TO STEW CANVAS-BACK DUCKS.—Put the giblets into a sauce-pan with the yellow rind of a lemon pared thin, a very little water, and a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a very little salt and cayenne. Let them stew gently to make a gravy; keeping the sauce-pan covered. In the mean time, half roast the ducks, saving the gravy that falls from them. Then cut them up; put them into a large stew-pan, with the gravy (having first skimmed off the fat) and merely water enough to keep them from burning. Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let them stew gently till done. Towards the last (having removed the giblets) pour over the ducks the gravy from the small sauce-pan, and stir in a large glass of port wine, and a glass of currant jelly. Send them to table as hot as possible.
Any ducks may be stewed as above. The common wild-ducks, teal, &c., should always be parboiled with a large carrot in the body to extract the fishy or sedgy taste. On tasting this carrot before it is thrown away, it will be found to have imbibed strongly that disagreeable flavour.
PARTRIDGES IN PEARS.—Cut off the necks of the partridges close to the breast. Truss them very tight and round, and rub over them a little salt and cayenne pepper mixed. Cut off one of the legs, and leave the other on. Make a rich paste of flour, butter, and beaten yolk of egg, with as little water as possible. Roll it out thin and evenly, and put a portion of it nicely round each partridge, pressing it on closely with your hand, and forming it into the shape of a large pear. Leave one leg sticking out at the top to resemble the stem. Set them in a pan; and bake them in a dutch oven. In the mean time, make in a small sauce-pan, a rich brown gravy of the livers, and other trimmings of the partridges, and some drippings of roast veal or roasted poultry. It will be better still if you reserve one or two small partridges to cut up, and stew for the gravy. Season it with a little salt and cayenne. When it has boiled long enough to be very thick and rich, take it off, strain it, and put the liquid into a clean sauce-pan. Add the juice of a large orange or lemon, made very sweet with powdered white sugar. Set it over the fire; and when it comes to a boil, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let it boil two or three minutes longer; then take it off, and keep it hot till the partridges and their paste are thoroughly well-baked. When done, stand up the partridges in a deep dish, and serve up the gravy in a sauce-boat. Ornament the partridge-pears by sticking some orange or lemon leaves into the end that represents the stalk. This is a nice and handsome side dish, of French origin.
Pigeons and quails may be dressed in this manner.
SALMI OF PARTRIDGES, (French dish.)—Having covered two large or four small partridges with very thin slices of fat cold ham, secured with twine, roast them; but see that they are not too much done. Remove the ham, skin the partridges, cut them into pieces, and let them get quite cold. Partridges that have been roasted the preceding day are good for this purpose. Cut off all the meat from the bones, season it with a little cayenne, and put it into a stew-pan. Mix together three table-spoonfuls of sweet oil; a glass of excellent wine (either red or white) and the grated peel and juice of a lemon. Pour this gravy over the partridges, and let them stew in it during ten minutes; the add the beaten yolk of an egg, and stew it about three or four minutes longer. All the time it is stewing, continue to shake or move the pan over the fire. Serve it up hot.
A NICE WAY OF COOKING GAME.—Pheasants, partridges, quails, grouse, plovers, &c., are excellent stuffed with chesnuts: boiled, peeled, and mashed or pounded. Cover the birds with very thin slices of cold ham; then enclose them in vine-leaves tied on securely so as to keep in the gravy. Lay them in a deep dish, and bake them in a close oven that has nothing else in it, (for instance an iron dutch oven,) that the game may imbibe no other flavour. When done, remove the ham and the vine leaves, and dish the birds with the gravy that is about them.
Pheasants are unfit to eat after the first snow, as they then, for want of other food, are apt to feed on wild laurel berries, which give their flesh a disagreeably bitter taste, and are said to have sometimes produced deleterious effects on persons who have eaten it.