Game and Poultry.—Pheasants come into the market. Ude says they should “be eaten when blood runs from the bill, generally 6-7 days.” Cooked quite fresh, they have not much more flavour than a fowl; but the time of keeping depends on the weather. In damp, warm weather nothing keeps long or well. The birds should be plucked just before cooking; always hung in the feathers. The development of the spur in the cock bird, and of the wing feathers in both cock and hen, show the age. The hen is smaller, but generally thought better.
Hares are plentiful. Many are brought from abroad. The average weight of a hare is about 5-7 lb., but it is not a suitable dish to serve for a large party, as, except for the slices on either side of the back, there are no choice morsels to be carved from a hare. There are few dishes that it is so hard to carve well. An old hare should be well hung, and jugged rather than roasted. It may be distinguished from a young one by its size, by the much-spread cleft in the upper lip, by the rough and blunted claws, and by the comparatively small size of the knee joints. A hare should hang some time, “better not paunched or skinned, but if paunched, it should be wiped inside every day, and sprinkled with pepper and ginger.” Some persons advise that an old hare should lie for a time in vinegar and water. Vinegar always has the effect of softening the fibres of meat, and so making it less tough. It is for this reason that vinegar is often added to boiled meat or stew.
Rabbits are also very plump and good, and barndoor poultry is abundant. Capons, ducks, geese, and young turkeys crowd the markets. By no exercise of the culinary art can the tame duck be made to rival her wild compeer, but she is nevertheless very toothsome when “accommodated” aux olives.
Fish.—Among the fishes of the present month may be found John Dory, grey mullet, and red mullet. During October turbot is very fine. A sigh of regret must, however, be exhaled over the persistence of English people in accompanying this delicate fish with the rich stew popularly known as lobster sauce. Hollandaise sauce and caper sauce are much to be preferred, for one reason among others, that they permit the epicure to taste the fried smelts or fried oysters, with which every turbot should be served.
Smelts, soles, whiting, skate, eels, and the famous Dublin Bay haddock are now in season; but although codfish is supposed to be “in” from September to March, the true gourmand will reserve the pleasure of discussing that magnificent dish—cod’s head and shoulders with oyster sauce—until at least November. Sea bream, a fish in good condition during the autumn and winter, only requires to be properly understood and properly dressed to be thoroughly appreciated.
Vegetables.—Potatoes need be covered only when there is fear of frost; but they must never be exposed to the sun, especially when they are washed and freed from the particles of earth that cling to their skins. They should be turned over, and any diseased ones picked out from time to time.
The common way of buying potatoes is by weight or by measure. Small consumers almost always buy by weight, but it is not in any way a good plan. It is dear. 2d. a lb. is not an uncommon price; 9s. a bushel is almost unheard of. Last year it was easy to get very fair potatoes at 1s. 6d.-2s. a bushel of 56 lb. There must be few households where a bushel of potatoes could not be eaten while they were good, and they would keep very well in a sack at the bottom of a cupboard, if no better placed offered. In larger quantities they can be had cheaper than by the bushel. Just as with carrots, or onions; they are cheapest soon after they are dug out of the ground; and carrots keep well in any outhouse or cellar that is fairly dry, stacked a few inches from the ground, and covered when the frost comes. Per bushel the price is very moderate; but they make a considerable item in housekeeping expenses when they are bought one or two at a time from the greengrocer’s stall. Onions are even easier to keep, for they do not dry up as carrots are apt to dry in the kitchen cupboard, nor sprout so soon as carrots if they are too damp.
Vegetables are also sold by the sack or by the stone of 8 lb. Local customs vary much. The actual weights and measures are standard the same over all the country; but what is sold by weight in one county is sold by measure in another. One needs be a ready reckoner to turn pounds into gallons, stones into bushels or sacks, quarts into pecks. And it is easy to see that a given measure does not contain the same weight of any two things. A gallon nominally holds ⅛ of a corn bushel, which is 7 lb. Practically a gallon measure of fruit may weigh anything over 5½ lb. Sometimes though the measure is spoken of, the weight is given. Of course, the larger the fruit, the less advantageous to the purchaser to measure instead of weigh. The disadvantage may be enough to compensate for the great waste of small potatoes, small apples, or other fruit.
To pass over the truffle when discussing the luxuries of October would be an unpardonable omission. The diamonds of the kitchen are never in more superb condition than at present. On their immense value, from their faculty of communicating an incomparable flavour to everything with which they are associated, it is needless to dilate. France rejoices in no less than 4 species of truffles; and of these priority of place is universally granted to the black truffle of Périgord.
Apart from the important position occupied by truffles in sauces, salads, farces, and entrées, the truffle possesses the admirable faculty of enhancing the flavour of Burgundy about fifty per cent.