Virginia Cookery-book

Take the fowls when they are ready-dressed; put them down to a good fire, or in a pan, if you use a stove; after making a stuffing for them, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, and any powdered herb you fancy, fill the craw with it until very plump; dredge and baste well with butter, if you can afford it, otherwise lard will answer ; make a gravy from the drippings, or you can make it, in a separate pan, out of the necks and giblets, allowing them to simmer slowly in a quart of water until it is reduced one-half; if so, strain it, skim off carefully the oil that rises to the surface, thicken it with a spoonful of brown flour, chop up a few of the giblets in it, and serve hot. To Roast Young Chickens. Truss and put them down before a good fire ; dredge with flour, and baste with butter. They will take a quarter of an hour to roast. Froth them up ; lay on a flat dish, pour melted butter over them, garnish with parsley, and serve up hot. To Roast Pheasants or Partridges. Proceed to clean and stuff just as you do chickens, and serve with brown gravy and bread sauce thus made: cut the crumb of two stale rolls into thin slices, and put it into half a pint of cold water, with a little black pepper, chopped onion, and salt ; after soaking until the bread is soft, beat it to a smooth paste, and let it come to a boil over the fire in a stewpan; add a quarter of a pound of butter and two table-spoonfuls of cream, and serve in a sauce-boat. To Boil Grown Chickens. Where gentlemen's tastes are consulted boiled fowls will be rarely seen ; but where several varieties of meats are desired, and ladies are of the party, especially if the season of the year be spring, they will be found a most acceptable dish. A stuffing may be prepared the same as if they were to be roasted or baked, and the craw filled with it; they must be dredged with flour, and put into a kettle with cold water enough to cover them ; set the kettle on the back part of your stove, cover it close, but remove the scum as it rises, and let the fowls boil very slowly for half an hour ; then set them where the water can no longer boil, but gently simmer for half an hour longer, when they should be done. When ready to dish them drain the water from them, and serve with egg sauce, made as directed in the recipe for turkey with egg sauce. Four eggs will be enough for one fowl. To Roast Ducks. Clean and wash them nicely ; prepare a stuffing of bread-crumbs and butter, seasoned highly with onions and sage, pepper and salt — or Irish potatoes, flavored in the same way, may be used for a change, mashed up smooth and beaten up with milk and butter. In a range or stove one hour should suffice to roast a duck. Remember that a duck is spoiled by too much cooking sooner than any other meat. Bread-crumbs grated over the ducks, while the basting with butter is wejl attended to, give a delicious crispness to the outer skin, which ought to be browned to a turn. Many persons like currant or apple jelly with duck, and the vegetable most frequently asked for at the south to eat with it is rice. To Dbess Wild Ducks. Half roast them, then pour a wineglass of claret through each one; lay them breast downward in a stewpan, with a little gravy; when nearly done put a little pepper, salt, lemon- juice, half a dozen small onions, and a little walnut catsup into the dripping-pan, that the juices out of which you make the gravy may be well impregnated with these flavors combined. Gravy for Wild Ducks or Grouse.