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Salmi of Game or Wild Fowl

Put the birds down to the fire as for roasting, and take them up when they are less than half done. Cut them into neat pieces, and remove the skin, fat, and sinew from the legs, wings, and breasts. Place the joints side by side in a clean saucepan, cover them, and keep them in a cool place till wanted. Take a quarter of a pound of uncooked lean ham, mince it finely, put it into a well-tinned saucepan, and shake it over the fire for three or four minutes with a slice of fresh butter. Add to it a dozen button mushrooms, a scraped carrot, a handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, three shallots (or more), finely minced, four cloves, two bay-leaves, a blade of mace, and half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns. Mix these ingredients, and stir them over a gentle fire till the sides of the saucepan appear slightly coloured, dredge a table-spoonful of flour over the contents, and let it brown a little, then pour in gradually a pint of good veal stock and two glassfuls of sherry. Put in the bruised bodies of the birds, let the sauce boil up, then draw the saucepan to the side, and let its contents simmer gently until the sauce is smooth, thick, and pleasantly flavoured. Carefully remove the scum as it rises. Clear the sauce from fat, strain, pour it over the joints of game in the saucepan, let these heat in it very slowly, and when the liquid is just about to boil, dish them. Pour the sauce over the game, and garnish the dish with fried sippets. The salmi may be made less expensive by the omission of the mushrooms and wine. When moor fowl or black game are used, care should be taken to remove the bitter spongy substance from the body of the birds, if they have been well hung, or the flavour of the salmis will be spoilt. Time, an hour to an hour and a half to simmer the sauce.