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Black-cock, to Roast
INGREDIENTS. -Black-cock, butter, toast. AVERAGE COST, 5s. per brace.
Let these birds hang for a few days, or they will be tough and tasteless, if not well kept. Pluck and draw them, and wipe the insides and outsides with a damp cloth, as washing spoils the flavour.
Cut off the heads, and truss them the same as a roast fowl, cutting off the toes, and scalding and peeling the feet. Trussing them with the head on, as shown in ROAST BLACK-COCK. the engraving, is still practised by many cooks, but the former method is now considered the best. Put them down to a brisk fire, well baste them with butter, and serve with a piece of toast under, and a good gravy and bread sauce. After trussing, some cooks cover the breast with leaves and slices of bacon, and then ro. them. They should be served in the sam manner and with the same accompaniments as with the plainly-roasted birds.
TIME.-45 to 50 minutes.
Black-cock, To Carve. Skilful carving of game undoubtedly adds to the pleasure of the guests at a dinner-table; for game seems pre-eminently to be composed of such delicate limbs and tender flesh that an inapt practitioner appears to to the end of December. more disadvantage when mauling these pretty and favourite dishes, than larger and more robust pièces de résistance. This bird is variously served, with or without the head on; and, although we do not personally object to the appearance of the head SEASONABLE from the middle of August B as shown in the woodcut, yet it seems to be more in vogue to serve it without.
The carving is not difficult, but should be elegantly and deftly done. Slices from the breast, cut in the direction of the dotted line from B to A, should be taken off, the merrythought displaced, and the leg and wing removed by running the knife along from C to D. The thigh is considered a great delicacy.
Blancmange. quart mould.-1¼ pint of new milk, 1 oz. of INGREDIENTS for isinglass, the rind of lemon, lb. of loaf sugar , 10 bitter almonds, oz. of sweet almonds, 1 pint of cream. AVERAGE COST, 3s .
Put the milk into a saucepan, with the isinglass, lemon-rind, and sugar, and let these ingredients stand by the side of the fire until the milk is well flavoured; add the almonds, which should be blanched and pounded in a mortar to a paste, and let the milk just boil up; strain it through a fine sieve or muslin into a jug, add the cream, nearly cold. Let it stand for a few minutes, and stir the mixture occasionally until then pour it into the mould, which should be previously oiled with the purest saladoil, or dipped in cold water. There will be must not be poured into the mould, as, a sediment at the bottom of the jug, which when turned out, it would very much disfigure the appearance of the blancmange. This blancmange may be made very much BLANCMANGE, CHEAP. richer by using 1 pint of cream, and melting the isinglass in 1/2 pint of boiling water. The flavour may also be very much BLANCMANGE MOULD.
BOILING.
A plain spit-roast of a game bird, with the period's usual accompaniments of toast, gravy and bread sauce. Most of what needs translating is the fire, the bird itself, and the fact that the printed page has run together with its neighbours.
- The hinge: hang it, then do not wash itThe instruction to hang the birds a few days and wipe them with a damp cloth rather than rinsing them is the whole point of the method. Hanging in a cool, airy place (around 40F/4C, undrawn, as the recipe has you pluck and draw only afterwards) tenderises and develops flavour; water on the flesh dilutes it and prevents the skin drying enough to crisp.
- "A brisk fire"The birds were turned in front of an open fire and basted constantly; there is no oven setting in the original. If adapting to an oven, a hot setting in the region of 425-450F (220-230C) is a reasonable approximation: start hot to set the skin and baste every ten minutes with butter.
- Time and donenessForty-five to fifty minutes suits a whole black grouse of 2-3 lb but will overcook anything smaller. Judge by temperature rather than the clock: game handled and hung by an amateur is safest cooked through, and a breast that has gone dry and grey has passed the point the recipe was aiming at.
- Sourcing the birdBlack grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) is red-listed in Britain and subject to voluntary shooting moratoria across much of its remaining range, so it rarely reaches the game trade, and it is protected outright in some countries. Red grouse, partridge or a young pheasant take the same treatment, with times scaled to weight.
- BardingThe alternative given at the end -- leaves and slices of bacon over the breast -- is worth using with any lean game bird. Remove it for the last ten minutes so the skin colours.
- The toast underneathThe toast serves as a sop for the buttery juices rather than as a garnish; the recipe places it under the bird at serving. Use a thick slice of stale white bread, toasted dry, not buttered.
- Cost and yieldFive shillings per brace was a substantial sum in Mrs Beeton's day, marking this as a gentleman's dish rather than everyday fare. One cock serves two generously; the thigh, singled out in the carving note, is the piece to offer the guest you like best.
- Feet and headsScalding and peeling the feet before trussing loosens the scaly skin. Trussing with the head on, which the text notes was going out of fashion, now survives mainly as a restaurant flourish.
- Stray text on this pageThe lines about carving, and the blancmange recipe that follows, are bleed-through from adjacent columns of the original book and are not part of this recipe. Note that the blancmange as printed calls for ten bitter almonds; bitter almonds contain amygdalin and are not sold for food use in most countries. Do not make that recipe from this page.
Black grouse were a prize of the northern and western British moors, and the season Mrs Beeton gives -- mid-August to the end of December -- reflects the sporting calendar rather than the kitchen's convenience: the bird arrived at the cook's door as the by-product of a shooting party, usually in braces, often already a few days dead from the journey. That is why the recipe opens with hanging rather than buying, and why the price is quoted per brace. The debate she records over trussing with or without the head is a small window on mid-Victorian table manners, when the older habit of presenting game recognisably as the animal it had been was giving way to a tidier, more discreet service. The bird itself has not fared as well as the recipe: black grouse numbers in Britain fell sharply through the twentieth century with the loss of moorland edge and scrub, and the dish is now, for most readers, a historical curiosity.