Roast Game and Poultry. Whenever a fowl or a pheasant has no other stuffing, an ounce of butter, mixed with a good pinch of pepper, salt, and nutmeg, should be put into the body, which must be so securely fastened that the seasoning cannot escape when melted. The flavour of game and poultry is much improved by basting with butter, and the fat saved from toasted bacon is an excellent substitute. Where there is much game or poultry roasted, this should not be regarded as an extravagance, as the fat with a little more added will serve over and over again. Each time the fat is used, a deposit of rich gravy will be found beneath it; this is most valuable, and should always be added to that to be served with game or poultry; indeed, this deposit with the giblets, and perhaps a bacon bone, ought to make a rich and sufficient gravy for one fowl. A thick slice of fat bacon, large enough to cover the entire breast, is not only a great improvement, but an economy in roasting a fowl, because it prevents loss of goodness and makes it eat juicy and firm. This can be easily managed in families where they make use of boiled bacon. First, before cooking, remove the rind as thinly as possible, then cut off a thick slice of the fat and reserve for roasting purposes. The bacon will not have lost any of its quality, and will probably be fat enough. The slice used to cover the breast of the fowl should be removed a few minutes before serving, in order that the skin may be nicely browned. The bacon itself will be good eaten with the fowl, or cold, or for several of our recipes. Braised Fowl. Truss a fowl as for roasting. Stuff the crop with good forcemeat or sausage meat. Lay slices of bacon over the breast, and put in a braising-pan with as much good stock as will reach half way up the legs, two onions, and a small bundle of sweet herbs. Let it stew very gently until perfectly tender, then take it up, remove the bacon from the breast, and keep warm whilst you take the fat off the gravy, and reduce it by boiling without the lid of the stewpan to about one-half. Brush over the breast of the fowl with good glaze, pour the gravy round and serve. Fricassee of Fowl with Button Onions. Cut up a tender fowl into the usual joints, put them into a pint and a half of white stock or water, nicely seasoned with pepper and salt, a sprig of parsley, mar joram and thyme, and an onion with two cloves stuck in it. Let the stewpan boil for one minute, then skim the gravy and allow it just to simmer for half an hour. Meanwhile boil three dozen button onions in a pint of milk with a little salt, strain them, and reserve the liquor to make the sauce. When done, take up the fowl, strain the gravy and take off all the fat, let it boil in the stewpan without the lid until reduced to one-half, add the onion milk made as thick as good cream with boiled flour, break in two ounces of fine fresh butter, taste that the sauce is well seasoned, and put in the fowl. Let it get hot in the sauce, and then stand at the stove corner for a quarter of an hour. Arrange the button onions neatly round the dish on which the fowl is served. Chicken Legs en Papillotes. Take the legs of cold chicken, remove the bones, dip them in dissolved butter, with a little chopped parsley, pepper, and salt mixed with it. Lay on both sides of each leg a very thin slice of cooked fat bacon, and wrap it in a piece of buttered paper, cut so that it will fold over neatly at the edges. Lay them on a gridiron over a slow fire for ten minutes, turning them twice and being very careful they do not burn. |