just before the dish is wanted for table, fry them quickly without allowing them to brown; drain them well from the butter, pile them in the centre of a hot dish, and sauce them with some boiling béchamel. This dish may be quickly prepared by taking a ready-dressed fowl from the spit or stewpan, and by rais-, ing the fillets, and slicing the scallops into the boiling sauce before they have had time to cool.

Fried, 3 to 4 minutes.

GRILLADE OF COLD FOWLS.

Carve and soak the remains of roast fowls as above, wipe them dry, dip them into clarified butter, and then into fine bread-crumbs, and broil them gently over a very clear fire. A little finely-minced lean of ham, or grated lemon-peel, with a seasoning of cayenne, salt, and mace, mixed with the crumbs, will vary this dish agreeably. When fried, instead of broiled, the fowls may be dipped into yolk of egg, instead of butter, but this renders them too dry for the gridiron.

COLD FOWLS.

(The Housekeeper's Receipt. A Supper Dish.)

Cut very equally a sufficient number of slices from a cold ham, to form two or even three layers round the rim of the dish which is to be sent to table. Place the fowls, neatly carved and trimmed, in the centre, with some branches of curled parsley, or other light foliage amongst them. Cold tongue may be substituted for the ham with advantage. This dish has a handsome appearance, and is convenient for the purpose of quick serving.

FOWLS À LA MAYONNAISE.

Carve with great nicety a couple of cold roast fowls; place the inferior joints, if they are served at all, close together in the middle of a dish, and arrange the others round and over them, piling them as high as you can in the centre. Border the dish with the hearts of young lettuces cut in two, and hard-boiled eggs, halved lengthwise. At the moment of serving, pour over the fowls a well-made mayonnaise sauce (see page 113), or, if preferred, a salad mixture, compounded with thick cream, instead of oil.

TO ROAST DUCKS.

In preparing these for the spit, be careful to clear the skin entirely from the stumps of the feathers; take off the

Ducks ready for the spit.

heads and necks, but leave the feet on, and hold them for a few minutes in boiling water to loosen the skin, which must be peeled off. Wash the insides of the birds by pouring water through them, but merely wipe the outsides with a dry cloth. Put into the bodies a seasoning of parboiled onions mixed with minced sage, salt, pepper, and a slice of butter, when this mode of dressing them is liked; but as the taste of a whole party is seldom in its favour, one, when a couple are roasted, is often served without the stuffing. Cut off the pinions at the first joint from the bodies, truss the feet behind the backs, spit the birds firmly, and roast them at a brisk fire, but do not place them sufficiently near to be scorched; baste them constantly, and when the breasts are well plumped, and the steam from them draws towards the fire, dish, and serve them quickly with a little good brown gravy poured round them, and some also in a tureen; or instead of this, with some which has been made with the necks, gizzards, and livers well stewed down, with a slight seasoning of browned onion, some herbs, and spice. Young ducks, hour: full sized, from to 1 hour.

Obs.-Olive-sauce may be served with roast as well as with stewed ducks.

STEWED DUCK. (ENTRÉE.)

A couple of quite young ducks, or a fine, full-grown, but still tender one, will be required for this dish. Cut either down neatly into joints, and arrange them, in a single layer if possible, in a wide stewpan; pour in about three quarters of a pint of strong, cold beef stock or gravy; let it be well cleared from scum when it begins to boil, then throw in a little salt, a rather full seasoning of cayenne, and a few thin strips of lemonrind. Simmer the ducks very softly for three quarters of an hour, or somewhat longer, should the joints be large; then stir into the gravy a tablespoonful of the finest rice-flour, mixed with a wineglassful or rather more of port wine, and a dessertspoonful of lemon-juice: in ten minutes after, dish the stew and send it to table instantly.

The ducks may be served with a small portion only of their sauce, laid in a circle, with green peas à la Francaise, heaped high in the centre; the lemon-rind and port wine should then

be altogether omitted, and a small bunch of green onions and parsley, with two or three young carrots, may be stewed down with the birds; or three or four minced eschalots, delicately fried in butter, may be used to flavour the gravy. Turnips au beurre, prepared by the receipt of Chapter XV., may be substituted for the peas; and a well made Espagnole may take the place of beef stock, when a dish of high savour is wished for. A duck is often stewed without being divided into joints. It should then be firmly trussed, half roasted at a quick fire, and laid into the stewpan as it is taken from the spit; or well browned in some French thickening, then half covered with boiling gravy, and turned when partially done: from an hour to an hour and a quarter will stew it well.

TO ROAST PIGEONS.

These, as we have already said, should be dressed while they are very fresh. If extremely young they will be ready in twelve hours for the spit, otherwise, in twenty-four. Take off the heads and necks, and cut off the toes at the first joint; draw them carefully, that the gall-bladders may Pigeons for roasting. not be broken, and pour plenty of water. through them; wipe them dry, and put into each bird a small bit of butter lightly dipped into a little cayenne (formerly it was rolled in minced parsley, but this is no longer the fashionable mode of preparing them). Truss the wings over the backs, and roast them at a brisk fire, keeping them well and constantly basted with butter. Serve them with brown gravy, and a tureen of parsley and butter. For the second course, dish them upon young water-cresses, as directed for roast fowl aux cressons, page 261. About twenty minutes will roast them.

18 to 20 minutes; five minutes longer, if large; rather less, if very young.

BOILED PIGEONS.

Truss them like boiled fowls, drop them into plenty of boiling water, throw in a little salt, and in fifteen minutes lift them out, pour parsley and butter over, and send a tureen of it to table with them.

BUCK venison, which is in season only from June to Michaelmas, is considered finer than doe venison, which comes into the market in October, and remains in season through November and December: neither should be cooked at any other part of the year. The greater the depth of fat upon the haunch the better the quality of the meat will be, provided it be clear and white, and the lean of a dark hue. If the cleft of the hoof, which is always left on the joint, be small and smooth, the animal is young; but it is old when the marks are the reverse of these.* Although the haunch is the prime and favourite joint of venison, the neck and shoulder are also excellent, stewed in various ways,

It must be observed that venison is not in perfection when young like mutton, it requires to be of a certain age before it is brought to table. The word cleft applies also to the thickest part of the haunch, and it is the depth of the fat on this which decides the quality of the joint.

or made into pasties. If kept to the proper point, and well dressed, this is the most tender of all meat; but care is necessary to bring it into a fitting state for table without its becoming offensive. A free current of air in a larder is always a great advantage, as it assists materially in preserving the sweetness of every thing which is kept in it, while a close damp atmosphere, on the contrary, is more destructive of animal food of all kinds even than positive heat. The fumes of creosote are said to be an admirable preservative against putrescence, but we have not ourselves yet had experience of the fact. All moisture should be wiped daily, or even more frequently, from the venison, with soft cloths, when any appears upon the surface; and every precaution must be taken to keep off the flies, when the joint is not hung in a wire-safe. Black pepper thickly powdered on it will generally answer the purpose: with common care, indeed, meat may always be protected from their attacks, and to leave it exposed to them in warm weather is altogether inexcusable in the cook.

Hares and rabbits are stiff when freshly killed, and if young, the ears tear easily, and the claws are smooth and sharp. A hare in cold weather will remain, good from ten to fourteen days; care only must be taken to prevent the inside from becoming musty, which it will do if it has been emptied in the field. Pheasants, partridges, and other game may be chosen by nearly the same tests as poultry: by opening the bill, the staleness will be detected easily if they have been too long kept. With few exceptions, game depends almost entirely for the fine flavour and the tenderness of its flesh, on the time which it is allowed to hang before it is cooked, and it is never good when very fresh; but it does not follow that it should be sent to table in a really offensive state, for this is agreeable to few eaters and disgusting to many, and nothing should at any time be served of which the appearance or the odour may destroy the appetite of any person present.

TO ROAST A HAUNCH OF VENISON.