Part 5

“To roast spring chickens is to spoil ’em; Just split ’em down the back and broil ’em.”

=Roast Pigeon.=—Raise the skin from the breast-bones of the pigeons with your finger; make a small quantity of finely-flavored stuffing, and stuff it between the skin and flesh, using care not to break the skin. Fasten a long, thin slice of bacon over the breasts of the birds with toothpicks; put them in a dripping-pan with a little water, and dredge with flour. When done remove the bacon, set them neatly around the edge of a dish, fill the centre with new green peas or Godillot French peas, and serve. (A favorite dish of the members of the Club of Lindenthorpe, on the Delaware.)

=Roast Domestic Duck.=—Americans, as a rule, do not take kindly to domestic duck, owing to its peculiar flavor and richness, and also to the fact of the bird being usually accompanied with a very highly-seasoned onion stuffing. Nevertheless, a young domestic duck stuffed with a bread stuffing seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and a _suspicion_ of onion, is a dish that should often appear upon the tables of our American families. A pair of ducklings with no other stuffing than an onion placed inside the birds while roasting, and removed before serving, will make a splendid dinner for a family of five or six. Serve with apple-fritters or apple-sauce.

=Roast Goose.=—Singe, draw, and truss the goose, and, if an old one, parboil it. The best stuffing for a goose is a sage-and-onion stuffing. The way in which this is made must depend upon the taste of those who have to eat it. If a strong flavor of onions is liked the onion should be chopped raw. If this is not the case they should be boiled in one or two waters, and mixed with bread-crumbs, powdered sage, salt and pepper, nutmeg, and two small apples chopped fine; fill the bird with the stuffing, sew it up with coarse thread, sprinkle salt over it, and set it in a pan with a little warm water; baste frequently, and do not take it from the oven until thoroughly cooked.

=Ham a la Russe.=—If the ham be hard and salty soak it for several hours. If a fresh-cured Ferris ham it will not need soaking. Trim and cut away all the rusty parts, and cover it with a coarse paste of flour and water half an inch thick, and fasten it securely to prevent the juice escaping. Time, from three to four hours, according to size of the ham. Remove the paste and skin while the ham is hot, cover the fat with a sugar paste (see boiled ham) moistened with port, and return it to the oven a few minutes to brown.

The Continental Hotel, Philadelphia, makes a specialty of _Ham à la Russe_, and it is a splendid dish served with champagne sauce.

=Canvas-Back Duck.=—Pluck, draw, and singe the duck; wipe out the blood from the inside with a clean towel; cut off the head and neck, and put them in the body of the duck, allowing the head to protrude. Sprinkle a little celery-salt over the breast, with a bit of butter; put it on a small buttered pan, and set it in the oven for seventeen minutes. Serve with currant-jelly.

A few outer stalks of celery placed inside the duck will improve its flavor.

A red-head duck stuffed with grated bread, chopped celery, seasoning, and mixed with yolk of egg, will taste very much like a canvas-back.

A blue-winged teal duck is very nice broiled. Cut it down the back, brush a little melted butter over it, and broil, keeping the inner part of the duck to the fire most of the time. To roast a teal place a strip of bacon over the breast and set it in the oven for fifteen minutes.

=Roast Venison.=—Take a leg of well-kept venison, wipe it thoroughly, rub a little salt over it, and dredge with flour. Place it in a dripping-pan with the ragged pieces you have trimmed off of it, and a little water or wine. Put small bits of butter here and there over the meat, set it in the oven, and baste frequently till done. If the leg is not very fat it is a good plan to lard it with strips of bacon or pork. Serve with currant-jelly, and don’t forget the hot plates.

I am not a lover of venison à l’Anglaise, for I do not fancy the flour paste daubed over the meat as most English cooks prepare it, though the buttered paper is an advantage when cooking large joints of game.

=Roast Prairie Chicken.=—The bird being a little strong, and its flesh when cooked a little dry, it should be either larded or wide strips of bacon or pork placed over its breast. A mild seasoned stuffing will improve the flavor of old birds. Dust a little flour over them, baste occasionally, and serve.

Pheasants may be managed in the same manner.

=Roast Quail.=—Pluck and draw the birds, rub a little butter over them, tie a strip of bacon over the breasts, and set them in the oven for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

=Roast Woodcock.=—Pluck the bird carefully, do not cut off the head or draw the trail; punch a few holes in the back of the bird with a fork, and lay it in the pan on a piece of buttered toast. A little salt is all the seasoning required. Time, twenty minutes. A woodcock is the only gamebird I send to table without currant-jelly; its own fine flavor needs no bush.

=Roast Snipe.=—Pluck and draw the snipe, preserving the trail and head; tie a thin strip of bacon over the breast; chop up the trail and spread it on buttered toast (one slice for each bird); lay the birds in the pan with the toast between them, and roast twenty minutes. Remove the bacon, place the birds on the toast, and serve.

=Rail-Birds.=—Rail-birds are decidedly inferior to either snipe or woodcock. They should be skinned, as much of their rankness lies in the skin. The trail is a trifle too strong for the average American palate. They make a very good pie; manage them as you would snipe for roasting, broiling, etc.

=Reed-Birds.=—These delicious “lumps of sweetness,” as they are appropriately called, are always acceptable, but to thoroughly appreciate a reed-bird dinner one must mingle with the gunners on the Delaware River as guest or member of one of the many clubs whose houses are situated within a few hundred yards from the hunting-grounds.

After the judge’s decision as to who has _high boat_, the birds are plucked (and, at some of the club-houses, drawn), arranged neatly in a dripping-pan with bits of fresh country butter between them. They are allowed to cook on one side a few minutes, and with a long-handled spoon are turned over to brown the other side. A little salt is added, and they are then placed upon a hot platter _en pyramide_ and the gravy poured over them; they are then sent to table with fried chip potatoes. The scene that follows baffles description. Not a voice is heard, “at least as long as the birds last.” The painful silence is only broken by the sounds of crumbling bones between the teeth of the assemblage, and an occasional _More birds, Mr. Caterer!_ from that prince of gourmets, Mayor S——.

=Reed-Birds a la Lindenthorpe.=—On “Ladies’ Day” the members of this club are more particular than on “members’ day.” They prepare the birds by drawing the trail and removing the heads; they then take large sweet or Irish potatoes, cut them in two, scoop out the insides, and put an oyster or a small piece of bacon inside of each bird, and put the birds inside the potato, tie them up with twine, and bake until the potatoes are done. The common twine is then removed and the potatoes are tied with a narrow piece of white or colored tape, in a neat bow-knot, and sent to table on a napkin.

_SALADS._

There is not a dish in the gastronomic vocabulary that varies in composition more than a salad. And the reasons for it are many. Among them may be mentioned climatic influences and the personal habits of individuals. The individual who lives well, and who considers a meal imperfect without a wine or malt beverage, will sooner or later learn to use condiments to such an extent as to alarm the more temperate at table. A salad prepared for the majority, he will tell you, cloys on his palate; and, after the first mouthful he resorts to cayenne and vinegar to “tone up” the salad to suit his taste. After this ungenerous act the close observer will notice confusion upon the face of the salad-composer, who felt confident that he had prepared a salad to suit the taste of the most fastidious. But my friend the salad-mixer should not get offended; he should keep in view one fact—that a palate abused by the constant use of tobacco and other stimulants requires more sharp and pungent seasoning than one accustomed to these things only in moderation, and that a strictly temperate person requires less of condiments than either of them.

The dyspeptic’s case is entirely different. He will complain of a salad in any form, accusing the oil of causing all his trouble. But he is wrong. Let him stop flooding his food with liquids that only dilute and weaken the gastric juices of the stomach and he will soon be rid of dyspepsia and learn to love salads as much as other people. The habit of washing down each mouthful of food with liquids is a deplorable one, and the person that does it invites dyspepsia by so doing. Persons who are in the habit of eating salads late at night, and who complain of indigestion next morning, will find it to their advantage to add half a teaspoonful of chicken pepsin to each pint of Mayonnaise; by so doing digestion is assisted, and everyone will feel very much better next day.

In catering for families I invariably add pepsin to the dressing, but until now have kept it a secret, not liking the idea of being accused of mixing medicine with the food. Nevertheless I have been amply rewarded by receiving more orders than I could personally attend to.

The following letter will explain itself:

SHARPLESS & SONS, 801 to 807 Chestnut St., PHILADELPHIA, March 7, 1879.

_Mr. Murrey, Continental Hotel_:

DEAR SIR: Please send two quarts of chicken salad manipulated by _yourself_; the last we had prepared by you left a pleasant recollection. Send up promptly at five o’clock, and oblige,

C. H. HAMRICK.

=Lettuce Salad.=—Take a good-sized head of lettuce and pull the leaves apart. Wash them a moment in a little water, then shake off the water and dry the leaves in a napkin by taking hold of the four corners and shaking it. Examine them carefully, wipe off all grit, and reject all bruised leaves; place them in a salad-bowl large enough to dress them in nicely without scattering a part of them over the table. Mix one salt-spoonful of salt, one salt-spoonful of fresh ground pepper, and a dust of cayenne with a tablespoonful of oil in a salad spoon; pour this over the lettuce, and add two more tablespoonfuls of oil; next toss the salad lightly with a salad spoon and fork, and, lastly, add a tablespoonful of vinegar; toss it gently once or twice and send to table. _To be eaten at once._ Never cut lettuce. Should you wish to divide the leaves tear them apart gently. But it is not always necessary to tear the leaves, should they appear too large to eat gracefully. With the assistance of your knife you can wrap the leaf round the end of your fork so as to make a small ball of it, and eat it with a little more elegance than your neighbor, who is trying his level best to get the leaf into his mouth edgeways.

=Plain French Dressing.=—A plain French dressing is made of salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, and nothing else. Three tablespoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar, salt-spoon heaping full of salt, an even salt-spoonful of pepper mixed with a little cayenne.

=Plain English Dressing.=—Same as plain French dressing, with a teaspoonful of made English mustard added.

=Bacon Dressing.=—Cut half a pound of bacon fat into slices, then into very small pieces, and fry them until the oil extracted is a light brown; remove the pan from the fire and add the juice of a lemon, one wineglassful of strong vinegar, a salt-spoonful of pepper, and pour it over the salad with the pieces of bacon. A very nice dressing when you cannot get oil, etc.

=Summer Mayonnaise.=—Chop up the yolk and white of a hard-boiled egg very fine, and sprinkle it over a salad. Mix a plain French dressing in a cold soup-plate, and pour over the egg and salad, and mix all together.

=Sauce Vinaigrette.=—Mix a plain French dressing, and add to it a quarter of an onion chopped fine, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley or pickle.

Don’t like the onion? Then add a few Godillot capers.

=Mayonnaise Sauce.=—Work the yolks of two raw eggs to a smooth paste, and add two salt-spoonfuls of Royal Table Salt, half a salt-spoonful of cayenne, a salt-spoonful of dry mustard, and a teaspoonful of oil; mix these ingredients thoroughly and add the strained juice of half a lemon. Take the remainder of half a pint of Virgin olive-oil and add it gradually, a teaspoonful at a time, and every fifth teaspoonful add a few drops of lemon-juice until you have used two lemons and the half-pint of oil.

There are almost as many ways of making a Mayonnaise sauce as there are of cooking eggs.

=Mayonnaise Sauce, No. 2.=—Rub the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs with the yolk of one raw egg to a smooth paste; add a heaping teaspoonful of salt, two salt-spoonfuls of white pepper, and two salt-spoonfuls of made mustard; mix thoroughly and work a gill of oil gradually into the mixture, alternated with a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar until you have used three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Should the sauce appear too thick add a wineglassful of cream gradually.

=Lobster Salad.=—Tear the meat of the lobster into shreds with two forks; remove the eggs (_if a hen lobster_) from the fins; scrape out all the green fat from the shell and set it aside. Prepare for making a Mayonnaise by working a tablespoonful of the fat into a smooth paste; let this green fat, with the yolk of one raw egg and one hard-boiled egg, be the basis of your Mayonnaise; in all other particulars follow instruction for Mayonnaise sauce. When complete mix the lobster meat with three tablespoonfuls of the sauce. Cover the bottom of a dish or compot with lettuce (the large leaves tear in two), put a layer of lobster upon it; next add a layer of celery cut into narrow-inch strips, and another layer of lobster; arrange it neatly on the dish; sprinkle the eggs or the chopped coral on the lettuce round the edges; pour the sauce over the meat, garnish with lobster-legs, and serve.

Somebody sent to the Washington _Republic’s_ correspondent, “G. H. B.,” while he was laid up in Providence hospital with the gout, a very fine lobster, and this is what he did with it: “Now, I’ll tell you about that lobster. I had him laid away tenderly in the ice-chest, and directed him to appear at dinner with some leaves of lettuce and a raw egg. The yolk of that egg I mingled, with slow, deliberate revolutions of a fork, with mustard, red pepper, salt, and oil. When the paste was thick enough to take up on the end of the fork like dough I thinned it—‘cut it’ is technical—with vinegar, and there was my dressing. I planted a table facing the snow-storm, at which I mocked and jeered in a temperature of seventy degrees Fahrenheit. Then did I disrobe the ‘Cardinal of the Seas’ (you remember the Frenchman who applied that to lobsters, thinking they came from the ocean red?) of his vestments, and by the aid of a long pickle-spoon placed all that was in him on the plate. His legs I chewed up. Then I ate him, and watched the many industrious, hard-working fathers of families trudging by in the snow, who had no lobster, and couldn’t have dressed him if they had. Then I finished up on some sponge-cake and custard, ate two apples with a sprinkle of salt, lit my pipe, and in its smoke framed beautiful porcelain figures engraven with Chinese characters and Hindoo idols. That’s what I did with that lobster. He was a prime one and very much interested the Sisters.”

=Chicken Salad.=—Cut up a cold boiled chicken into neat strips or pieces, and mix with it an equal quantity of celery. Cut the celery-stalks into inch pieces, and cut each piece into long strips; mix them together with a few spoonfuls of Mayonnaise; arrange neatly upon a dish garnished with lettuce, parsley, or hard-boiled egg, pour the remainder of the sauce over the meat, and serve.

=Veal Salad.=—Boil a nice lean piece of veal with a chicken or turkey, saving the water in which they were boiled to make a soup, and serving the fowl for dinner with egg or oyster sauce. When cold cut it up into neat strips, mix it with celery or lettuce, pour Mayonnaise over it, and serve.

The custom of pickling the pieces, etc., of fowl before mixing them in a salad does not take well with Americans.

=Herring Salad.=—Soak four Holland herrings in water or milk for three hours; then cut them up into neat, square pieces and set them aside; cut up into slices nearly three quarts of boiled potatoes while they are hot, and pour over them Rhine wine enough to moisten them; cover close, and when cold add the herrings and the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs chopped fine; crush a dozen whole peppers in a napkin, add to the salad, and mix. If milt herrings are used pound the milt to a paste, moisten it with vinegar, and pour over the salad.

If roe herring are used, separate the eggs neatly and sprinkle them over the salad, and serve.

I know a number of my German friends who will say, “Ah! that is not a herring salad.” Where are the apples, the capers, beets, pickles, etc.? But the only answer I can make them is that the majority of our German brethren make an Italian or a Russian salad and call it a herring salad.

=Potato Salad.=—Cut up three quarts of boiled potatoes, _while hot_, into neat pieces, and add to them a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of chopped onion, a teaspoonful of pepper, and one of salt; add a cupful of oil, and mix; then add a cupful of warm stock, a wineglassful of vinegar (from the mixed-pickle bottle), mix the ingredients together carefully, and do not break the potato any more than is absolutely necessary; set it in the ice-box, and when cold serve by placing a leaf of lettuce on a side-dish, and put two spoonfuls of the salad upon the lettuce. The onion and parsley may be omitted, and boiled root celery added, or a little stalk celery chopped fine. You cannot make a perfect potato salad with cold boiled potatoes. Most cook-books recommend them, but that soggy, peculiar taste cannot be removed or destroyed by all the condiments in the cruet-stand. A salad prepared while the potatoes are hot will look more appetizing and will keep three or four days, while cold boiled potatoes will turn a black, uninviting color, and turn sour the second day.

=Turnip Tops.=—When turnips placed in the cellar begin to sprout they are usually thrown away, but the housekeeper of experience will tell you that a bushel of turnips will furnish her family with a salad all winter, and a very good one if properly prepared.

Place the bushel of turnips in a dark, warm cellar to sprout, and when the sprouts are three or four inches long cut them off; pick the leaves from the stems, and pour hot water over them; let them remain in the hot water a moment, then plunge them into cold water; place the sprouts in the colander to drain off all the water, and send to table with a plain dressing or bacon dressing poured over them.

=Asparagus Salad.=—Boil the asparagus, and take it from the hot water and plunge it into cold water to give it firmness; drain off the water, and send to table with sauce Vinaigrette or plain French dressing.

=Hop Sprouts.=—The hop-growers pull up all but two or three sprouts from a hill of hops, and throw them away; the few that remain in the hill are supposed to do duty as pole-climbers. Gather a small basketful of the rejected sprouts; take them home; boil them in salted water a few minutes, then plunge them into cold water; drain off all the water, and serve with a plain French dressing, bacon dressing, or sauce Vinaigrette.

If you eat asparagus you will like hop sprouts.

=Cucumber Salad.=—Peel and slice the cucumbers as thin as possible; put the slices in salted water five minutes, then draw off the water; cover them with vinegar, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and salt if necessary.

=Cucumber and Tomato Salad.=—Peel and slice a five-inch cucumber into very thin slices; put them in a bowl with half a teaspoonful of salt and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar; set it aside and mix a plain English dressing.

Take one large or two small-sized tomatoes, scald them a moment, remove the skin and put them in cold water a few minutes to cool; line the salad-bowl with lettuce, drain the cucumbers from the pickle and put them in the bowl; wipe the tomatoes and cut them into slices; put them on top of the cucumber, pour the dressing over it, and serve.

OFFICE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY, } HARRISBURG, PENN., April 16, 1879. }

_Mr. Murrey, Caterer Continental Hotel, Philadelphia_:

Send by express, to-morrow, one hundred Murrey salad sandwiches.

HENRY M. HOYT, _Governor_.

=Murrey’s Salad Sandwich.=—Cut up four ounces of breast of boiled chicken and four ounces of tongue, place them in a mortar, and pound them to a paste; add two salt-spoonfuls of celery-salt, a pinch of cayenne, a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, and four tablespoonfuls of Mayonnaise; put the mixture on a cold dish, and set it aside.

Take a few neat leaves of lettuce, dip each leaf in a little tarragon vinegar, shake it, and place it on a slice of bread; spread a layer of the prepared meat over the lettuce, then another leaf of lettuce over the meat, and the other slice of bread, and your sandwich is made. Trim off the crust, cut each sandwich in two, and fold each piece neatly in confectionery (oiled) paper.

Ham and veal make a nice salad sandwich. The meat may be spread on the bread and the lettuce in the centre, if preferred.

=Muskmelon Salad.=—Should you be so unfortunate as to receive an insipid, over-ripe melon, do not send it from the table, but scoop it out on your plate with a spoon, pour a French dressing over it, and you will thank me for the suggestion.