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Roasted Widgeons

Pluck and singe a brace of widgeons, cut off the heads and claws, draw the birds without breaking the entrails and wipe them with a wet cloth; rub them all over with cold butter, dredge them with flour and roast them for about twenty minutes. Carefully preserve all the gravy that flows from them, and when nearly done sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Serve at once with their gravy and red currant jelly, or with orange essence made as follows: Chop very finely two peeled onions or one shallot, grate the yellow rind of a large orange and chop one ounce of ham or bacon very fine; put these ingredients into a small saucepan, add to them a small sprinkling of salt and pepper, one-half pint of gravy from roasted wild fowl, one gill of port wine and one saltspoonful of salt, and simmer all gently for ten minutes. Meanwhile squeeze the juice from a whole orange and half a lemon into a sauceboat. At the end of ten minutes strain the sauce into the orange and lemon juice, and serve immediately.

Broiled woodcocks Pluck, singe, draw, pick out the eyes, and remove the skin from the heads of six fine woodcocks, wipe them neatly, and split them through the backs without separating the parts. Put them on a dish, season with a little salt and pepper, and a tablespoonful of sweet oil. Roll them well with the seasoning and put them on to broil with the bills stuck in the breasts. Let them broil for four minutes on each side, then arrange them on a dish with six pieces of heart-shaped fried bread covered with minced hearts and livers as for roasted woodcock, spread over a gill of maitre h'hotel butter, decorate with six slices of fat bacon, and serve.