Cookery and housekeeping

These birds require to be well roasted, to be stuffed with onions and sage, and to have both plain gravy and apple or tomato sauce sent up with them. They require some days to become tender ; no rule 2i8 DUCKS. can be given, as the conditions of hanging depend on the daily changes of temperature and the time of the year. A tough goose, a tough duck, are peculiarly unsatisfactory dishes. In the case of ducks, braising will produce an excellent dish, and this should always be the mode of cooking if there is any risk of toughness. Braised Ducks. Let the duck brown in a stewpan in boiling lard or dripping. Take out the duck ; dredge flour into the stewpan, and work it well and smoothly with the dripping. Then mix in broth till there is enough to half cover the duck. Season with pepper and salt, and a bunch of fine herbs, and braise till tender. Green peas, or turnips cut to the shape of olives and browned in butter and sugar, may be braised with the duck ; or olives may be stoned, blanched in boiling water, and warmed for a few minutes with the braised duck. A young goose may be braised in the same manner. The time required for a duck is two hours, and for a goose three hours. Braised Ducks a la St. Michel. Rub some flour and oil over the ducks, and brown in the oven for a short time. Mix together a cup of Chablis wine and a cup of broth ; season with pepper and salt ; braise the ducks till they arc tender, but not in rags. Have ready chopped mushrooms, chibbals, and parsley ; mix these with the broth in which the duck was braised. Put PIGEONS. 219 the ducks to keep warm before the fire whilst you let the sauce ' reduce.' Dredge in a very little flour, and send up the ducks with the sauce round them. Observe that the ducks are to look a brown, not a pale sodden colour. Pigeon Pie. Line a pie dish with thin slices of fat bacon, place on this the pigeons cut in quarters, three pigeons to a pie. Fill in the interstices with veal taken from the loin or leg (of course uncooked), season with pepper and salt, and proceed as to the crust in the same way as in making other meat pies. Make an opening in the centre of the crust by sticking in a bit of bone, and whilst the pie is baking pour in through this a little good broth. When the pie is finished the claws of the pigeons are used to ornament this opening, and to show what the pie contains. Pigeons should be killed by having their necks wrung. Pigeon Cutlets. Take the fillets of four pigeons— that is, the meat from each side of the breast, cut out with a sharp knife from the breast-bone to the wing-bones ; this produces eight fillets, which are enough for one entree. When double entrees are wanted, eight pigeons must be used. The fillets are to be beaten with a cutlet bat and a little trimmed, and fried in breadcrumbs and egg. A small bone from the wing is stuck in each cutlet to simulate the bone of a mutton cutlet. The carcasses of the pigeons can be used to make the 220 PIGEONS. sauce, or for a puree of pigeon soup. Surround with a fumet of game sauce. fc>' Pigeons aux Petits Pois.