Where, as in the lake districts of North Germany, hundreds of thousands of geese are annually reared to serve as human food, a great variety of preparations have to be employed to make the several parts of the animals eatable and transportable in a preserved state. The breast is mostly pickled and smoked, and sold as Pomeranian Goose Breast. It is eaten raw in thin slices, like Westphalian ham, with bread-and-butter, and is of excellent taste. The livers are transformed into pat6s. The other pieces of the geese are transformed into a pickled and stewed prepara- tion, which is preserved in fat, and consumed gradually during the winter. {Pbkel-Gans pickled goose.) A similar mode of curing, cooking, and preserving is practised at Bayonne in France. GREEN GEESE AND CYGNETS 495 Geese are most suited for culinary purposes during the time from the second week in June to the first in Sep- tember, In the Italian restaurants in London, half-grown geese (goslings) are served up as duck. A March goose gastronomers declare to be insii^id, a Michaelmas goose Tank. Geese are called gfccn till they are about four months old; such geese are yet used as second course roasts. The amateurs of these ‘ insipid premature pro- ductions ’ do not allow them to be flavoured with sage and onions. Cygnets, or young sivans, are used much as geese are. The early inhabitants of the Thames Valley probably feasted on the large black swan and his smaller white contemporary, of which bones are found in alluvial deposits. At present swans are no longer game with us, but must be reared in captivity. They are very prolific, and we have seen families of as many as nine cygnets on the protected and secluded waters of a park thirty miles distant from London. At Norwich, along with colossal herds of geese, cygnets are also reared, and are ready for the m'arket in September. The cygnet is a dish of considerable size and weight, and requires some special facilities for cooking. It is prepared and trussed like goose, and receives a shiffing of which 3 lb. of minced rumpsteak is an essential ingredient ; it is then wrapped in oiled paper, water-paste, paper again, and roasted like venison ; this package requires at least four hours’ roasting before a large fire, on the spit. It has to be frequently basted with butter, and ultimately frothed with butter and flour. It would be far preferable to bake the cygnet in a good oven. Cygnets, like wild geese, early assume an oily taste ; this can be mitigated only by marinading and roasting before a free fire. Goose Liver may be prepared in the well-known Strass- burg manner, or in jelly ; or it may be crimhed and fried, or ]}lain-fried. 496 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY A variety of loild geese are suitable for the table — such as the barnacles of Wexford and Tralee in Ireland — but only in the first year of their existence ; in the second year they become tough, and acquire an oily or fishy taste, to he counteracted by marinading and roasting, and the accom- paniment of horseradish sauce. Ducks are mostly eaten roast, but are equally excellent en daube or braised. Green peas, fried turnips, or macedoine, are suitable garnishes ; the braised duck goes well with espagnole.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Where, as in the lake districts of North Germany, hundreds of thousands of geese are annually reared to serve as human food, a great variety of preparations have to be employed to make the several parts of the animals eatable and transportable in a preserved state. The breast is mostly pickled and smoked, and sold as Pomeranian Goose Breast. It is eaten raw in thin slices, like Westphalian ham, with bread-and-butter, and is of excellent taste. The livers are transformed into patés. The other pieces of the geese are transformed into a pickled and stewed preparation, which is preserved in fat, and consumed gradually during the winter. (Pickel-Gans pickled goose.) A similar mode of curing, cooking, and preserving is practised at Bayonne in France. GREEN GEESE AND CYGNETS Geese are most suited for culinary purposes during the time from the second week in June to the first in September, In the Italian restaurants in London, half-grown geese (goslings) are served up as duck. a March goose gastronomers declare to be insipid, a Michaelmas goose Tank. Geese are called green till they are about four months old; such geese are yet used as second course roasts. The amateurs of these ‘ insipid premature productions ’ do not allow them to be flavoured with sage and onions. Cygnets, or young sivans, are used much as geese are. The early inhabitants of the Thames Valley probably feasted on the large black swan and his smaller white contemporary, of which bones are found in alluvial deposits. At present swans are no longer game with us, but must be reared in captivity. They are very prolific, and we have seen families of as many as nine cygnets on the protected and secluded waters of a park thirty miles distant from London. At Norwich, along with colossal herds of geese, cygnets are also reared, and are ready for the market in September. The cygnet is a dish of considerable size and weight, and requires some special facilities for cooking. It is prepared and trussed like goose, and receives a stuffing of which 3 lb. of minced rumpsteak is an essential ingredient ; it is then wrapped in oiled paper, water-paste, paper again, and roasted like venison ; this package requires at least four hours’ roasting before a large fire, on the spit. It has to be frequently basted with butter, and ultimately frothed with butter and flour. It would be far preferable to bake the cygnet in a good oven. Cygnets, like wild geese, early assume an oily taste ; this can be mitigated only by marinading and roasting before a free fire. Goose Liver may be prepared in the well-known Strassburg manner, or in jelly ; or it may be crumbled and fried, or ]}lain-fried. A variety of loild geese are suitable for the table — such as the barnacles of Wexford and Tralee in Ireland — but only in the first year of their existence ; in the second year they become tough, and acquire an oily or fishy taste, to he counteracted by marinading and roasting, and the accompaniment of horseradish sauce. Ducks are mostly eaten roast, but are equally excellent en daube or braised. Green peas, fried turnips, or macedoine, are suitable garnishes ; the braised duck goes well with espagnole.

The spirit of cookery