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Note (Truffles cut into scallops)
Truffles cut into scallops, or shaped in artichoke-bottoms cut into small pointed quarters, may also be served with a fricassee of chickens.
Pigeons a la Gauthier. truss them with their legs thrust inside; next put Procure 4 young, fat pigeons; draw, singe and with the juice of a lemon, a little mignonette, a halfpound of fresh butter into a small stewpan pepper, and salt; place this over a stove-fire, and when it is melted put the pigeons with a garnished faggot of parsley in it, cover the whole of buttered paper, and set them to simmer very with thin layers of fat bacon and a circular piece they will be done. The pigeons must then be gently on a slow fire for about 20 minutes, when drained upon a napkin, and after all the greasy dish in the form of a square, with a large quenelle moisture has been absorbed place them in the of fowl (decorated with truffles) in between each tails; pour some of the sauce over and round the pigeon ; fill the centre with a ragout of crayfishpigeons, and serve.
Rabbits a la Bourguignonne.
Cut the rabbits up into small joints, season with pepper and salt, and fry them slightly over the fire without allowing them to acquire much color; adding half a pint of button-onions previously parboiled in water, a very little grated nutmeg, and half a pottle of mushrooms; toss these over the fire for five minutes, then add a tumblerfull of French white wine (Chablis or Sauterne), and set this to boil sharply until reduced to half the quantity; next add 2 large gravyspoonsful of Poivrade sauce (which see), simmer the whole together gently for ten minutes longer, and finish by incorporating a leason of 4 yolks of eggs, the juice of a lemon, and a dessertspoonful of chopped parboiled parsley; dish up the pieces of rabbit in a pyramidal form, garnish the entrée with the onions, etc., placed in groups round the base, pour the sauce over it and serve.
Salmis of Wild Duck.
Procure 2 fat, plump chickens, and after they have been drawn singe them over the flame of a charcoal fire, and then cut up into small members or joints in the following manner: First remove the wings at the second joint, then take hold of the chicken with the left hand, and with a sharp knife make 2 parallel cuts lengthwise on the back about an inch and a half apart , so as partly to detach or at least to mark out where the legs and wings are to be removed; the chicken must next be placed upon its side on the table, and after the leg and fillet (with the pinion left on the upper side) have been cut, the same must be repeated on the other, and the thigh-bones must be removed.
Then separate the back and breast, trim these without waste and cut the back across into 2 pieces; steep the whole in a pan containing clear tepid water for about 10 minutes, frequently squeezing the pieces with the hand to extract all the blood. Next strew the bottom of a stewpan with thinly-sliced carrot, onion and a little celery, 3 cloves, 12 pepper-corns, a blade of mace and a garnished faggot of parsley; place the pieces of chicken in close and neat order upon the vegetables, etc.; moisten with about a quart of boiling broth from the stockpot, or failing this, with water; cover with the lid and set the whole to boil gently by the side of the stove-fire for about half an hour, when the chicken will be done. They must then be strained in a sieve and their broth reserved in a basin; next immerse the pieces of chicken in cold water, wash and drain them upon a napkin, and afterward trim them neatly and place them in a stewpan in the larder. Then put 2 ounces of fresh butter to melt in a stewpan; to this add 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir the mixture over the fire for 3 minutes without allowing it to acquire any color; it should then be removed from the stove, and the chicken broth being poured into it the whole must be thoroughly mixed together into a smooth sauce; throw in some trimmings of mushrooms and stir the sauce over the fire until it boils, then set it by the side to continue gently boiling to throw up the butter and scum. When the sauce has boiled half an hour skim it; reduce it by further boiling to its proper consistency, and then incorporate with it a leason of 4 yolks of eggs mixed with a pat of butter and a little cream; set the leason in the sauce by stirring it over the fire until it nearly boils, then pass it through a tammy into the stewpan containing the pieces of chicken, and add thereto half a pottle of prepared button-mushrooms. When about to send to table warm the fricassee without allowing it to boil, and dish it up as follows:
First put the pieces of the back in the centre of the dish, place the legs at the angles, the bones pointed inwardly; next place the fillets upon these, and then set the pieces of breast on the top; pour the sauce over the entrée, and place the mushrooms about the fricassee in groups; surround the entrée with eight or ten glazed crôu- 14 another skewer through the fore legs gathered up Roast a wild duck before a brisk fire for about 25 minutes, so that it may retain its gravy, place it on its breast in a dish to get cool, then cut it up the breast and back each cut into 2 pieces, and into small joints comprising 2 fillets, 2 legs with place the whole in a stewpan. Put the trimmings into a stewpan with pint of red wine, 4 shallots, free from pith, the pulp of a lemon, and a little a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, the rind of an orange Cayenne; boil these down to half their original quantity then add a small ladleful of sauce, allow the sauce to boil, skim it and pass it through a tammy on to the pieces of wild duck. When about to send to the table warm the salmis without boiling, dish it up, pour the sauce over it, garnish the entrée with 8 heart-shaped croutons of fried bread nicely glazed, and serve.
Roast Hare. which must be scalped and the hairs scraped off; Skin and draw the hare, leaving on the ears, pick out the eyes and cut off the feet or pads just above the first joint, wipe the hare with a clean cloth, and cut the sinews at the back of the hindquarters and below the fore legs. Prepare some veal stuffing and fill the paunch with it, sew this up with string or fasten it with a wooden skewer, then draw the legs under as if the hare was in a sitting posture, set the head between the shoulders and stick a small skewer through them, running also through the neck to secure its position; run under the paunch, then take a yard of string, double it in two, placing the centre of it on the breast of the hare and bring both ends over the skewer, cross the string over both sides of the other skewer and fasten it over the back. Split the hare and roast it before a brisk fire for about three-quarters of an hour, frequently basting it with butter or dripping. Five minutes before taking the hare up throw on a little salt, shake some flour over it with a dredger, and baste it with some fresh butter; when this froths up and the hare has acquired a rich brown crust take it off the spit, dish it up with water-cresses round it, pour some brown gravy under, and send some currant jelly in a boat to be handed round.
Roast Pheasant.
Draw the pheasant by making a small opening at the vent, make an incision along the back part of the neck, loosen the pouch, etc., with the fingers and then remove it; singe the body of the pheasant and its legs over the flame of a charcoal fire or with a piece of paper, rub the scaly cuticle off the legs with a cloth, trim away the claws and spurs, cut off the neck close up to the back leaving the skin of the breast entire, wipe the pheasant clean, and then truss it in the following manner:
Place the pheasant upon its breast, run a trussingneedle and string through the left pinion (the wings being removed), then turn the bird over on its back and place the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand across the breast, holding the legs erect; thrust the needle through the middle joint of both thighs, draw it out and then pass it through the other pinion and fasten the strings at the back; next pass the needle through the legs and body and tie the strings tightly; this will give it an appearance of plumpness. Spit and roast the pheasant before a brisk fire for about half an hour, frequently basting it; when done send to table with brown gravy under it and bread sauce (which see) separately in a boat.
Wild Fowl, en Salmis.
Cut up a cold roast duck (wild), goose, brant, or whatever it may be. Put into a bowl or soupplate (to every bird) a dessertspoonful of well made mustard, a sprinkle of cayenne and black pepper, with about a gill of red wine; mix them well together, set your pan on the fire with a lump of butter, when it melts add gradually the wine, etc., let it bubble a minute, put in your duck and bubble it for a few minutes. If your duck has proved tough when first cooked, use a saucepan and let it bubble till tender, taking care there is enough gravy to keep it from burning. Serve on dry toast very hot.
Pigeons.
Pigeons may be broiled or roasted like chicken.
They will cook in three-quarters of an hour. Make a gravy of the giblets, season it with pepper and salt, and thicken it with a little flour and butter. Terrapins.
Plunge them into boiling water till they are dead, take them out, pull off the outer skin and toe-nails, wash them in warm water and boil them with a teaspoonful of salt to each middling-sized terrapin till you can pinch the flesh from off the bone of the leg, turn them out of the shell into a dish, remove the sand-bag and gall, add the yolks of 2 eggs, cut up your meat, season pretty high with equal parts of black and cayenne pepper and salt. Put all into your saucepan with the liquor they have given out in cutting up, but not a drop of water; add of a pound of butter with a gill of Madeira to every 2 middle-sized terrapins; simmer gently till tender, closely covered, thicken with flour and serve hot.
To Stew Terrapins.
Wash 4 terrapins in warm water, then throw them in a pot of boiling water, which will kill them instantly; let them boil till the shells crack, then take them out and take off the bottom shell, cut each quarter separate, take the gall from the liver, take out the eggs, put the pieces in a stewpan, pour in all the liquor and cover them with water; put in salt, cayenne, and black pepper and a little mace, put in a lump of butter the size of an egg and let them stew for half an hour; make a thickening of flour and water which stir in a few minutes before you take it up with two glasses of wine. Serve it in a deep covered dish, put in the eggs just as you dish it.
Chicken Stewed with New Corn.
Cut up the chickens as for pies, season them well, have green corn cut off the cob, put a layer of chicken in the bottom of a stewpan and a layer of corn, and so till you fill all in; sprinkle in salt, pepper and parsley and put a piece of butter in, cover it with water and put on a crust with slits cut in it, let it boil an hour; when done lay the crust in a deep dish. Dip out the chicken and corn and put it on the crust, stir in the gravy a thickening of milk and flour; when this boils up pour it in with the corn and chicken. Chicken and corn boiled together in a pot make very nice soup with dumplings.
Mayonnaise.
A cold roast fowl divided into quarters; young lettuce cut in quarters and placed on the dish with salad dressing; eggs boiled hard and cut in quarters, placed round the dish as a garnish; capers and anchovies are sometimes added.
Salmon Curry.
Have 2 slices of salmon, weighing about 1 pound each, which cut into pieces of the size of walnuts; cut up 2 middling-sized onions, which put into a stew-pan with 1 ounce of butter and a clove of garlic cut in thin slices; stir over the fire till becoming rather yellowish, then add a teaspoonful of curry powder, and half that quantity of curry paste. Mix all well together with a pint of good broth; beat up and pass through a tammy into a stewpan; put in the salmon, which stew about half an hour; pour off as much of the oil as possible. If too dry, moisten with a little more broth, mixing it gently; and serve as usual, with rice separate. Salmon curry may also be made with the remains left from a previous dinner, in which case reduce the curry sauce until rather thick before putting in the salmon, which only reonly requires to be made hot in it. The remains of a turbot may also be curried in the same way, and so may any other kind of fish.
Pigeon Pie.
Truss half a dozen fine large pigeons, as for stewing; season them with pepper and salt, and fill them with veal stuffing or some parsley chopped very fine, and a little pepper, salt, and 3 ounces of butter mixed together. Lay at the bottom of the dish a rump steak of about a pound weight, cut into pieces and trimmed neatly, seasoned and , seasoned and beat out with a chopper; on it lay the pigeons, the yolks of 3 eggs boiled hard, and a gill of broth or water; wet the edge of the dish, and cover it over with puff-paste; wash it over with yolk of egg, and ornament it with leaves of paste, and the feet of the pigeons. Bake it an hour and a half in a moderate-heated oven. Before it is sent to in a moderate-heated oven. table make an aperture in the top, and pour in some good gravy, quite hot.
Giblet Pie.
Before it is sent to Clean well, and half stew 2 or 3 sets of goose
This run of game and poultry entrées is written in the vocabulary of a professional French-trained kitchen of the mid-nineteenth century, where cooks worked at an open range and roasted on a spit. A few terms and one ingredient need addressing before anything here is usable.
- Terrapin: do not attemptDiamondback terrapin and most native freshwater turtles are now protected or subject to strict take limits across their range, and commercial sale is prohibited in many states. Beyond legality, both terrapin methods here begin by dropping a live animal into boiling water, which no current standard permits. Skip both entries entirely.
- Pottle and gillA pottle is two quarts by volume, so "half a pottle of mushrooms" is about a quart of buttons. A gill is half a cup; the wild-fowl salmis calls for that much red wine per bird.
- LeasonA phonetic spelling of liaison — egg yolks, here four, beaten with cream or butter and stirred into hot sauce. The instruction "until it nearly boils" is the whole of it: at a boil the yolks curdle and the sauce breaks past saving.
- TammyA worsted straining cloth, wrung between two people to force sauce through. A fine chinois with a ladle does the same job, and a stick blender before straining gets you closer to the intended smoothness.
- Garnished faggotA bundle of parsley stalks with thyme and bay tied in, i.e. a bouquet garni. "Garnished" means the additions, not decoration.
- Roasting before a brisk fireSpit-roasting in front of radiant heat with constant basting. The book gives no oven temperature; if you are working in an oven, a hot start is the nearest equivalent for the pheasant and hare. The half-hour given for pheasant assumes a small bird and constant turning, and a thermometer at the thigh is the only reliable guide. Hare and pheasant are both very lean and dry out quickly, which is why the original bastes throughout.
- Moderate ovenFor the pigeon pie, read 350F. An hour and a half at that heat suits a deep dish with raw steak beneath the birds; a shallower modern pie dish will be done well before that.
- Squab timingThe bare note that pigeons "will cook in three-quarters of an hour" probably reflects older, larger birds. Farmed squab today is usually roasted 20 to 25 minutes in a hot oven and served pink; three-quarters of an hour turns it to leather.
- Salmis logicA salmis is a reheated roast, not a stew. The bird is roasted short of done, jointed, and warmed through in a sauce built from its own trimmings — which is why the wild duck salmis directs that the finished dish be warmed without boiling; the plainer "Wild Fowl, en Salmis" does allow it to bubble.
Some of this material has the flavour of Charles Elmé Francatelli, chief cook to Queen Victoria, whose Modern Cook was a common source for American compilers. That accounts for the abrupt shifts in register on this page: the elaborate pigeons à la Gauthier, with its quenelles of fowl and crayfish ragout, sits beside a plain American note that pigeons may simply be broiled like chicken, and beside two terrapin recipes that are unmistakably Chesapeake in origin. Terrapin was a luxury of the Baltimore and Philadelphia tables through the nineteenth century, stewed with butter, cayenne and Madeira; the appetite was great enough that the wild population came under heavy pressure, and the dish gradually faded from menus. The pigeon recipes carry a similar shadow — the passenger pigeon was then still sold by the barrel, and extinct by 1914.