple. Then form it into the shape of an egg. Brush it over with some beaten yolk of egg and then dredge it with pounded crackers. In this way make up the whole into oval balls. Have ready, in a sauce-pan over the fire, a pound of boiling lard. Into this throw the croquettes, two at a time, so as to brown them. Let them brown for a few minutes; then take them out with a perforated skimmer. Drain them from the lard, and serve them up hot, garnished with curled parsley.

CHICKEN POT-PIE.--Cut up and parboil a pair of large fowls, seasoning them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. You may add some small slices of cold ham; in which case use _no salt_, as the ham will make it salt enough. Or you may put in some pieces of the lean of fresh pork. You may prepare a suet-paste; but for a chicken pot-pie it is best to make the paste of butter, which should be fresh, and of the best quality. Allow to each quart of flour, a small half-pound of butter. There should be enough for a great deal of paste. Line the sides of the pot, two-thirds up, with paste. Put in the chickens, with the liquor in which they were parboiled. You may add some sliced potatos. Intersperse the pieces of chicken with layers of paste in square slices. Then cover the whole with a lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a cross-slit in the top, and boil the pie about an hour or more.

Instead of ham, you may add some clams to the chicken, omitting salt in the seasoning, as the clams will salt it quite enough.

CHICKEN CURRY.--Having skinned a pair of fine chickens, cut them into six pieces each, that is, two wings, two pieces of the breast, and two legs cut off at the joint. Put into a stew-pan two boiled onions chopped, and four ounces or four table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Shake the pan till the contents begin to simmer; then add four table-spoonfuls of curry-powder and mix it well in; also, four table-spoonfuls of grated cocoa-nut. Mix all well in the stew-pan, and then put in the pieces of chicken. Cover the pan, and let all stew moderately for half an hour, stirring it round occasionally; and, if getting too dry, add a little hot water. Also, towards the last, the grated yellow rind of a lemon and the juice. It should stew till the chicken is quite tender, and till the flesh parts easily from the bones. Serve it up hot, in a covered dish, and send half a pound of boiled rice in a separate dish, _uncovered_. This is a dish for company.

Young ducks, or a young hen turkey, or a pair of rabbits, may be cooked in the same manner. Also, lamb or veal.

For curried oysters, take a hundred large fresh ones, and proceed as above.

RICE PIE.--Pick clean a quart of rice, and wash it well through two or three waters. Tie it in a cloth, put it into a pot of boiled milk, and boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain and press it till as dry as possible, and mix with it two ounces of fresh butter. Take a small tin butter-kettle; wet the inside, put in the rice, and stand it in a cool place till quite cold. Then turn it carefully out of the kettle, (of which it will retain the form,) rub it over with the beaten yolk of an egg, and set it in an oven till lightly browned. Cut out from the top of the mass of rice an oval lid, about two inches from the edge, so as to leave a flat rim or border all round. Then excavate the mould of rice, leaving a standing crust all round and at the bottom, about two inches thick. Have ready some hot stewed oysters or birds, or brown or white fricassee. Fill up the pie with it, adding the gravy. Lay on the lid, and decorate it with sprigs of green curled parsley, stuck in all round the crack where the lid is put on.

This pie may be filled with curried chicken.

COUNTRY CAPTAIN.--This is an East India dish, and a very easy preparation of curry. The term "country captain," signifies a captain of the native troops, (or Sepoys,) in the pay of England; their own country being India, they are there called generally the country troops. Probably this dish was first introduced at English tables by a Sepoy officer.

Having well boiled a fine full-grown fowl, cut it up as for carving. Have ready two large onions boiled and sliced. Season the pieces of chicken with curry powder or turmeric; rubbed well into them, all over. Fry them with the onion, in plenty of lard or fresh butter, and when well-browned they are done enough. Take them up with a perforated skimmer, and drain through its holes. It will be a great improvement to put in, at the beginning, three or four table-spoonfuls of finely grated cocoa-nut. This will be found an advantage to any curry.

Serve up, in another dish, a pint of rice, well picked, and washed clean in two or three cold waters. Boil the rice in plenty of water, (leaving the skillet or sauce-pan uncovered;) and when it is done, drain it very dry, and set it on a dish before the fire, tossing it up with two forks, one in each hand, so as to separate all the grains, leaving each one to stand for itself. All rice for the dinner table should be cooked in this manner. Persons accustomed to rice never eat it watery or clammy, or lying in a moist mass. Rice should never be covered, either while boiling, or when dished.

We recommend this "country captain."

CURRIED EGGS.--Boil six fresh eggs till they are hard enough for salad, and then set them away to get cold. Mix together, in a stew-pan, three ounces (or three large table-spoonfuls) of nice fresh butter, and three dessert-spoonfuls of curry powder. Shake them together for five minutes over a clear but moderate fire. Then throw in two boiled onions finely minced, and let them cook, gently, till quite soft, adding three ounces or three large spoonfuls of grated cocoa-nut. Cut the eggs into rather thick slices. Put them into the mixture, with a small tea-cupful of thick cream, or if you cannot obtain cream, with two more spoonfuls of butter dredged with flour. Let the whole simmer together, but when it approaches coming to a boil, take it immediately off the fire and serve it up hot. This is a nice side-dish for company.

PARTRIDGES PEAR FASHION--(_French dish._)--Your partridges should be fine and fat, and of the same size. For a large dish have three or four. Truss them tight and round, and rub over them a little salt and cayenne, mixed. Cut off one of the legs and leave the other on, fill them with a nice forcemeat. Make a rich paste of flour, butter, and beaten egg, using as little water as possible. Be sure to make enough of paste to cover each partridge entirely over, and roll it out evenly, and rather thick than thin. Put a sufficient portion of paste nicely round each partridge, pressing it closely and smoothly with your hand, and forming it into the shape of a large pear. Leave one leg sticking out at the top to resemble the stem, having cut off the foot. Set them in a pan, and bake them in a dutch oven. In the mean time, make in a small sauce-pan, a rich brown gravy of the livers, and other trimmings of the partridges, and some drippings of roast veal or roasted poultry. It will be better still if you reserve one or two small partridges to cut up, and stew for the gravy. Season it with a little salt and cayenne. When it has boiled long enough to be very thick and rich, take it off, strain it, and put the liquid into a clean sauce-pan. Add the juice of a large orange, made very sweet with powdered white sugar. Set it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let it boil two or three minutes longer; then take it off, and keep it hot till the partridges and their paste are thoroughly well baked. When done, stand up the partridges in a deep dish, and serve up the gravy in a sauce-boat. Ornament the partridge-pears by sticking some orange leaves into the end that represents the stalk. This is a nice and handsome side dish, of French origin.

Pigeons and quails may be dressed in this manner.

SALMI OF PARTRIDGES--(_French dish._)--Having covered two large or four small partridges with very thin slices of fat cold ham, secured with twine, roast them; but see that they are not too much done. Remove the ham, skin the partridges, cut them into pieces, and let them get quite cold. Partridges that have been roasted the preceding day are good for this purpose. Cut off all the meat from the bones, season it with a little cayenne, and put it into a stew-pan. Mix together three table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, a glass of excellent wine, (either red or white,) and the grated peel and juice of an orange. Pour this gravy over the partridges, and let them stew in it during ten minutes; then add the beaten yolk of an egg, and stew it about three or four minutes longer. All the time it is stewing, continue to shake or move the pan over the fire. Serve it up hot.

ROASTED PARTRIDGES, PHEASANTS, AND QUAILS.--Make a stuffing of fat bacon finely minced, and boiled chestnuts or grated sweet potatoe boiled, mashed, and seasoned with pepper only. Fill the birds with this. Cover them with thin slices of bacon, and wrap them well in young vine leaves. Roast them well, and serve them up in the bacon and vine leaves, to be taken off when they come to table. For company, have orange sauce to eat with them. If you roast pigeons, &c., without a covering of bacon and vine leaves, do them with egg and bread-crumbs all over.

If these birds have a bitter taste when cooked, do not eat them. It is produced by their feeding on laurel berries in winter, when their food is scarce. Laural berries are poisonous, and people have died from eating birds that have fed on them.

BIRDS WITH MUSHROOMS.--Take two dozen reed-birds, (or other nice small birds,) and truss them as if for roasting. Put into each a button mushroom, of which you should have a heaping pint after the stalks are all removed. Put the birds and the remaining mushrooms into a stew-pan. Season them with a very little salt and pepper, and add either a quarter of a pound of fresh butter (divided into four, and slightly rolled in flour,) or a pint of rich cream. If cream is not plenty, you may use half butter and half cream, well mixed together. Cover the stew-pan closely, and set it over a moderate fire, to stew gently till the birds and mushrooms are thoroughly done and tender all through. Do not open the lid to stir the stew, but give the pan, occasionally, a hard shake. Dip in hot water a large slice of toast with the crust trimmed off. When the birds are done lay them on the toast with the mushrooms around.

If you cannot get button-mushrooms, divide large ones into quarters.

Plovers are very nice stewed with mushrooms.

BIRDS IN A GROVE--(_French dish._)--Having roasted some reed-birds, larks, plovers, or any other small birds, such as are usually eaten, mash some potatos with butter and cream. Spread the mashed potato thickly over the bottom, sides, and edges of a deep dish. Nick or crimp the border of potatoe that goes round the edge, or scollop it with a tin cutter. You may, if you choose, brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Then lay the roasted birds in the middle of the dish, and stick round them and among them, very thickly, a sufficient number of sprigs of curled or double parsley.

THATCHED HOUSE PIE--(_French dish._)--Rub the inside of a deep dish with two ounces of fresh butter, and spread over it two ounces of vermicelli. Then line the dish with puff-paste. Have ready some birds seasoned with powdered nutmeg, and a very little salt and pepper. Place them with the breast downward. They will be much improved by putting into each a mushroom or an oyster chopped fine. Lay them on the paste. Add some gravy of roast veal, (cold gravy saved from veal roasted the preceding day will do very well,) and cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste. Bake it in a moderate oven, and when done, turn it out _carefully_ upon a flat dish, and send it to table. The vermicelli, which was originally at the bottom, will now be at the top, covering the paste like thatch upon a roof. Trim off the edge, so as to look nicely. You may, if you choose, use a larger quantity of vermicelli. The yellow sort will be best for this purpose.

BIRDS PREPARED FOR LARDING.--Cut a thin slice of fresh veal, and fill the bird with it, adding a bit of fat bacon. Tie a string round the body to keep in the stuffing, and roast the bird head downward. The gravy of the meat will diffuse a pleasant taste all through the bird.

After being well roasted, let it get cold, and then lard it all over the breast with lardons or regular slips of fat bacon, put in with a larding needle, and left standing in rows. It is more easy to lard poultry or game when cold, rather than warm. Lardons should be set very close and evenly.

BIRD DUMPLINGS.--Take a large tender beef steak, trim off all the fat, and remove the bone. Make a large sheet of nice suet paste. Lay the beef steak upon it, seasoned with pepper and a very little salt. In the centre of the meat place either a partridge, a quail, a plover, or any nice game, or three or four reed-birds--season with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of excellent fresh butter, dredged with flour. Inclose the birds completely in the steak, so that the game flavor may pervade the whole. Close the crust over all, so as to form a large dumpling. Tie it in a cloth. Put it into a pot of fast-boiling water, and boil it well, turning it several times with a fork. Dish it very hot.

If game is not convenient, a fine tame fat pigeon may be substituted.