Numerous are the preparations termed fillets, or scallops (which had better be termed bouchees), all named after sauces or ragouts with which they are allied. Some receive names from particular herbs, which are intended to impart their flavour, such as au kmrier, au basilic. Others, again, are to be covered with salpicon, and repose on arti- chokes. Of ragouts there is one called en compote, another poupeton, because baked in a mould ; a third and good recipe refers to a pate chaud ; there are also several tourtes de cailles, but with little specificity. There are given in different books recipes for seven varieties of soup), all characterized by the presence of quail. One bears the absurd name of Bisque de Cailles. In these preparations the characteristic flavour of the birds is entirely lost. Gf grouse there are in this country three kinds, the black, the red, and the white. The male black grouse in the North is called blackcock (in French coq de bncylre) ; the female is called gray hen. In the South of England 510 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY male and female are called heath-poults. The red grouse is also termed gorcock, or moorcock, or moorgarne (in French attagas). The tvhite grouse is better known as ptarmigan (French lagophde) ; it comes to us from Norway during the time from February to May, when its plumage is white ; in summer it assumes a gray plumage. There is also a large kind of grotise known as loood-grouse, or capercailzie, German Auerhahn, which comes to us from Norway, and in more southern countries is shot like the woodcock, as a bird of passage in spring and autumn. In size it may exceed a domestic cock. It has an enormous breast, of dark and light-brown meat ; its skin is sometimes so hard that it has to be removed. Its legs are never worth any attempt at eating, as they are always hard, and contain numbers of bony tendons, much larger and more numerous than those in pheasant and partridge legs. All birds of the grouse family should always be roasted. An excellent garnish for them is saucrkra^U, stewed with butter, standard broth, and a little wine. The becca-fica, bec-figtie of the French {avis Cypria of the ancients, as it was brought to Greece and Borne from Cyprus, in a preserved state), is eaten roasted in buttered or oiled paper, and the roast is distinguished by three qualities — its fat, its flavour, and a slight bitteruess of the flesh. Of these three qualities, Brillat-Savarin says that they fill and beautify all the digestive powers. But this is again modified later on by the statement that all the merit the birds possessed was their fat. In France they are confined to the south and east ; in Italy they are more frequent. In France, at Belly, bec-figues, birds of passage, appear in the first days of January, and disappear about the 25th of that month. Dumas tells an anecdote concerning a gastro- philist, P^re Faby, who always came to Belly during the January season, and was a great lover of a dish of these birds. This was so well known, that when the cry went in BECCA-FICAS 511

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Numerous are the preparations termed fillets, or scallops (which had better be termed bouchees), all named after sauces or ragouts with which they are allied. Some receive names from particular herbs, which are intended to impart their flavour, such as au kmrier, au basilic. Others, again, are to be covered with salpicon, and repose on artichokes. Of ragouts there is one called en compote, another poupeton, because baked in a mould ; a third and good recipe refers to a pate chaud ; there are also several tourtes de cailles, but with little specificity. There are given in different books recipes for seven varieties of soup), all characterized by the presence of quail. One bears the absurd name of Bisque de Cailles. In these preparations the characteristic flavour of the birds is entirely lost. Gf grouse there are in this country three kinds, the black, the red, and the white. The male black grouse in the North is called blackcock (in French coq de bruyère) ; the female is called gray hen. In the South of England male and female are called heath-poults. The red grouse is also termed gorcock, or moorcock, or moorgarne (in French attagas). The white grouse is better known as ptarmigan (French lagopède) ; it comes to us from Norway during the time from February to May, when its plumage is white ; in summer it assumes a gray plumage. There is also a large kind of grotise known as loood-grouse, or capercailzie, German Auerhahn, which comes to us from Norway, and in more southern countries is shot like the woodcock, as a bird of passage in spring and autumn. In size it may exceed a domestic cock. It has an enormous breast, of dark and light-brown meat ; its skin is sometimes so hard that it has to be removed. Its legs are never worth any attempt at eating, as they are always hard, and contain numbers of bony tendons, much larger and more numerous than those in pheasant and partridge legs. All birds of the grouse family should always be roasted. An excellent garnish for them is sauerkraut, stewed with butter, standard broth, and a little wine. The becca-fica, bec-figtie of the French {avis Cypria of the ancients, as it was brought to Greece and Borne from Cyprus, in a preserved state), is eaten roasted in buttered or oiled paper, and the roast is distinguished by three qualities — its fat, its flavour, and a slight bitterness of the flesh. Of these three qualities, Brillat-Savarin says that they fill and beautify all the digestive powers. But this is again modified later on by the statement that all the merit the birds possessed was their fat. In France they are confined to the south and east ; in Italy they are more frequent. In France, at Belly, bec-figues, birds of passage, appear in the first days of January, and disappear about the 25th of that month. Dumas tells an anecdote concerning a gastrophilist, P^re Faby, who always came to Belly during the January season, and was a great lover of a dish of these birds. This was so well known, that when the cry went in BECCA-FICAS

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