The universal cookery book

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family ; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! — A Christmas Carol : Charles Dickens. To Roast a Goose. “Take a young goose, pick, singe, and clean well. Make the stuffing with two ounces of onions (about four common-sized) and one ounce of green sage chopped very fine ; then add a large coffee-cup of stale bread-crumbs and the same of mashed potatoes, a little pepper and salt, a bit of butter as big as a walnut, the yolk of an egg or two ; mix these well together, and then stuff the goose. Do not fill it entirely : the stuffing requires room to swell. It will take two hours or more to roast it thoroughly. The fire must be brisk. Baste it with salt and water at first, then with its own dripping. “ A green goose — that is, one under four months old — is seasoned with pepper and salt APPLE-SAUCE FOP GOOSE. instead of sage and onions. It will roast in an hour.” Apple-Sauce for Goose. Peel, core, and cut up a gallon of pippins or other fresh apples ; stew them, with a little water added, grate in a bit of the peel of a lemon and all its juice ; sweeten to your taste when the apples are done very tender, mash them up perfectly smooth, and serve. — Virginia Cookery-Book: Airs. Mary Stuart Smith. Harper & Brothers , Pubs. (By per.) Duckling Pot Roast. This is a very good way to cook this very acceptable bird. Put into a shallow crock a thin strip of bacon and a tablespoonful of mixed whole spice. Clean and truss two ducklings, put them in the crock, add hot water or soup-stock enough to come up half way on the birds. Then add a sprig of celery and two of parsley ; place a narrow strip of bacon over each bird ; cover close, and set the crock in a moderate oven, where the birds will cook slowly two hours. Remove the ducklings, strain the sauce, and reduce it one-third by boiling ; add a gill of dark wine ; thicken with a dash of brown flour ; simmer fifteen minutes ; add a teaspoonful of lemon-juice, and serve with the duck. A small quantity of the sauce may be boiled down until thick as cream. This is called glaze : it is brushed over the bird before serving. — The Book of Entrees : Thomas J. Murrey. White, Stokes, & Allen, Pubs. CHICKEN FRICASSEE.