To Cook Ducks or Chickens, Louisiana Style.
Carve the fowls at the joints, making three or four pieces of the breast; wash nicely in salted water, and put on to boil with water enough to cover, adding a little salt; boil slowly; carefully skimming off the scum. When the meat begins to get tender and the water well reduced, cook four onions, chopped fine, in a pan with pork fat and butter, dredging in a little flour and seasoning with pepper and salt, adding a little of the juice from the fowls. Next take up the pieces of the meat and roll in browned flour or cracker-dust, and fry slightly. If the butter is not scorched put in a little browned flour; stir in the onion, and put it back in the kettle with the meat of the fowl, simmering until the gravy thickens, and the meat is thoroughly tender.
Breast of Lamb and Chicken, Breaded.
Take the breast of lamb and one chicken—a year old is best—and after taking off the thin skin of the lamb, wash it well in cold salted water; then put on to boil, with sufficient cold slightly-salted water to cover it, and boil until tender—the addition of a medium-sized onion improves the flavor—then take up, and when quite cold, carve in nice pieces, and season with black pepper and salt. Next, beat two eggs, with two or three spoonfuls of milk or cream, and a spoonful of flour. After running the meat through this, roll in cracker-dust or browned flour, and fry in sweet lard and a little butter until a light brown. Next make a cream gravy; take a little of the liquid from the chicken, and make a rich thick drawn butter, and thinning it with cream, pour over the chicken while it is hot.
[The liquid used in boiling the chicken will make any kind of rich soup for dinner.]
Scrapple, or Haggis Loaf.
Take three or four pounds best fresh pork, mostly lean, with plenty of bones—the latter making a rich liquid. Put these into a kettle, and cover with hot or cold water, and let the mass boil slowly for two or three hours, or until quite tender, carefully removing the scum as it rises, after which take the meat out into a wooden bowl or tray. Pick out the bones carefully, and strain the liquid. After letting these stand for a few minutes, if in your opinion there is too much fat, remove a portion, and then return the liquor to the kettle, adding pepper and salt, and seasoning highly with summer savory. Next stir in two parts fine white corn-meal and one part buckwheat flour (Deming & Palmer's), until the whole forms quite a thick mush, after which, chopping the meat the size of the end of the finger, stir thoroughly into the mush. Next put the mixture into baking pans to the depth of 11⁄2 or 2 inches, and bake in a slow oven for two hours, or until the top assumes a light brown—taking care not to bake too hard on the bottom. Put in a cool place, and the next morning—when, after warming the pan slightly—so that the scrapple may be easily taken out—cut in slices of half-an-inch thick, which heat in a pan to prevent sticking, and serve hot.
[A small hog's head or veal is equally good for the preparation of this dish, which will be found a fine relish.]
Pigs' Feet and Hocks.
Have the feet nicely cleaned, and soaked for five or six hours, or over night, in slightly salted water. Boil until tender, and the large bones slip out easily, which will take from three to four hours. Take up, pull out the large bones, and lay in a stone jar, sprinkling on each layer a little salt and pepper, with a few cloves or allspice. After skimming off the fat, take equal parts of the water in which the feet were boiled, and good vinegar, and cover the meat in the jar.