Dressed Game and Poultry a la Mode Part 3

Grouse Souffle.

Take the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of two grouse already cooked, pound them in a mortar with two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter and a very small piece of onion. Pa.s.s them through a sieve, add four eggs, beat the whites to a stiff froth, season with a little salt and dust of cayenne. Place it in a souffle dish, and bake it in a quick oven.

Timbale of Grouse a la Vitellius.

Simmer a slice of tongue in a stewpan till nearly cooked. Cut it up into fine dice, and put it back into the saucepan with four truffles, four tomatoes, and an ounce of b.u.t.ter; add a little cornflour to thicken it.

Moisten with half a pint of stock and a gill of claret. Reduce this, skim off all the fat; then add some finely-minced grouse, a sprig of parsley, and six anchovies which have been soaked in milk. Warm these over a slow fire, but do not let them boil; when done, pour into a fancy mould lined with light puff paste. Bake, turn out, and serve very hot, garnished with crisped parsley.

To Cook Hare.

The great object in cooking a hare is to keep it as moist as possible, and therefore the hare must not be put too close to the fire in the first stage of roasting. Prepare a stuffing of quarter of a pound of beef suet, chopped finely, two ounces of uncooked ham, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and two teaspoonfuls of dried mixed savoury herbs; add to this a quarter of the rind of a lemon, chopped very fine, a dust of cayenne pepper, salt, five ounces of breadcrumbs, and two whole eggs.

Pound this in the mortar. The liver may be minced and pounded in with these ingredients if fresh. Place the stuffing in the hare, and place at a distance from the fire; have plenty of dripping melted in the dripping pan, and basting should go on and be continued from the very first. Then as the hare is getting on, baste with good milk, and then baste well with b.u.t.ter; put the hare near the fire so as to froth the b.u.t.ter, and at the same time dredge the hare with some flour, so as to get a good brown colour, and serve good rich gravy _round_ it with half a gla.s.s of port wine in a tureen, and currant jelly should be handed with it.

Hare Cutlets a la Chef.

Take a freshly-killed hare, save the blood, paunch and skin it. Roast it, then cut off the fillets and cut them aslant and flatten them. Put the bones of the hare into a saucepan with two onions sliced, one good-sized carrot, a tiny piece of garlic, two cloves, and a bouquet garni, and one bayleaf. Moisten with a gla.s.s of white wine, and let all this steep and stew for an hour; then pa.s.s through a sieve, add a quarter of a boiled Spanish onion, and thicken with the blood of the hare. Make some hare stuffing, and moisten with some of the sauce, and make it into cutlets. To form cutlets similar to the fillet cutlets, place them in a frying-pan, and let them poach in water. Place the hare fillets and the stuffing cutlets in the pan and fry to a good colour in clarified b.u.t.ter. Put a small piece of the small bones of the hare in every cutlet and dish them in a crown. Fill the centre with a mixture of small onions, mushrooms, and small pieces of bacon, cut into dice which have been stewed in some of the sauce. Hand red currant jelly with this dish.

Hare en Daube.

French Recipe.

The hare must not be too high; cut it into pieces as for jugged hare.

Rub into a stewpan a bit of bacon cut into squares; put the hare into it, together with thyme, bayleaf, spices, salt, pepper, and as much garlic as will go on the point of a knife. Add a little bacon rind blanched and cut into the shape of lozenges. When the whole has a uniform colour, moisten with a good gla.s.s of white wine, put on a close lid, and stew for four hours upon hot cinders. When ready to be served, pour away the lard, the spice, and the fat, and add a little essence of ham, and send to table hot.

Hare Derrynane Fas.h.i.+on.

Take three or four eggs, a pint of new milk, a couple of handfuls of flour, three yolks. Make them into a batter, and when the hare is roasting baste it well, repeating the operation till the batter thickens and forms a coating all over the hare. This should be allowed to brown but not to burn.

Filet de Lievre a la Muette.

Cut a hare into fillets and stew them with a mince of chickens' livers, truffles, shalots in a rich brown gravy with a tumblerful of champagne in it.

Gateaux de Lievre.

Mince the best parts of a hare with a little mutton suet. Season the mince highly with herbs and good stock. Pound it in a mortar with some red currant jelly and make up into small cakes with raw eggs. Flour and fry them and dish them in a pyramid.

Hare a la Matanzas.

Paunch, skin, and clean a hare marinaded in vinegar for a couple of days with four onions sliced, three shalots, a couple of sprigs of parsley, pepper and salt. After two days take the hare out and drain it. Farce it with a stuffing made of the flesh of a chicken, three whole eggs, the liver, and a slice of bacon, all finely chopped, mixed and seasoned with pepper, salt, and a bouquet garni. Now put the hare in a stewpan with slices of bacon all over it, some sliced carrots, two onions stuck with cloves, and half a pint of consomme. Put some live coals on the lid of the saucepan and let it cook for three hours.

Hare a la Mode.

Skin the hare and cut it up in into joints and lard with fine fillets of bacon; place in an earthenware pot, with some slices of salt pork, chopped bacon, salt, mixed spice, a piece of b.u.t.ter, and half a pint of port wine; lay two or three sheets of b.u.t.tered paper over it; fix on the lid tightly and simmer over a slow fire. When nearly done, stir in the blood, boil up and serve.

Jugged Hare.

Have a wide-mouthed stone jar, and put into it some good brown gravy free from fat. Next cut up the hare into neat joints; fry these joints in a little b.u.t.ter to brown them a little. Have the jar made hot by placing it in the oven, and have a cloth ready to tie over its mouth.

Put the joints already browned into the jar, and let it stand for fifteen minutes on the dresser. After this has stood some time untie the jar and add the gravy, with a dust of cinnamon, six cloves, two bayleaves, and the juice of half a lemon. The gravy should have onion made in it, and should be thickened with a little arrowroot. A winegla.s.sful of port should be added, and a good spoonful of red currant jelly should be dissolved in it. Next place the jar up to its neck in a large saucepan of boiling water, only taking care the jar is well tied down. Let it remain in the boiling water from an hour to an hour and a half. Stuffing b.a.l.l.s, made with the same as the stuffing for roast hare, rolled into small b.a.l.l.s the size of marbles and thrown into boiling fat, should be served with it.

To Roast Landrail.

This bird should be trussed like a snipe, and roasted quickly at a brisk but not a fierce fire for about fifteen or sixteen minutes. It should be dished on fried breadcrumbs, and gravy served in a tureen.

Croustade of Larks.

Bone two dozen larks, season, and put into each a piece of pate de foie gras (truffled). Roll the larks up into a ball, put them in a pudding basin, season them with salt and pepper, and pour three ounces of clarified b.u.t.ter over them, and bake in a hot oven for a quarter of an hour. Dish them in a fried bread croustade, made by cutting the crust from a stale loaf about eight inches long, which must be scooped out in the centre and fried in hot lard or b.u.t.ter till it is a good brown.

Drain it, and then place it in the centre of a dish, sticking it there with a little white of egg. Put it into the oven to get hot; then put the larks into it, and let it get cold. Garnish with truffles and aspic jelly.

Larks a la Macedoine.

Take a dozen larks, fill them with forcemeat made of livers, a little veal and fat bacon, a dessertspoonful of sweet herbs; pepper and salt to taste, and pound all well together in a mortar, and then stuff the birds with it. Lay the larks into a deep dish, pour over them a pint of good gravy, and bake in a moderate oven for a quarter of an hour. Have a pyramid of mashed potatoes ready, and arrange the larks round it, and garnish with a macedoine of mixed vegetables.

Lark Pie.

Pluck, singe, and flatten the backs of two dozen larks, pound the trail and livers in a mortar with sc.r.a.ped bacon and a little thyme, stuff the larks with this, and wrap each in a slice of fat bacon. Line a plain mould with paste, fill it with the larks, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, spread b.u.t.ter all over them, and add two small bayleaves; cover with paste, and bake for two hours and a quarter. Can be eaten hot or cold. It must be turned out of the mould.

Salmi of Larks a la Macedoine, cold.

Take a dozen larks, bone and stuff them with pate de foie gras, and make them as nearly as possible of the same size and shape. Make half a pint of brown sauce, adding a gla.s.s of sherry, a little mushroom ketchup, and an ounce of glaze; boil together, and reduce one half, adding a couple of spoonfuls of tomato juice; pa.s.s through a sieve, and, when nearly cold, add a gill of melted aspic. Mask the larks, and place them in a saute pan, and cook them; take them out and remove neatly any surplus sauce, and dish them in the entree dish in a circle. Take the contents of a tin of macedoine of vegetables boiled tender in a quart of water, add a dust of salt, a saltspoonful of sugar, and a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a walnut; strain off, and, when cold, toss them in two tablespoonfuls of liquid aspic jelly. This macedoine should be piled up high and served in the centre. Garnish with chopped aspic round the larks, and sippets of aspic beyond this.

Lark Puffs.

Make some puff paste, and take half a dozen larks, and brown them in a stewpan with a little b.u.t.ter; then take them out and drain them, and put into the body of each bird a small lump of fresh b.u.t.ter, a little piece of truffle, pepper and salt, and a tablespoonful of thick cream. Truss each lark, and wrap it in a slice of fat bacon; cover it with puff paste rolled out to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, and shape it neatly; put the puffs in a b.u.t.tered tin, and bake in a brisk oven for ten minutes.

Leveret a la Minute.

Skin, draw, and cut a leveret into joints; toss in a saucepan with b.u.t.ter, salt, pepper, and a bouquet garni. When nearly cooked, add some chopped mushrooms, eschalots, parsley, a tablespoonful of flour, a gill of stock, and a gill of claret; as soon as it boils, pour into a dish and serve.

Leveret a la Noel.