Handbook of practical cookery

Carefully pluck, draw, and singe the fowls; wash them slightly, and dry them in and outside with a towel. Sprinkle inside of each the pepper and salt, spread the butter well over the breasts, and placing them side by side upon a dripping-pan, bake in a very quick hot oven fifteen minutes. The blood should follow the knife when carved, if the duck be properly cooked. Cut into slices some cold boiled hominy, fry them to a light brown in butter, and arranging these upon a platter, serve the fowl upon this with an accompaniment of currant jelly. NOTE. — Canvas -back duck, now sent largely to this country from Baltimore, ought to be cooked in the same way as our English wild duck. Larks. — Six or eight larks, one quarter pound of fat bacon, one dessert-spoonful of -salt, one tea-spoonful of pepper. PIGEONS WITH GREEN PEASE. 85 When the birds are plucked, singed, and drawn, they should be carefully cleansed inside and out with a dry towel. Cut the bacon then into very thin slices, and folding one of these slices over the breast of each bird, securing it there with a wrapping of twine, string the birds upon a spit with the breasts all turned the same way, and broil over an open fire for twenty minutes. Serve upon a hot platter, garnished with fresh sprigs of parsley or with water-cresses. Woodcock on Toast.— Two brace of woodcock, four ounces of butter, one tea-spoonful of salt, one tea-spoonful of pepper. When plucked and singed the woodcock should be drawn, cutting out the neck, but leaving the head, which must be drawn around, and the long bill passed through the legs, wings, and body as a trussing skewer. Season each by rubbing a little pepper and salt inside, string them upon a spit, rub over each breast a portion of the butter, and broil the birds over an open fire for twenty minutes. The livers should now be boiled for five minutes, pounded in a mortar or chopped very finely ; and this paste being spread over two slices of butter toast, the toast should be placed upon a hot platter, and the woodcock served thereon. NOTE. — Quail and snipe may be served and prepared as prescribed for woodcock. Pigeons with Green Pease. — One pair of pigeons, one pint of shelled green pease, two ounces of butter, one gill of stock, one tea-spoonful of salt, one half tea-spoonful of pepper. Pluck, singe, draw, and wash the pigeons slightly in cold water ; twist the tips of the wings behind the shoulders, and threading a trussing-needle with fine twine, pierce with it the first joint of the wings, passing through the upper portion of the legs and straight through the body in doing so. Eeturn the needle then through the tips of the wings, piercing through the skin of the neck in passing, and bringing the twine thus to its point of departure, draw it taut, and tie the ends firmly together. The claws should now be chopped off, and crossing the legs, tie them neatly together ; after which, melt in a stewing-pan two ounces of butter, and when the smoke arises therefrom, put the pigeons into it breast downwards, and allow them to cook slowly for one hour, turning them from time to time to prevent burning, and in order that they may brown evenly. At the end of the hour, the butter in which the pigeons have cooked must be drained off, and the stock poured over them, in which they must be allowed to cook for five minutes.