The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

Salt and pepper the pieces of fowl and dredge with flour; fry brown in the oil. Pierce each onion with one clove. Put all ingredients together, except the butter, in a deep sauce pan. Cover with boiling water and cook slowly until meat is tender. Take up the guinea hen. Remove cinnamon, bay leaf, and cloves, and press broth and vegetables through a sieve. Add butter to this puree. Put the guinea hen into it, reheat, and serve very hot. ROAST TURKEY (Favo As ado) 1 (5- or 6-pound) young turkey % pound ham, sliced thin Salt and pepper % pound fat pork, sliced thin Thoroughly clean, wash and season the bird, but do not stuff it. Tie ham and pork slices under and around it with thread. Envelop it in an oiled paper bag and place it in the baking pan. Put into the oven to bake, not too fast. Baste frequently by turning it over in the pan. When the turkey is nearly done remove the paper, pork and ham slices and finish roasting. Skim grease from pan gravy, and pour over bird when serving. In Spain all turkeys seem young and tender. They are driven in droves through the streets of Seville, and the driver bargains with the housewife through her open window or door. Turkey is the festive bird, no Spanish Christmas is complete without it, although instead of being eaten at noon it is served at about two o'clock Christmas morning, after the people have returned from midnight mass. The feast usually begins with wonderful almond soup, for Jordan almonds are indigenous to Spain, and marches to the tune of drum-sticks right through to nuts, Malaga raisins and numerous sweets and wines, enough to last till dawn. The gobbler is specially prepared for killing by having a big drink of old sherry forced down his gullet, enough to make him quite groggy. This renders the meat even more tender and palatable. The turkey is then painlessly decapitated, defeathered and hung in the open air, preferably throughout a clear moonlight night. Next day he is cleaned, dressed, washed out with sound white wine, stuffed with chestnuts and walnuts, put in the oven and lovingly basted with a rich broth prepared well in advance. ROAST QUAIL (Codornices Asadas) Quail Salt and pepper Celery sprigs Bacon slices Grape leaves Season birds inside and out. Place a celery sprig and the bird's giblets in each. Season, cover breasts with bacon slices, and truss birds. Wrap in grape leaves and tie with twine. (If leaves are old and bitter, scald them in boiling water.) Lay in roasting pan and bake in slow oven (300° F.) ; or roast on spit before open fire. SMALL GAME BIRDS, ROASTED (Caza Menor Asada) Small birds J4 cup butter or olive oil Salt 6 peppercorns 2 sprigs parsley 1 bay leaf 1 clove 1 onion, minced l/z garlic clove, minced Small fresh mushrooms White wine Bread browned in butter Pluck and prepare the birds. Pack, breasts down, close together in a pan, with all seasonings, garlic and mushrooms. Pour in white wine to half the height of the birds. Cover close and simmer or bake, basting, and turning birds when half done. Drain and keep hot. Strain sauce and reduce. Serve each bird, with a mushroom, on a piece of browned bread. Pour sauce over, or serve separately in a sauce boat.