Poultry And Game

Poultry should be drawn as soon as killed, to be perfectly wholesome. That custom is not used in our markets, but it should be made compulsory for the good of the meat. To tell the age of poultry, press the end of the breat bone. If it is soft and bends easily the bird is young. If the end is hardened it is over a year old. Pin feathers indicate a young bird, and long hair an old one. The skin should be firm, smooth and white. Geese and ducks should not be over a year old, have soft yellow feet, tender wings and thick, hard breast. Wild ducks have reddish feet.

Stuffing For Roast Turkey Or Chicken

For two cups of fine bread crumbs add one-fourth cup of melted butter, one small onion chopped fine, one teaspoonful salt and two teaspoonfuls of mixed herbs, a little pepper. This makes a dry stuffing; if liked moist, add a little hot water or milk.

Giblet Sauce

Boil the giblets in salted water until tender, chop them quite fine, put a tablespoonful of flour in the pan in which the fowl was roasted. Let it brown; then add, stirring constantly, one cupful of the water the giblets were cooked in. Season with salt and pepper, strain and add the chopped giblets, and serve in a gravy boat.

How To Dress Fowls Or Birds For Broiling

Singe, wipe off with a cloth and cold water, split down the middle of the back, lay open, and remove the contents from the inside.

Forcemeat For Stuffing Boned Fowls

Use the cooked or uncooked meat of another fowl or veal, or a part of both; chop fine. To every cup of meat add one-fourth cup of bread or cracker crumbs, one-fourth cup of melted butter, one teaspoonful chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of onions, chopped fine, one-fourth teaspoonful each of sage, thyme, pepper, one-half teaspoonful salt, one stalk of celery, chopped fine. Moisten with stock the meat was cooked in, or leftover gravy.

How To Boil Fowl

Boiled fowl are sometimes cooked with oysters, bread or chestnut stuffing, but as the stuffing is apt to get wet and soggy, they are better cooked without it. Clean, sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper, put on to cook in boiling water enough to cover, with one teaspoonful of salt and one whole small onion. Simmer until tender. (The time depends upon the age and size of the fowl.) Serve with oyster, celery or caper sauce, using some of the liquor the fowl was boiled in for the sauce. Pour the sauce around the fowl, or garnish with a border of rice.

How To Broil A Turkey

Select a very small, fat, young one, weighing not over five pounds. Have it split as you would a chicken for broiling. Place it in the roasting pan seasoned with salt, pepper and butter, with a half cup of water in the pan. Cook until the meat is tender, then broil over a rather slow fire. When brown put on a hot platter, spread with butter and season with salt. Save any liquid left in the pan for chestnut sauce to pour around it. If the turkey is unusually young and tender it can be broiled without cooking in the oven.

Roast Goose

A young goose four or five months old is the best. Singe, remove the pin feathers, then wash in warm soap suds to cleanse it, and open the pores, then draw it as you would a turkey or chicken. Wash in cold water and wipe dry inside and out. Stuff with a potato stuffing, sew and truss. Put on a rack in the pan, cover the breast with slices of fat salt pork. (The pork fat aids in drawing out the oil.) Place in the oven for an hour, then take the pan from the oven and pour off all the fat, dredge with flour. When the flour is brown, add a little hot water; baste often. Cook until brown and tender. Make a gravy from some of the fat in the pan, flour and hot water, season to taste. Serve with apple sauce.

Potato Stuffing

1 cup mashed potatoes. 1 tablespoonful of onion chopped fine. 1 tablespoonful of sour apples chopped fine.

1/2 teaspoonful sage. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 1/4 teaspoonful pepper.

Roast Tame Duck

Singe, clean, remove the crop, oil bag, legs, entrails. Stuff, truss and dredge with flour, salt and pepper. After they have been in a hot oven for ten minutes, add a little hot water to the pan, and baste often. Roast thirty minutes, if liked rare, and forty-five minutes, well done. Stuff with a potato or bread stuffing, or with celery and apples. Serve with an olive or bread sauce.

Oyster Stuffing

2 cups of oysters. 1 cup bread crumbs. 1 teaspoonful salt.

1/4 teaspoonful pepper.

1 tablespoonful lemon juice.

Pick over and wash the oysters. Mix with the crumbs and seasonings, and stuff any kind of poultry. Turkeys are the best stuffed with oysters.

Chestnut Stuffing

Cut a cross in the shells of one quart of the large chestnuts. Place them in a pan with a teaspoonful of butter and bake in a hot oven until the shells break open. The skin will come off with the shell. Remove from the shell and cook in boiling water with one-half teaspoonful salt until tender. While hot, mash a few at a time through a colander or potato press. Season with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, salt and pepper, and moisten with one-half cup of stock.