Fried.—Split them down the back, trussing like a spatchcock; put the trails and livers carefully aside. Heat a frying pan, put in sufficient lard to half fill it. When boiling, add a little salt; then fry the birds 10 minutes; place on a napkin in front of fire to drain and keep hot; pour off all the clear lard; throw a cupful of sifted breadcrumbs, with the trails and livers, into the gravy that remains in the pan; fry of a golden colour; serve up round the snipe: a dash of cayenne added to the crumbs is sometimes liked. All wildfowl cooked in this way are excellent, the larger birds being cut into joints.
Pie.—Take 6 couple of snipe, cut the birds into quarters, make a rich forcemeat of some cold ham, tongue, veal, or chicken, seasoning with a little sweet herbs, pepper, salt, cayenne, some breadcrumbs, mushrooms minced fine, mix all together with the yolks of 2 beaten eggs; place a layer of snipe breast downwards, either in the dish, or a raised crust—the latter is preferable—then forcemeat, then birds, then forcemeat, and so on; fill in with some rich gravy, and bake. When done raise the cover and fill up with gravy; next day place in ice, and serve cold. Drink Chablis or White Hermitage with this dish.
Roast.—Trim, but do not draw the birds, wrap each in a thin slice of fat bacon, and roast about 10-15 minutes at a brisk fire. Baste frequently with butter, keeping a piece of toast in the dripping pan. Serve on the toast.
Toast.—Half roast some snipe, plover, or woodcock, first removing the trails. When cold pound the meat, season with pepper, salt, and a little finely grated lemon peel, make into a mass with the beaten yolk of an egg; meanwhile place the bones and trimmings in a stewpan with a little brown stock, a glass of port wine, a little minced shallot, pepper and salt, let it simmer until the gravy is drawn; bruise the trails, add them with a little butter and flour to the gravy, bring to the boil, and strain, adding when ready a squeeze of lemon. Toast nicely on each side some thin slices bread, butter the toast and cut into shapes, spread the pounded snipe on these, place in a Dutch oven to warm, and when lightly brown serve in a hot dish, pouring the gravy over all.
Turkey (Dinde). Blanched.—Cut the meat into small pieces free from the bone; season with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg; put this into a saucepan with sufficient white sauce to moisten it; let it simmer very gently for 5 minutes; turn it out on a hot dish, and serve with tiny fried pieces of bacon all round it. To make the white sauce, put ¼ pint milk into a saucepan, and simmer, with a strip of lemon rind in it for 5 minutes; mix a dessertspoonful of cornflour in a little cold milk, and thicken the sauce with it; stir the sauce gently over the fire for one minute; take out the lemon rind, and stir in ½ oz. butter after the sauce has cooled for a minute; then heat the turkey in it.
Boiled.—Wash the turkey in tepid water, and rub it all over with lemon juice; then put it into a saucepan full of boiling water, with a large piece of butter, 2 onions, a head of celery, some sliced carrots, a bunch of parsley and sweet herbs, whole pepper, mace, cloves, and salt to taste. Let it boil slowly, and remove carefully any scum that may rise. Serve with celery sauce, or oyster sauce.
Braised.—Truss the turkey as for boiling; stuff it with truffle and chestnut stuffing. Line the bottom of a braising pan with slices of bacon; lay the turkey on these, and place more slices of bacon on the top of it. Put in 2 carrots and 2 onions cut in slices, and sweet herbs, parsley, bay leaf, a clove of garlic, and whole pepper, and salt to taste; moisten with some stock and a tumblerful of sherry. Lay a round of buttered paper on the top, put on the lid, and braise on a moderate fire for about four hours, then serve with the gravy strained and freed from excess of fat. Truffle and Chestnut Stuffing.—Remove the outer skin from a quantity of chestnuts, set them to boil in salted water with a handful of coriander seeds and 2 bay leaves. When nearly done, drain off the water, and remove the inner skin of the chestnuts. Mince 1 lb. fat bacon and 2 shallots, give them a turn on the fire in a saucepan, then put in 1 lb. of the chestnuts (boiled and peeled) and ½ lb. truffles, both cut up into moderate-sized pieces; add pepper, salt, and spices to taste, a little powdered thyme and marjoram; give the mixture another turn or two on the fire, and it is ready. A simple form of stuffing can be made by omitting the truffle. Chestnut Stuffing.—Boil the chestnuts as above. When cooked (they must be rather underdone), drain and remove the inner skin, sprinkle with pepper, salt, and spices, and stuff the turkey, inserting while so doing ½ lb. butter (or beef suet) cut into small pieces. An onion, chopped finely, may be added to the stuffing.
Devilled.—Take a cooked leg of turkey or large fowl, cut it all over to the bone, pepper and salt it well, using black pepper and cayenne, then get some mixed mustard, mix it with about a third its quantity of flour, and plaster the leg over with this mixture as thick as it will stick, also stuffing the gashes with it. When this is done, put it on a gridiron on a clear fire, serve hot.
Galantine.—Take a turkey, bone and trim it. Take 1 lb. veal and ½ lb. fat bacon, pound them together in a mortar, season with powdered spice and sweet herbs, pepper and salt to taste, then pass the mixture through a wire sieve. Cut ½ lb. boiled tongue in pieces about 1 in. square, cut 6 truffles each into 3 or 4 pieces; lay the prepared turkey, skin downwards, on the table, sprinkle it with pepper, salt, and powdered spices; lay the pounded meat, the truffles, and the tongue on it, then roll it up neatly as a roly-poly pudding, and tie it up tightly in a cloth; put all the trimmings of the turkey into a saucepan large enough to hold the galantine; add a calf’s foot cut in pieces, the trimmings of the bacon (mind they are perfectly sweet), 2 or 3 onions, 2 carrots cut in pieces, a clove of garlic, a bundle of sweet herbs (thyme, marjoram, parsley, and bay leaf), cloves, whole pepper, mace, and salt in proportions according to taste; fill up with such a quantity of cold water as will leave room for the galantine to be put in, set the saucepan on the fire, and boil for 2 hours, strain, and when the liquor boils put in the galantine, let it boil 2-2½ hours; then lift it out, put it on a plate, and when it has cooled a little take off the cloth, tie it up afresh, and lay it between 2 dishes with a moderate weight upon it, to remain till cold. Care must be taken in this last operation that the “seam” of the galantine be made to come undermost. When quite cold, glaze the galantine, and garnish it with aspic jelly. Aspic Jelly.—Pack into a stewpan 2 calves’ feet, chopped in small pieces, a few slices of ham, and the carcase of a fowl, with 2 onions and 2 carrots cut into slices, a head of celery, 1 shallot, and parsley, sweet herbs, spices, pepper, and salt to taste; fill up with the liquor in which the galantine was boiled or with any other common stock, and set the whole to simmer gently for 3-4 hours. Strain off the liquor into a basin, and when cold carefully remove all the fat. Then put the jelly into a saucepan, and add to it as much suc colorant as may be required to give it the proper colour. Put the saucepan on the fire, and when the jelly is melted whisk into it the whites of 2 eggs and a wineglassful of tarragon vinegar; let it come to boiling point, and strain it through a jelly bag. If not quite clear warm it again, and strain it a second time. Glaze.—Take a small quantity of the above jelly, freed from fat and strained, but not clarified; set it on the fire to reduce till it presents the appearance of treacle, and keep on skimming it all the time, then lay it on hot with a paste brush. Boning.—There are two ways of boning. Knives are sold for the purpose, but a sharp pocket-knife will do. Lay the bird on its breast, and cut through the skin along the middle of the back. Keep the knife always close to the bone, and cut away the flesh on either side, turning it back as you go. Cut through the joints of the leg and wing bones, and keep cutting till you have separated the breast-bone, when the whole of the body will come out intact. The legs and wings are rather more difficult, but the only thing is to cut very carefully, and on no account to pierce the skin, turning the skin and flesh inside out, like a stocking, as you go along. The legs should be cut off at the first joint, and the last bone of the wing is sometimes left in. When all the bones are out, fill the bird with tongue, stuffing, chestnuts, or whatever else you may have, remaking it, as far as may be, into the shape of an unboned bird. Some persons prefer to lay it flat and roll it round, tying it with string. Another way is to make an incision at the back or the neck only, just as if the fowl were to be drawn, and to take all the bones out there, turning the skin back from the body, as directed above as for the limbs. The slits, whether intentional or accidental (and a beginner will probably have a few of these latter) should be sewn up with fine cotton.—(E. A. B.)