| CRANES AND HERONS
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May be broiled or stewed, like chickens. They make a
very fine soup. Dress and joint 5 or 6 and put into a pot
with an equal weight of beef cut small; slice 1 onion (or
more) ; add a slice of fat pork ; water to cover. When ten-
der add, if you have them, about a pint of oysters with
their liquor. Crabs cleaned and quartered may be substi-
tuted. Let simmer till done. Then just before serving stir
in 1 or 2 tablespoons of gumbo, if you have it prepared.
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| DUCKS—CANVAS BACK—ROASTED
Pluck, singe, draw, and wipe well. Do not wash; let the
duck retain its own flavor as far as possible. Leave the
head on to show its species. Roast, without stuffing, 25 or
30 minutes, in a hot oven, after seasoning with pepper and
salt. Baste with butter and water. A bit of cayenne and a
tablespoon of currant jelly added to the gravy are an
improvement. Thicken with browned flour.
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DUCKS—WILD—ROASTED
Prepare for roasting the same as any fowl. Parboil for 13
minutes with an onion in the water, and the strong fishy fla-
vor that is sometimes so disagreeable in wild ducks will have
disappeared. A carrot will answer the same purpose.
Stuff with bread crumbs, a minced onion, season with pep-
per, salt, and sage, and roast until tender. Use butter plen-
tifully in basting. A half hour will suffice for young ducks.
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DUCKS-WILD-STEWED
Cut the ducks into joints ; pepper, salt, and flour them ;
fry in butter in a stewpan. Then cover with a gravy made
of the giblets and some bits of lean veal if you have it all
minced and stewed in water until tender Add a minced
onion or shallot, a bunch of sweet herbs, and salt and
pepper, with a bit of lemon peel. Cover closely and let
them stew until tender. About 30 minutes will suffice.
Skim out the ducks ; skim and strain the gravy, add a cup
of cream or milk and a beaten egg, thicken with browned
flour, and let boil up once and pour over the ducks. The
juice of a lemon may be added, or lemon may be sliced and
served on the ducks.
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PARTRIDGE PIE
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After dressing, divide in halves, rub with pepper, salt, and
flour, sprinkle in parsley, thyme, and mushrooms, if you
happen to have them. Put a slice of ham and 2 pounds of
veal cut up small at the bottom of the baking-dish. Then
add the partridges and pour over them a pint of good broth
or gravy. This is for about 4 birds. If you have no gravy,
use water with a large spoon of butter. Cover with rich
pie-paste. Leave an opening in the center and bake about
1 hour.
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PARTRIDGE—BROILED
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Pick and draw; divide through the back and breast, and
wipe with a damp cloth. Season highly with pepper, salt,
a bit of cayenne, and broil over a clear, bright fire. It will
broil in 13 or 20 minutes. When done rub over with butter.
Serve with lemon laid in slices on the bird.
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LARKS
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Clean, wipe dry, brush them over with the yolk of egg,
roll in bread crumbs and roast in a quick oven for 10 or 15
minutes. Baste with butter and keep them covered with
bread crumbs while roasting. Serve the crumbs under the
birds and lay slices of lemon on them.
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PIGEON PIE
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Do not stuff pigeons, but cut them in 4 pieces; parboil
and place in layers with egg and pork or bacon, as directed
for quail pie. Use plenty of butter to make the gravy rich.
Bake same as quail pie.
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PIGEONS—POTTED
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Pluck and clean. Take a cracker, an egg, a piece of but-
ter or chopped suet the size of an egg, and a pinch of
sage or sweet marjoram. Make into small balls and put
one with a thin slice of salt pork into each bird. Lay the
birds close together in a pot. Dredge well with flour. Put
in a good tablespoon of butter to 6 birds. Cover with
water. Cover the pot and stew slowly for about an hour
and a half. Less time if young and very tender, and longer
if old. Serve on a large platter with the gravy. Other
birds may be potted the same way.
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PIGEONS—STEWED
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Take the grated crumbs of a small loaf of bread, chop
fine a pound of fat bacon, a sprinkling of thyme, parsley,
and pepper, mix with a couple of raw eggs, stuff the craws
of the pigeons with this, lard the breasts and fry them
brown. Then put into a stewpan with some beef gravy and
stew 3/4 of an hour. Thicken with a tablespoon of butter
rolled in flour. Serve on a platter and strain the gravy over
them. A nice accompaniment is a row of force-meat balls
around the edge of the dish.
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PILAU OF BIRDS
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Boil 2 or 3 large birds or half a dozen small ones with a
pound of bacon in water enough to cover well. Season it
with salt. When tender take them out with a little of the
liquor. Into the remainder put 2 pounds of clean washed
rice. Cook until done, keeping closely covered. Stir into
it a cup of butter, and salt to taste. Put a layer of the rice
in a deep dish. On this lay the birds with the bacon in the
middle. Add the liquor. Then cover them all with the
rice that is left. Smooth it and spread over it the beaten
yolks of 2 eggs. Cover with a plate ; bake 15 or 20 minutes
in a moderate oven.
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PLOVER
Clean and truss. Lay in a pan and season with salt and
pepper. Rub over with butter and cook in a quick oven.
A piece of fat bacon or salt pork laid on each one gives a
good flavor. Toast some bread and put a piece under each
bird before it is quite done. Baste with butter and. water.
Take up on a hot platter, a bird on each slice of toast, and
serve together.
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PRAIRIE CHICKEN—ROASTED
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Remove all shot, clean quickly and thoroughly. Cut open
and lay on them thin slices of salt pork. Place in a drip
-ping pan with a cup of water, and cook in the oven until
done. The time will vary from 40 minutes to an hour and
a half, according to the size and age of the bird.
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PRAIRIE CHICKENS—STEAMED AND BAKED
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| Stuff them, after cleaning, with a dressing of bread
crumbs and seasoning of pepper and salt, and mixed with
melted butter. Sage, onion, or summer savory may be
added, if liked. Secure the fowl firmly with a needle and
twine. Steam in a steamer until tender. Then remove to
a dripping-pan, dredge with flour, pepper, and salt, and
brown delicately in the oven. Baste with melted butter.
Garnish with parsley and lumps of currant jelly. Prairie
fowls may be stewed or broiled the same as other birds
mentioned in this chapter.
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QUAIL—BROILED
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Clean and split down the back. Wipe carefully, season
well with salt and pepper, and place on a gridiron over a
clear, hot fire. Turn, and when done, lay on a hot dish ;
butter well, and serve on buttered toast.
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QUAIL PIE
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Clean, truss, and stuff the quails. Parboil for 10 or 15
minutes. Line the sides of a deep pan with rich pie-paste.
In the bottom put a couple of slices of salt pork or bacon
cut into small pieces. Then some slices of hard-boiled eggs,
with butter and pepper. Then the quails (after removing
the cords), with a sprinkling of minced parsley. The juice
of a lemon is an improvement. Put bits of butter rolled in
flour over the birds, then a layer of slices of egg and bits of
pork. Pour in the water in which they were parboiled, and
cover with pie-paste, leaving an opening in the center. Bake about
an hour.
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QUAIL—STEAMED
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Steam quail until nearly done, then roast in the oven to a
nice brown, basting often with melted better in water.
Serve on buttered toast. Very nice.
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REED BIRDS, RAIL BIRDS, AND SNIPE
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May be cooked precisely as plovers, or they may be
broiled and served with toast the same as quail or partridge.
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WOODCOCK
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Many excellent cooks do not draw them, asserting that
the trail should be left in, even by those who do not like it,
and removed after it is served. They claim that the flavor
of the bird is much impaired if the trail is taken out before
cooking. It looks rather plausible, as they are said to live
by suction, have no crop, and a stomach only the size of a
bullet. The trail, head, and neck are regarded as great deli-
cacies by epicures. For my own eating, I could not cook
them without drawing.
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TO BAKE
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Divide down the back, put in the oven, salt and pepper
them and baste with melted butter. Garnish with slices of
lemon.
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TO BROIL
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Split down the back, wipe with a damp cloth, and broil
over a clear fire. Rub on butter, pepper, and salt when
done. Serve on" a hot platter and help each person to half
a bird.
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TO ROAST
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Clean, draw, and stuff with simple bread crumbs well sea-
soned with pepper and salt, and moistened with sweet cream
or melted butter. Sew them up. Tie a small, thin slice of
salt pork around the bird. Place in a dripping-pan and baste
with butter and water. Put slices of buttered toast under
them before taking up, and serve with them.
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FROGS AND TERRAPIN OR TURTLE
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FROGS
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Skin them as soon as possible. The hind legs are usually
the only part used, although the back is good eating. Fry
or broil the same as chickens—or fricassee them.
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TERRAPIN OR TURTLE
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Plunge the turtle while yet alive into boiling water
When life is extinct, remove the outer skin and the toe-nails
Then rinse well, and boil in salted water until perfectly ten-
der. Then take off the shells, remove the gall and sand-bag
carefully, and clean the terrapin thoroughly. Next cut the
meat and entrails into small pieces, saving all the juice put
into a saucepan without water and season to your taste with
salt, cayenne, and black pepper. Add for each terrapin
butter the size of an egg made smooth with a tablespoon of
flour. A few tablespoons of cream should be added last
Many persons add the yolks of 3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs just -
before serving. While cooking it should be stirred very
often—and must be dished up and eaten very hot.
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