Ballotines Of Larks

Bone the required quantity of larks, fill them with chicken forcemeat, place a truffle turned to a ball shape into each bird, and fold them round it. Tie each lark up in a small cloth and braise it in Madeira and mirepoix. Place a bed of mashed potatoes on a hot dish, take the cloth off the larks, arrange them over the center of the bed, reduce some Spanish sauce with essence of lark, pour it over the larks, and serve.

Broiled Larks

Truss and prepare the required quantity of larks; brush over with beaten eggs, sprinkle with plenty of breadcrumbs, place them on a gridiron, and broil over a very clear fire. Lay some slices of bread on a hot dish, dress the larks on them, pour a little rich brown gravy around, and serve.

Larks In Cases

Pluck, singe, draw, and bone the larks; stuff each bird with a mixture composed of three parts minced white flesh of cooked chicken and one part ham and raw bacon seasoned with chopped sage, salt and pepper, and a small quantity of pounded mace. Butter as many paper cases as there are birds, spread a layer of the same forcemeat in each, place the birds in the cases, place a slice of bacon over each, and bake in a moderate oven. When it is cooked remove the bacon, pour a small quantity of rich gravy and a few drops of lemon juice in each case, stand them on a hot dish over which has been placed a fancy-edged dish-paper, garnish with parsley and cut lemons, and serve.

Lark Patties

Clean and bone the required quantity of larks, open and season them slightly; mix some forcemeat with a little chopped truffles, place a little in each lark and roll them up in a round shape. Line some small pie-moulds with short paste, put a layer of forcemeat at the bottom of each mould, then the larks, spread another thin layer of forcemeat on the top, cover the patties with short paste, pinching the edges to make them stick, egg the tops, then put a round of puff paste on each. Egg the tops once more and place the patties in a hot oven to bake for twenty minutes. When they are cooked cut off the covers and pour in one tablespoonful of Spanish sauce, reduced with a little essence of lark, place the covers on again, and serve while they are hot.

Larks, Portuguese Style

Singe, clean, bone and cut the wings and legs off one dozen larks, place the bones and trimmings in a stewpan with a small carrot and a small onion cut into slices a bay leaf, a few cloves, a bunch of parsley, and cover the bottom of the stewpan with some sherry wine; allow this to reduce, then moisten with good gravy; let all simmer gently for an hour, then strain it. Prepare a chicken forcemeat and place it in a biscuit bag, also have cooked a dozen small black truffles, as round as possible, and no larger than an olive. Stuff the larks with the forcemeat and put in the center of them a small round truffle, roll the larks very neatly and wrap each in a piece of muslin, and tie with a string. Put them into a stewpan with some bacon over the bottom, and pour in a little strong gravy as above, and bake them in a hot oven for thirty minutes. Meanwhile prepare and cook one dozen mushrooms, take half a pint of Spanish sauce and place it in a sautepan with the same quantity of tomato sauce, six tablespoonfuls of gravy and a little essence of lark, reduced to half-glaze. Shape the mushrooms with a plain round cutter, arrange them in a sautepan, unwrap and place one on each lark, sticking them with the remains of the chicken forcemeat, cover and place in the oven for a few minutes. Sauce them, dress them on a plain border made from chicken forcemeat or mashed potatoes, and pile in the center some rice cooked with white stock. Put a little of the sauce over the larks, and serve the remainder in a sauceboat.

Roasted Larks

Clean and prepare the larks, tie them up in thin slices of fat bacon and then in vine leaves, and roast in front of a clear fire, basting frequently with butter and turning the spit very rapidly. Serve hot.

Lark Scallops On A Croustade

Cut the fillets from about fifteen larks; place them in a sautepan with a piece of butter, dust with salt and pepper and fry them. When cooked, drain and let them cool. Slice the same quantity of truffles as there are larks. Reduce some partridge chaurroid sauce with a little essence of larks and mix it with the cooked fillets of larks and the sliced truffles. Prepare a fried bread croustade, put it on a hot dish, arrange the scollops on it in the shape of a pyramid, garnish the dish with croutons of aspic jelly, and serve.