Chicken, Italian Style.—Chop fine one onion, one small carrot, a stick of celery and a sprig of parsley. Place in the bottom of one of the wooden cookery dishes and season with salt, pepper and two tablespoonfuls of olive oil. Lay a good sized broiling chicken cut into joints on top of the vegetables, and around the chicken a half dozen dried mushrooms that have been soaked for fifteen minutes in cold water. Put in paper bag, seal and bake forty-five minutes. Remove chicken to hot platter, add a little tomato sauce to the vegetables and stock remaining in the dish, pour over the chicken and serve.
Roast Wild Duck.—If these come from salt marshes, and have therefore a fishy taste, pick, dress, scald a moment in boiling salt water, then put in very cold water for half an hour. Drain, wipe dry and having cut a lemon in half rub all over inside and out with the juice and pulp. Then grease the outside of the duck with vegetable oil or butter, salt very lightly and put in greased bag. Seal and roast in a moderate oven for an hour. Serve with paper bag baked potatoes, tart jelly and pickles.
Roast Wild Duck No. 2.—Clean and singe your duck; have a dish with boiling water enough to cover same, in which you put a tablespoonful of salt and a little carrot; parboil for only five minutes; then take out and dry. Have apples peeled and cut in quarters; stuff the duck with them. Slice bacon and wrap about four slices around it, tied with a string, lay in a buttered bag with a teacupful of water and a little salt and pepper and roast in a very hot oven for an hour. Make a gravy from the drippings in bag thickened slightly and seasoned with lemon juice, a little curry powder and any good sauce.
Roast Wild Duck, Ohio Style.—Dress the duck as usual, then stuff with one quart of sauer kraut mixed with one sweet apple sliced and a few mixed spices to season. Place two stalks of celery in one of the wooden cookery dishes, lay the duck on top, place in bag. Seal and bake in a moderate oven for an hour and a half.
Frogs' Legs.—Scald the legs in boiling hot water for a minute or two, drain and wipe them dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg, roll in cracker crumbs and put in a well-greased bag. The use of a wood cookery dish is recommended. Bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven. Serve hot with points of toast and slices of lemon placed around the platter.
Paper Bag Roast Goose.—For roasting, a goose should preferably be scarcely passed the gosling period, not more than a year old at the most. Its wings should be supple and tender at the pinions, its breast bone soft and pliable. Its feet smooth and yellow, and its fat white and soft. Before drawing, singe the bird, then give it a thorough bath with soapsuds and a soft scrubbing brush. The skin is so oily that cold water would make no impression, and the skin is bound to be full of dust. When purification is complete, rinse thoroughly in clear cold water, then dry and draw. Wash the inside quickly with clear water to which a little baking soda has been added, then rinse and wipe. The Germans are partial to a stuffing made of equal parts of bread crumbs, chopped apples, seeded raisins and boiled onions well seasoned with salt, pepper and butter. Americans as a rule give the preference to a potato stuffing made of mashed potato highly seasoned with onion, salt, pepper and a little butter and sage. The yolks of two eggs allowed to each pint of potato makes the dressing richer. Before trussing the goose, remove all the extra fat. This should be saved and tried out later for that sovereign remedy for croup,—"goose grease." It is of no value, however, in cooking and if left in the bird, gives a coarse, rank flavor. Season the goose on the inside with salt and pepper, then stuff and truss it into shape like a turkey. Rub over lightly with vegetable oil or butter, or cover the breast with several thin slices of fat salt pork. This keeps the skin moist. Put into a well-greased bag of goodly proportions, or better still, two bags, add a tablespoonful of cold water, seal and set in a very hot oven for fifteen minutes. Then reduce the heat about half and cook until done, allowing twenty-two minutes to the pound. Serve with apples baked in a bag, mashed turnips or squash and hot corn bread that can also be cooked in a bag.
Sage and Potato Stuffing.—Should you give the preference to the old-fashioned potato-and-sage stuffing, such as your grandmother used to make, fashion it in this way: peel and boil for half an hour a half dozen good-sized potatoes. Mash well and season with one tablespoonful salt, and a teaspoonful pepper, two tablespoonfuls of white onions minced fine, and cooked in a tablespoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of sage. Mix lightly and stuff.
Bag Roasted Young Guinea Fowl.—It is but a few years ago comparatively that the excellence of the guinea fowl for the table was duly recognized. Most people were afraid to try them. Now the guinea is not only being served in all the best restaurants, but in many private homes as well. While the young guineas make the choicest eating, the old birds are not to be despised. In stuffing the guinea any approved turkey stuffing may be used, the accompaniments being as with turkey, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce. In roasting a very little water goes into the bag, instead thin pieces of fat, salt pork are skewered across the breast and around the drum sticks.
Bag Broiled Young Guinea Hen.—For bag broiling, split down the back and flatten. Brush over with vegetable oil or melted butter, put in buttered bag and bake in gas oven or hot coal oven. Lay on a hot platter, season with salt and pepper, spread with a rounding tablespoonful butter stirred with a tablespoonful finely minced parsley, garnish with watercress and little moulds or spoonfuls of cranberry jelly and serve.
Quail.—As for cooking quail there is no better way than to roast them plain, with plenty of red pepper and a little salt. For those who prefer, an excellent way is to serve them with bacon, which supplies the fat which all game birds lack.