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Poultry: Roast

Roast Chicken. 4-pound chicken. 1 teaspoonful salt, 1 tablespoonful butter, 1 tablespoonful cornstarch, cupful boiling water.

Singe the chicken, wash it quickly in cold water, then dry with a towel; season inside and out with salt, fill the body and crop with bread dressing, sew it up, and spread butter over the breast. Cover the breast with thin slices of larding pork; bend the wings backward, put skewers through the thigh and body, and place it in a roasting pan. Set the pan in a medium-hot oven and roast until the chicken has become a fine brown all over, basting frequently with its own gravy; then add cupful boiling water; continue the roasting and basting till the chicken is done, which will take from one to two hours, according to the age of the fowl. If the gravy gets too brown, add a little more water. The chicken feet, neck, and giblets may be used to make rice soup. Shortly before serving, lay the chicken on a dish, remove the skewers and thread, free the gravy from fat, mix the cornstarch with cold water, add it to the gravy, stir, and cook for a few minutes; then add sufficient boiling water to make a creamy sauce. Cook three minutes, strain, chop the boiled giblets fine and add to the sauce. Bread Dressing. pound stale bread, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, tablespoonfuls chopped onion, 1 teaspoonful salt, ½ teaspoonful pepper, 1 teaspoonful thyme, 1 egg.

Soak bread in cold water, place a saucepan with butter and onions over the fire; cook five minutes without browning; inclose the bread in a towel and press out all the water, add it to the saucepan, stir over the fire five minutes, then remove; when cold, add salt, pepper, thyme, and egg; mix well and use as stuffing.

Roast Duck.

Pick, singe, and wipe outside of duck. Salt and pepper the inside after carefully drawing and wiping.

Cut off the wings at the second point and truss the duck neatly. Roast in a very hot oven from one and a half to two hours in a baking pan containing a little water; baste frequently. Celery, onions, or apples, cored and quartered, are sometimes placed inside the duck to improve the flavor.