Grills.—For grilled fowl and turkey legs. Let them stand 10 minutes in boiling water, so as to get quite hot through, then well pepper them, and fry them in lard until they are nicely browned. (E. M. K.)
Patties.—A nice way of using up the small pieces of turkey. Mince some of the meat with grated lemon peel, nutmeg, a little salt, white pepper, cream and butter warmed, fill the patties, and bake as usual.
Roast.—Pluck, singe, draw, wipe thoroughly, and truss a fine turkey, stuff it with plain forcemeat, pack it up in some thin slices of fat bacon, and over that a sheet of buttered paper, roast before a clear fire, basting frequently with butter. ¼ hour before it is done, remove the paper and slices of bacon. Sprinkle with salt, just before serving. Garnish with pork sausages, and serve with a boat of gravy. Time of roasting 2-3 hours. Forcemeat.—(1) Take 1 part finely-shredded suet and 2 of breadcrumbs, season with pepper, salt, powered spices, sweet herbs, and finely minced parsley; mix all well together; then add as many eggs as will bind the ingredients together into a stiff paste. (2) Pound to a paste in a mortar, slightly rubbed with garlic, equal parts of veal and fat ham or bacon, then pass them through a wire sieve, and return them to the mortar. Work into the paste thus obtained ¼ its bulk of butter, and about the same quantity of breadcrumbs, soaked in milk or in stock, with the yolks of one or more eggs, according to quantity. Add minced parsley and pepper, salt, spices, and powdered sweet herbs to taste. Gravy.—Mince an onion finely, fry it in butter to a dark brown, then add ¾ pint of good stock, pepper and salt to taste, a small piece of ham minced small, a sprig of thyme, one of parsley, and a little Worcester sauce. Let the whole boil 5-10 minutes put it by till wanted, then strain it into a sauce boat.
With Mushrooms.—Open a tin of turkey, set in boiling water to melt the jelly, pour the melted jelly into a saucepan, slightly thicken it with cornflour and sufficient mushroom ketchup to make it a good flavour, season it, and keep hot while the turkey is being freed from bone and minced. Open a small tin of mushrooms, and mince them with the meat; mix well in the gravy; keep the mince hot for 10 minutes, and then serve on rounds of toast for breakfast. The turkey can be simply sliced, and the mushrooms left whole, if preferred.
With Oysters.—Open a tin of oysters and mince them finely, saving the liquor, and mix well together with them 5 oz. grated breadcrumbs, 1 oz. fresh butter slightly melted, the rind of ½ lemon chopped small, 1 tablespoonful minced parsley, a pinch of cayenne, a small teaspoonful of salt, and ½ teaspoonful white pepper. Cut into neat pieces the contents of a tin of turkey, leaving the bones in; butter a pie-dish, and put alternate layers of turkey and oyster forcemeat. Put a teacupful of the oyster liquor into a saucepan, melt a large teaspoonful of butter in it, and thicken with cornflour. Pour over the turkey and oysters, and bake 15 minutes in a hot oven.
To use up a Turkey.—If roasted, stuff it with pork sausage meat. Instead of paying 10d. per lb. for a mixture of pork, bread, and water, buy 1 lb. trimmings, and let the cook mince it herself. Roast turkey comes in cold several times in a small family. Sometimes the legs may be devilled. The meat should be carefully picked off the wing bones, back, &c. Let it be minced very finely, stewed in milk, a little pounded mace, salt, and thickening; then let it get cold, and make a top-and-bottom-crust pie of it. If economy be the order of the day, make the crust of “fleed” or “flick,” in this way: Pull all the skin off, beat it well with a mallet or rolling-pin till about the consistency of lard, then, having made 1 lb. flour into paste with water, roll it out, and dot the “flick” over it; give it a good coat of flour; repeat this process till you have put in ¾ lb. of “flick;” bake in a quick oven. If for tarts, 1 lb. “flick” to 1 lb. flour. Now comes the most important part of all. Take all the bones that have not been on the plates, break up the back and breast bones, put them in a saucepan with 2 qt. water, a carrot, a turnip, a few peppercorns, a little bit of mace, lemon peel, a little bit of ham, &c.; let it boil hard all day till reduced to 1 qt., strain through muslin or fine flannel; put it into a clean saucepan, have ready nearly a breakfast cupful of batter, not too thick. While boiling hard pour in the batter with one hand, stir quickly with the other. Let it boil for a few minutes, strain through a sieve into the tureen. Excellent soup.
Venison (Venaison).—This is of 3 kinds. The fallow deer, the red deer, and the roebuck supply venison of very different qualities. In the opinion of most competent judges, English park-fed buck venison is the best and richest, and is followed in order of excellence by the red deer venisons of Scotland and Germany, slightly coarser in fibre, and less abundantly supplied with fat. A great fuss is made on the Continent about the roe-deer or chevreuil, but this pretty little animal supplies rather poor venison—good as to flavour—but dry, and as a rule destitute of fat. A fat buck is usually divided into haunch, neck, shoulder, and breast. The haunch and neck are generally roasted, the shoulder and breast being reserved for pasties, stews, or chops. In buying venison for immediate cooking great caution should be observed, as if it has been hanging long enough to permit serious disintegration of the tissue, it will be uneatable. Its condition may be ascertained by running a skewer under the bone. If it smells sweet the meat is good. Venison may be hung 10-15 days, according to the weather, and should on no account be kept so long as to render overcooking necessary, as it is best cooked of all when, without being actually underdone, the meat still retains its gravy. While hanging—if possible in a clear draught of air—venison should be wiped and peppered occasionally, especially on the “cut” parts. The haunch, both on account of its size and the delicate quality of its fat, requires great care in cooking. It should be wiped, almost washed, rubbed over with butter, and sprinkled with salt. The next operation is to cover the haunch with a large sheet of buttered paper all over it, again covering with a sheet of common water paste about ½ in. thick. When the paste has been carefully applied and thoroughly joined, 3 sheets of buttered paper should be securely fastened with string over all. Placed then in a cradle-spit before a large fire, a fine haunch will take about 3-3½ hours roasting. It should be frequently basted. When done the paper and paste must be taken off, and the haunch salted, basted with butter, dredged with flour till it assumes a brown colour, and served on a hot-water dish. The best sauce for venison is made with a little of the gravy, ½ lb. red currant jelly, 2 or 3 knobs of sugar, and 1 gill red wine simmered together till the jelly is melted. Jelly should also be served separately. Roast venison may be accompanied by French beans, white haricots, or perhaps, best of all, with stuffed tomatoes. The neck is dressed in the same manner as the haunch, pasted and papered, and requires in roasting about ¼ hour to 1 lb. Venison should be carved as quickly as possible on to silver or hot-water plates.
Collops.—Venison collops or minced collops are both excellent, and must be made from the uncooked meat as follows: Cut the meat into collops (small thin cutlets or emincés, or mince it if you wish “minced” collops), and season this with pepper, salt, and mixed spices. Throw some butter into a stewpan, put in the collops, brown them and then add equal quantities of good brown gravy and red wine. Add to this a little fine sugar, a dash of vinegar, and a spoonful of ketchup. Stew slowly till done. Then take out the collops, strain the sauce and serve quickly. These collops may be served within a wall of well cooked white haricots, garnished with baked tomatoes.
Roast Haunch.—(a) Trim the joint neatly, wipe it well with a cloth, rub it over with butter, and sprinkle it with salt; then wrap it up in a sheet of buttered kitchen paper Make a paste with flour and water, roll it out to the thickness of ½ in., wrap the joint in this, and close up all the openings carefully by wetting the edges of the sheet of paste; lastly, pack up the haunch into a final sheet of well-buttered paper; put it to roast at a good fire for about 3 hours, basting it occasionally; then remove the paste and paper coverings, baste the haunch plentifully with butter, and when nearly done dredge some flour over it and some salt. Serve on a hot-water dish.
(b) As roe-deer is very dry, a haunch of it is much improved by being closely larded with fat bacon and then placed to marinade in equal parts of oil and red wine, with sliced carrots and onions and judicious flavourings of whole pepper, cloves, salt, chopped parsley, and sweet herbs. The joint may be left in this pickle for some days, and should be well basted with it. Then wrap the joint up in oiled or buttered paper, and baste it well while roasting before a clear fire. When nearly cooked remove the oiled paper to let the meat take colour, glaze the joint, and serve with rich gravy and with red currant jelly. Roe-deer also may be braised, in which case it should also be well larded. The neck may be jugged like hare, or it can be made into cutlets, haricot, &c.