Ducks and geese are generally best plain roasted with green peas, or with apple or onion sauce. Dr. Hunter, however, gives the following receipt for a savoury sauce for a roasted goose:—"A table-spoonful of made mustard, half a tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and three spoonfuls of port wine. This mixture is to be made quite hot, and poured into the body of the goose through a slit in the apron, just before serving up."
Game is generally very abundant in a country house. Hares may be either roasted, jugged, or made into soup. Pheasants are generally roasted, either larded or plain. Dr. Hunter recommends the inside to be stuffed with the lean part of a sirloin of beef, minced small and seasoned with pepper and salt.
Partridges are cooked in various ways in France; but in England they are generally either roasted, or dressed in the French way with cabbages. The following is the French receipt for dressing Perdrix aux choux. Take two partridges, and put them into a casserole with butter, a very little flour, three cupfuls of gravy, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon cut into dice, a little bunch of sweet herbs and a laurel leaf, and let them stew gradually. In the mean time boil a savoy cabbage with three quarters of a pound of pickled pork, or two spoonfuls of dripping, filling the pot with water. When the savoy is tender, take it out and drain it, and then put it into the casserole with the partridges; let the whole stew for about half an hour, and then serve it quite hot. Sometimes a carrot is cut in round slices and stewed with the partridges, and this is a great improvement. Care must be taken to remove the bundle of sweet herbs and the laurel leaf before adding the cabbage, as otherwise it might be difficult to find them, and they would not look well if sent to table. Brussels' sprouts may be used instead of a savoy, and they render the dish more delicate. A half-roasted duck may be stewed in this way instead of the partridges, and is excellent.
Any kind of cold game makes an excellent salad, the meat being cut from the bones and mixed with lettuces cut small, and dressed in the usual manner. The French add capers, anchovies, or any other seasoning, to salads, and garnish them with the flowers of the nasturtium and the borage, which may be eaten without danger.
A Magnonnaise is a salad with alternate rows of cold fowl or roast veal, and lettuce, hard eggs cut in quarter slices, or carrot, or beet, gherkins, anchovy, &c. Cold potatoes cut in slices, and dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, make an excellent salad, which may be varied by the addition of fine herbs, slices of beet-root, or anchovies taken from the bones and chopped fine. Boulettes of cold meat, chopped small, and mixed with crumbs of bread or mashed potatoes, are also very useful impromptu dishes. The mixed meat and bread or potatoes is seasoned with pepper, salt, a little parsley, and other herbs, and a shallot or two cut very small; the yolk of an egg or two is then added, and the mixture is made into balls, which are just glazed over with white of egg, and then fried; after which they are served with a little gravy or sauce of any kind, or covered with parsley put before the fire till it is quite crisp. Cold potatoes may also be cut in slices and warmed in a casserole, with some butter mixed first in a plate with a little flour, some parsley cut very fine, pepper and salt, and a very little lemon-juice or vinegar: this is called à la maître d'hôtel. They may also be cut in slices and fried, and then served with sauce blanche.
Sauce blanche is made by mixing butter with some flour on a plate, and then putting it into a casserole with a little water. It should be held over the fire, and frequently shaken, till it boils; it is then taken off the fire, and a little salt and vinegar thrown in; after which it is again shaken, and held over the fire till it is quite hot, but not boiling, when it is served. Some cooks add a little of the yolk of eggs, well beaten up with the salt and vinegar. Carrots are very good boiled, and then cut in slices, and dressed à la maître d'hôtel, or fried and served with sauce blanche like potatoes. Carrots are also very good cut into small pieces and stewed till they are tender, with a little butter, and only just enough water or gravy to prevent them from burning. A sauce is made of the yolk of an egg beaten up with some cream, a little salt being added, and it is poured on the carrots; the saucepan is then again put on the fire, and when the whole is quite hot it is served.
It may be useful here to mention two or three kinds of sauce which may be used either for cold meat or fish; and also some of the ways the French have of dressing cold fowl or veal, which are very nice.
Dutch sour sauce. Take the yolks of two eggs, a lump of butter, a little bit of mace, and a table-spoonful of good white-wine vinegar. Put all together into a saucepan over a gentle fire, and keep stirring all one way till the sauce is thick enough for use.
Onion sauce. Melt some butter in a little thick cream, but add neither water nor flour. Boil the onions, and take two coats from their outsides. Chop the inside smooth, and put them into the melted butter, with salt to the taste. Stir one way over the fire for a quarter of an hour, and send up the sauce quite hot. Another way is to boil the onions soft, and to rub their pulp through a cullender or coarse sieve before adding it to the butter.