A guide to modern cookery

Heat some fresh butter in a flat, earthenware cocoltte, and allow one-quarter oz. of it to each ortolan. Roll the previously salted ortolans in this butter, and put them in a very hot oven for three minutes. When taking them out of the oven, sprinkle them with a few tablespoonfuls of very cold pine-apple juice. Cover the cocotte, and serve immediately. The cocotte should be just large enough to hold the ortolans. 1977—ROAST WOODCOCK It should be just sufficiently high. Remove its gizzard; truss it, piercing the legs with the beak, after having drawn the eyes; cover it with slices of bacon, and cook it before a good fire for from fifteen to eighteen minutes. Dish on a cushion of fried bread, and serve the swilling-liquor separately, which in this case should be brandy and a few drops of good game gravy. 1978—SNIPES AND BECOTS For the preparation, proceed as for the woodcock. Cause to set before a fierce fire, and cook for nine minutes. 1979—GRIVES ET MERLES DE CORSE (Thrushes and Corsican Blackbirds) Truss them, and wrap them in slices of bacon. Insert a juniper berry into the thrushes. Roast before a moderately fierce fire for ten or twelve minutes, and dish on small cushions of fried bread. Serve a very short gravy separately. 1980—MAUVIETTES (Larks) Wrap them in very thin slices of bacon, and impale them on a skewer, or discard the slices of bacon, and merely impale then on a skewer, separating them by blanched squares of breast of bacon. Roast for ten minutes before a fierce fire. Dish on small fried croutons, with quarters of lemon and bunches of watercress all round. 1981—CANARDS SAUVAGES (Wild Duck) SARCELLES (Teal) PILETS (Widgeons and Pintails) These birds are not covered with slices of bacon, and are toasted before a fierce fire. Wild duck must be kept underdone, and, in view of this, twenty minutes suffice for the roasting. Dish with lemons and bunches of watercress all round. Wild duck, roasted English-fashion.—Treat it as above; send an apple sauce to the table with it. Wild duck a la Bigarrade.—This is roasted in a similar manner. Surround it with sections of orange, skinned raw, and serve a clear Bigarrade sauce separately. The teal, which is a small, wild duck, is roasted before a fierce fire for from ten to twelve minutes, and is surrounded with lemons and watercress. Widgeons and pintails are treated like the teal, but they are allowed three or four minutes more in the roasting. 1982—PLUVIERS DORES (Golden Plover) VANNEAUX (Lapwings) CHEVALIERS DIVERS (Various Sandpipers) These birds are not covered with slices of bacon; they must be roasted before a very fierce fire, and kept somewhat underdone. They must be served as soon as ready, as waiting is prejudicial to them. They admit of no accompaniment or garnish, except a very short gravy. 1983—GROUSES, COQS DE BRUYERE (Black Game) GELINOTTES (Hazel-hens) These birds must be very fresh when roasted, and should be kept moderately underdone. They allow of the same adjuncts as pheasant, i.e., bread sauce, bread-crumbs, potato chips, and gravy; and their breasts alone are served as a rule. Grouse and hazel-hens, when they are young, make incomparably fine roasts. SALADS Salads are of two kinds: simple, or compound. Simple, or raw salads always accompany hot roasts; compound salads, which generally consist of cooked vegetables, accompany cold roasts. 1984—THE SEASONING OF SALADS 1. Oil seasoning may be applied to all salads, and is made up of three parts of oil to one part of vinegar, with salt and pepper. 2. Cream seasoning is particularly well suited to salads of early-season lettuce and cos lettuce, and is made up of three parts of very fresh and not very thick cream to one part of vinegar.