Conserves consist of fresh vegetable matters beat into a uniform mass with refined sugar, and they are intended to preserve the virtues and properties of recent flowers, leaves, roots, peels, or fruits, unaltered, and as near as possible to what they were when fresh gathered, and to give them an agreeable taste.
The last to be mentioned, but not the least important preparation of fruit, is the compôte, which can be made at the moment of need, and with much less sugar than would be ordinarily put to preserves. Compôtes are very wholesome things, suitable to most stomachs which cannot accommodate themselves to raw fruit or a large portion of sugar. They are the happy medium—far better than ordinary stewed fruit.
PTARMIGAN, the, or White Grouse.
THE PTARMIGAN.
This bird is nearly the same size as red grouse, and is fond of lofty situations, where it braves the severest weather, and is found in most parts of Europe, as well as in Greenland. At Hudson’s Bay they appear in such multitudes that so many as sixty or seventy are frequently taken at once in a net. As they are as tame as chickens, this is done without difficulty. Buffon says that the ptarmigan avoids the solar heat, and prefers the frosts of the summits of the mountains; for, as the snow melts on the sides of the mountains, it ascends till it gains the top, where it makes a hole, and burrows in the snow. In winter, it flies in flocks, and feeds on the wild vegetation of the hills, which imparts to its flesh a bitter, but not altogether an unpalatable taste. It is dark-coloured, has something of the flavour of the hare, and is greatly relished and much sought after by some sportsmen.
PTARMIGAN, to Dress the.
Ingredients.—2 or 3 birds; butter, flour, fried bread-crumbs. Mode.—The ptarmigan, or white grouse, when young and tender, are exceedingly fine eating, and should be kept as long as possible, to be good. Pluck, draw, and truss them in the same manner as grouse, and roast them before a brisk fire. Flour and froth them nicely, and serve on buttered toast, with a tureen of brown gravy. Bread sauce, when liked, may be sent to table with them, and fried bread-crumbs substituted for the toasted bread. Time.—About ½ hour. Sufficient.—2 for a dish. Seasonable from the beginning of February to the end of April.
PTARMIGAN, to Carve.
Ptarmigan, being much of the same size, and trussed in the same manner, as the red bird, may be carved in the manner described, in Partridge and Grouse carving.