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Stuffing for Birds
Peel two large onions, parboil them, then drain and chop them fine. Soak one breakfast cupful of breadcrumbs in as much milk as they will absorb without becoming too soft. Put four ounces of butter in a stewpan, place it over the fire, and when the butter is melted put in the onions, breadcrumbs and one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, pepper and salt to taste, add a small quantity of grated nutmeg. Add the beaten yolks of two eggs and stir the mixture over the fire until it is reduced to a paste without allowing it to boil. The stuffing is then ready. It can be made in larger or smaller quantities according to the number and size of the birds to be stuffed.
A plain bread-and-onion forcemeat, bound with yolks rather than whole egg, meant for small birds. The whole recipe hinges on the last step.
- Do not let the yolks boilOnce the yolks go in, keep the pan over the lowest possible heat and stir constantly until the mixture pulls together into a paste. A simmer will scramble it into grains and the stuffing will be dry and curdled rather than smooth.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup, roughly 8 to 10 fluid ounces. Use about 1 to 1¼ cups of soft breadcrumbs, measured loosely, not dried crumbs from a canister.
- Soaking the crumbsFresh crumbs from a day-old loaf will take up perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk. Add it a spoonful at a time and stop while the crumbs are damp and still separate; sodden crumbs give a pasty stuffing that will not take the egg.
- StewpanAny heavy-bottomed saucepan. Thin metal is a liability here because of the egg.
- Parboiling the onionsFive to eight minutes in boiling water is enough to take the raw bite off before chopping. Drain them well, as carried-over water will thin the paste.
- ButterFour ounces is one standard stick, which is generous for a cup of crumbs. It is what makes the stuffing rich enough for lean game; reduce it to 2 ounces if you find the result greasy.
- YieldRoughly 2 cups, enough for a few small birds; the recipe itself says to scale it up or down to the number and size of the birds.
- Cooking temperatureStuffing packed inside a bird should reach 165F on an instant-read thermometer at the centre, which usually lags behind the thigh. Pack it loosely so heat can get through, or bake the surplus separately in a buttered dish.
Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's celebrated maître d'hôtel, compiled his 1896 cook book at a moment when small wild birds — quail, partridge, snipe, reed birds — were still standard restaurant fare in New York, sold by the brace and roasted whole. A stuffing like this belongs to the English sage-and-onion family, but with the sage left out and nutmeg put in its place; a forcemeat bound with yolks and enriched with butter is closer to a kitchen farce than to the dry sage dressing of an American Thanksgiving table. The note that it may be made in larger or smaller quantities leaves the recipe as a ratio, to be scaled to whatever came in from the game dealer that morning.