Canvasback And Redhead Ducks

Pick, singe, draw them, leaving on the head. Cut an opening to remove the crop, and through it draw the head and neck, letting the head come out at the back between the drumsticks. Tie firmly in place. With a bowl of cold water wipe out the inside and outside. Cut off the wing at the second joint. Sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper, dredge the outside with flour, salt and pepper, and cover with thin strips of salt pork. Put inside of the duck a teaspoonful of currant jelly, a sour apple, quartered and cored, or a couple of sticks of celery, cut in pieces. Place in the baking pan with a little hot water, and bake in a very hot oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Wild ducks should be served rare and very hot. Serve fried hominy and currant jelly with the ducks.

The canvasbacks have a purple head and silver breast and are in season from September to May. The redhead is often taken for it.

Salmi Of Duck Or Game

Cut the game in small pieces, put them in a hot oven for five minutes to start the juices. Put in a sauce pan two tablespoonfuls of butter, one-fourth pound of salt pork cut in dice, one tablespoonful of onion and carrot chopped fine, one-fourth teaspoonful each of salt, sage and one bay leaf, ten peppercorns. Cook for ten minutes, stirring often, then add one tablespoonful of flour; let it brown, then add two cupfuls of brown stock. Cook very slowly for thirty minutes, strain, add one-fourth cup of madeira and the pieces of game, cover and cook slowly for forty minutes, garnish with croutons and truffles. The truffles should be added five minutes before the salmi is done. Cooked game can be used. Simmer only for ten minutes after it is added to the sauce.

Larded Grouse

Draw, wipe clean, inside and out, lard the breast, and truss. Rub with softened butter, dredge with flour, salt and pepper. Roast for twenty-five minutes. Serve with bread or olive sauce.

Potted Pigeons

Clean and truss them, dredge with flour, salt and pepper. Place them in a stew pan on slices of bacon, the breasts up. Add a carrot and onion cut in dice. Cover with stock or hot water. Let them simmer until they are tender. Serve each pigeon on a thin slice of buttered toast. Make a gravy and pour around them. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, stir into it one of flour, gradually stir in the liquor and vegetables left in the boiler, season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roast Pigeons Or Squabs

To roast they should be young. Draw, clean and truss them, tie thin slices of bacon or salt pork over the breasts, dredge with flour, put a small piece of butter inside. Roast from fifteen to twenty minutes, baste with butter, and a very little hot water. Or they can be split down the back, and covered with slices of pork or pieces of butter, dredged with flour and roasted in the oven. Serve on slices of toast, garnish with parsley, shoe string, French-fried or Saratoga potatoes.