CORRESPONDENT calls our attention to the large quantities of diseased game which are constantly
sent to this market. There is no doubt that the complaint is well founded. Even when the game is
in a sound condition when it arrives here, the absence of all proper care of it soon turns it into unwholesome
food. It is thrown into a large ice-house, and lies there for weeks together with meat, vegetables,
and all sorts of other articles heaped^ in with it. It becomes sodden with the damp, half decomposed,
and is entirely deprived of its natural flavor. Any of our readers who have eaten a partridge after it has been
recently killed, and then tasted one of our ' store ' partridges, will readily understand the evils caused by the
present system pursued in our markets. Somewhere near the first week of last December, we happened to ask
a dealer whether the canvas-back ducks were in good condition. ' As good as they will be all through the
Winter,' said he, with a peculiar smile. 'What do you mean by that?' we asked. ' Well,' he replied, ' the
fact is that most of the ducks which we depend on for the Winter are here now. Others will come along, of
course, but we have laid in the greater part of our stock. We keep them in the ice-house, and take them out
as we want them.' Now what resemblance can a canvas-back duck thus treated have to the same bird when it
has been carefully kept a few days — not frozen or sodden with wet, but hung up in a cool and dry place after
having been properly ' drawn ' ?
" This last point is one of great importance. Much of the game which is sold by our dealers is not ' drawn,'
and consequently is almost entirely spoiled as an article of food. There is no market in the world so well
supplied with game throughout the Winter season as ours, and it is a great shame that this highly nutritious
and valuable food should be ruined, as it now is, by the ignorance or stupidity of those who deal in it.
" It is a matter of surprise that our Board of Health has so long permitted the markets of our City to have
undressed fowl and game exposed for sale therein. In England, on the Continent, and in New England,
although no legal enactments forbid such sale, custom has created a law which is rigidly enforced, prohibiting
the sale of any undressed material not alive "
LARDED GROUSE.
" Clean and wash the grouse. Lard the breast and legs. Run a small skewer into the
legs and through the tail; tie firmly with twine. Dredge with salt, and rub the breast
with soft butter; then dredge thickly with flour✪ Larded Grouse. Put into quick oven. If to be very rare,
cook twenty minutes; if wished better done, thirty minutes. If the birds are cooked in a
tin-kitchen, it should be for thirty or thirty-five minutes. When done, place on a hot
dish, on which has been spread bread sauce. Garnish with parsley. The grouse may,
instead, be served on a hot dish, with the parsley garnish, and the sauce and crumbs
served in separate dishes. The first method is the better, however, as you get in the sauce
all the gravy that comes from the birds."
LARDED PARTRIDGES.
" Cook and serve the partridges the same as grouse."
LARDED QUAIL.
Page 95 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
CORRESPONDENT calls our attention to the large quantities of diseased game which are constantly sent to this market. There is no doubt that the complaint is well founded. Even when the game is in a sound condition when it arrives here, the absence of all proper care of it soon turns it into unwholesome food. It is thrown into a large ice-house, and lies there for weeks together with meat, vegetables, and all sorts of other articles heaped in with it. It becomes sodden with the damp, half decomposed, and is entirely deprived of its natural flavor. Any of our readers who have eaten a partridge after it has been recently killed, and then tasted one of our ' store ' partridges, will readily understand the evils caused by the present system pursued in our markets. Somewhere near the first week of last December, we happened to ask a dealer whether the canvas-back ducks were in good condition. ' As good as they will be all through the Winter,' said he, with a peculiar smile. 'What do you mean by that?' we asked. ' Well,' he replied, ' the fact is that most of the ducks which we depend on for the Winter are here now. Others will come along, of course, but we have laid in the greater part of our stock. We keep them in the ice-house, and take them out as we want them.' Now what resemblance can a canvas-back duck thus treated have to the same bird when it has been carefully kept a few days — not frozen or sodden with wet, but hung up in a cool and dry place after having been properly ' drawn ' ?
" This last point is one of great importance. Much of the game which is sold by our dealers is not ' drawn,' and consequently is almost entirely spoiled as an article of food. There is no market in the world so well supplied with game throughout the Winter season as ours, and it is a great shame that this highly nutritious and valuable food should be ruined, as it now is, by the ignorance or stupidity of those who deal in it.
" It is a matter of surprise that our Board of Health has so long permitted the markets of our City to have undressed fowl and game exposed for sale therein. In England, on the Continent, and in New England, although no legal enactments forbid such sale, custom has created a law which is rigidly enforced, prohibiting the sale of any undressed material not alive "
LARDED GROUSE.
" Clean and wash the grouse. Lard the breast and legs. Run a small skewer into the legs and through the tail; tie firmly with twine. Dredge with salt, and rub the breast with soft butter; then dredge thickly with flour. Put into quick oven. If to be very rare, cook twenty minutes; if wished better done, thirty minutes. If the birds are cooked in a tin-kitchen, it should be for thirty or thirty-five minutes. When done, place on a hot dish, on which has been spread bread sauce. Garnish with parsley. The grouse may, instead, be served on a hot dish, with the parsley garnish, and the sauce and crumbs served in separate dishes. The first method is the better, however, as you get in the sauce all the gravy that comes from the birds."
LARDED PARTRIDGES. " Cook and serve the partridges the same as grouse."
LARDED QUAIL.
Records on this page
Larded Grouse