GEESE
Roast goose
Draw, clean, singe and truss as you would prepare a turkey. Always put onion and a suspicion of sage in the stuffing. Lay upon the grating of your roaster; pour a cup of boiling water over him to cicatrice the skin and keep in the juices, and roast, covered, twenty minutes to the pound if of reasonable age. If of unreasonable, cook slowly, basting often with the liquor in the dripping-pan, at least half an hour for each obdurate pound. A goose is a most uncertain quantity.
At the last, wash with butter, pepper and salt him, and dredge with flour, then brown. Drain off and skim the fat from the gravy before you season the goose. Goose-grease is valuable in the domestic pharmacopœia, but neither palatable nor wholesome.
Thicken the gravy with browned flour, add the giblets minced very fine, boil up and it is ready.
Serve apple sauce with him.
Braised goslings
Clean and truss without stuffing. Prepare a bed for them by slicing a carrot, an onion, a turnip (all younglings, like the birds), also a pared apple, and cutting a stalk of celery into bits. With these cover the grating of your roaster; lay the birds upon them, dredge with salt, pepper and a little powdered sage, when you have poured a little boiling water over them from the kettle. Cover, and roast slowly fifteen minutes to the pound. Wash with butter, dredge with flour and brown.
Take the goslings up and keep hot while you make the gravy. Rub vegetables and liquor through a colander into a bowl. Set this in cold water to throw up the grease. Skim, thicken with browned flour, adding two teaspoonfuls of tomato catsup, boil up and serve.
Serve apple sauce and green peas, or Lima beans, with the goslings which are most eatable when half-grown.