Mother's Cook Book: Containing Recipes for Every Day in the Week, Including ..

Having drawn and singed the goose, wipe out the inside with a cloth, and sprinkle in some pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of four good-sized onions, minced fine, and half their quantity of green sage-leaves, minced also, a large teacupful of grated bread-crumbs, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and the beaten yolks of two eggs, with a little pepper and salt. Mix the whole together, and incorporate them well. Put the stuffing into the goose, and press it in hard; but do not entirely fill up the cavity, as the mixture will swell in cooking. Tie the goose securely round with a greased or wetted string; and paper the breast to prevent it from scorching. The fire must be brisk and well kept up. It will require from two hours to two and a half to roast. Baste it at first with a little salt and water, and then with its own gravy. Take off the paper when the goose is about half done, and dredge it with a little flour towards the last Having parboiled the liver and heart, chop them and pat them into the gravy, which must be skimmed well and thickened with a little brown flour. Send apple sauce to table with the goose; also mashed potatoes. Mother's Cook Book. 86 A goose may be stuffed entirely with potatoes, boiled and mashed with milk, butter, pepper and salt. Yon may make a gravy of the giblets, that is the neck, pinions, liver, heart and gizzard, stewed in a little water, thickened with butter, rolled in flour, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Before yon send it to table, take out all but the liver and heart; mince them and leave them in the gravy. This gravy is by many preferred to that which conies from the goose in roasting. It is well to have both. If a goose is old it is useless to cook it, as when hard and tough it cannot be eaten. ROAST DUCKS. Wash and dry the ducks carefully. Make a stuffing of sage and onion; insert, and sew up completely that the seasoning may not escape. If tender, ducks do not require more than an hour to roast. keep them well basted, and a few minutes before serving, dredge lightly with flour, to make them froth and look plump. Send to table hot, with a good brown gravy poured not round bat over them. Accompany with currant jelly, and, if in season, green peas. ROAST PIGEONS. Clean the pigeons, and stuff them the same as chickens; leave the feet on, dip them into scalding water, strip off the skin, cross them, and tie them together below the breastbone; or cut them off; the head may remain on; if so, dip it in scalding water, and pick it clean; twist the wings back, pnt the liver between the right wing and the body, and turn the head under the other; rub the outside of each bird with a mixture of pepper and salt; spit them, and put some water in the dripping-pan; for each bird put a bit of 86 Mother's Cook Book. butter the size of a small egg, put them before a hot fire, and let them roast quickly; baste frequently; half an hour will do them; when nearly done, dredge them with wheat flour and baste with the butter in the pan; turn them, that they may be nicely and easily browned; when done, take them up, set the pan over the fire, make a thin paste of a teaspoonful of wheat flour, and cold water; when the gravy is boiling hot, stir it in; continue to stir it for a few minutes, until it is brown, then pour it through a gravy sieve into a tureen, and serve with the pigeons. TO MAKE A BIRD'S NEST. Boil some yellow macaroni gently, until it is quite swelled out and tender, then cut it in pieces, the length of a finger, and lay them on a dish like a straw nest. Truss pigeons with the heads on, (having scalded and picked them clean), turned under the left wing, leave the feet on, and having stewed them, arrange them as in a nest] pour the gravy over and serve.