With Mushrooms.—When roasted or baked, serve it with a garniture of mushrooms. It is also served with a garniture of cauliflowers, financière, Macédoine, and of truffles.
In Fricassée.—Prepare, cook, and serve it like chicken in fricassée.
In Crapaudine.—Proceed as for pigeons in crapaudine, the only difference being that it takes a little longer to cook. It is also prepared and served as a quail, hunter-like. It takes longer to cook than a quail.
Sauté.—Clean, prepare, cut, cook, dish, and serve the prairie-bird as a chicken sauté.
Stewed.—Clean, prepare, and truss the bird as directed. Put about one ounce of butter and two ounces of fat salt pork, cut in dice, in a saucepan, and set it on a quick fire; toss gently, and when the butter is melted, put the bird in and brown it all around; then add four small onions, half a carrot in slices, salt, and pepper; stir till the onions and carrot are partly fried; then add half a pint of broth, same of white wine, a bunch of seasonings composed of four or five stalks of parsley, one of thyme, one bay-leaf, and a clove; boil gently till done; dish the bird, turn the sauce over it through a strainer, and serve warm. Thus stewed, it may be served with the following purées: asparagus, beans, lentils, lima beans, mushrooms, and peas.
Cold.—A whole bird or part of it left from the preceding day's dinner, if it has been broiled, baked, or roasted, is prepared and served in salad, like a chicken salad; or in salmis.
Boned.—A boned prairie-bird makes an excellent dish and a most nutritious and warming one. Persons having a phlegmatic constitution ought to partake of it at least twice a week during hunting-time. Always select a very fresh and fat bird to bone. Pick, bone, fill, cook, and serve it as described for boned turkey. A prairie-hen is more easily boned, when fresh, than an ordinary chicken. The addition of truffles (about half a pound for one bird) makes it still richer and warmer.
In Croquettes.—Prepare, cook, and serve as chicken croquettes.
Quails.—A quail, like a prairie-bird, is old when it has a white bill and bluish legs; when young, the bill is of a rather dark-gray color, and the legs are yellowish. Quails are just the contrary of pheasants; the more fresh they are when cooked, the better.
To prepare.—When cleaned and prepared as directed for poultry, cut off the end of the claws, and then truss it as a chicken, sprinkle salt and pepper on the breast. Cut thin slices of fat salt pork, somewhat square, and of a proper size to cover the breast of the bird, but not the back. Tie it to the bird with two pieces of twine, then roast or bake.