Take a Pike, scoure off the slime, take out the Entralls, Lard it with the backs of Pickled Herrings, you must have a sharp Bodkin to make the holes, no Larding pins will go thorow, then take some great Oysters, Claret Wine, season it with Pepper, Salt, and Nutmeg, stuff the belly of the Pike with these Oysters, intermix with them Rosemary, Tyme, Winter-Savory, sweet Marjoram, a little Onyon and Garlick, sow these in the belly of the Pike, prepare two sticks about the breadth of a Lath, these two sticks and the Spit must be as broad as the Pike being tyed on the Spit, tye the Pike on, winding Pack-thread about the Pike along, but there must be tyed by the Pack-thred all a long the side of the pike which is not defended by the spit, and the Lathes Rosemary and Bayes, bast the Pike with Butter and Claret-Wine, with some Anchoves dissolved in it, when it is wasted, rip up the belly of the Pike and the Oyster will be the same, but the Herbs which are whole must be taken out.
Cut open the heart, and (having removed the ventricles) soak it in cold water to free it from the blood, Parboil it about ten minutes. Prepare, a force-meat of grated bread crumbs, butter or minced suet, sweet marjoram and parsley chopped fine, a little grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, and salt to your taste, and some yolk of egg to bind the ingredients. Stuff the heart with the force-meat, and secure the opening by tying a string around it. Put it on a spit, and roast it till it is tender throughout. Add to the gravy a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a glass of red wine. Serve up the heart very hot in a covered dish. It chills immediately. Eat currant jelly with it. Boiled beef's heart is frequently used in mince pies.
Lard your meat with bacon through, but slant-way; half roast it; take it off the spit, and put it in a small pot as will boil it; two quarts of strong broth, a pint of white-wine, some vinegar, whole spice, bay-leaves, green onions, savoury, sweet-marjoram; when 'tis stew'd enough, make sauce of some of the liquor, mushrooms, lemon cut like dice, two or three anchovies: thicken it with browned butter. Garnish with lemon.
Procure a nice hind-quarter, remove some of the fat that is around the kidney, skewer the lower joint up to the fillet, place it in a moderate oven, let it heat through slowly, then dredge it with salt and flour; quicken the fire, put half a pint of water into the dripping-pan, with a teaspoonful of salt. With this liquor baste the meat occasionally; serve with lettuce, green peas and mint sauce. A quarter of lamb weighing seven or eight pounds will require two hours to roast. A breast of lamb roasted is very sweet and is considered by many as preferable to hind-quarter. It requires nearly as long a time to roast as the quarter, and should be served in the same manner. Make the gravy from the drippings, thickened with flour. The mint sauce is made as follows: Take fresh, young spearmint leaves stripped from stems; wash and drain them or dry on a cloth, chop very fine, put in a gravy tureen, and to three tablespoonfuls of mint add two of finely powdered cut-loaf sugar; mix, and let it stand a few minutes, then pour over it six tablespoonfuls good cider or white-wine vinegar. The sauce should be made some time before dinner, so that the flavor of the mint may be well extracted.
Wash a quart of ripe cranberries, and put them into a pan with about a wine-glass of water. Stew them slowly, and stir them frequently, particularly after they begin to burst. They require a great deal of stewing, and should be like a marmalade when done. Just before you take them from the fire, stir in a pound of brown sugar. When they are thoroughly done, put them into a deep dish, and set them away to get cold. You may strain the pulp through a cullender or sieve into a mould, and when it is in a firm shape send it to table on a glass dish. Taste it when it is cold, and if not sweet enough, add more sugar. Cranberries require more sugar than any other fruit, except plums. Cranberry sauce is eaten with roast turkey, roast fowls, and roast ducks.
One pound soft wheat bread, 3 ounces beef suet, 3 eggs, a little sweet thyme, sweet marjoram, pepper and salt, and some add a gill of wine; fill the bird therewith and sew up, hang down to a steady solid fire, basting frequently with salt and water, and roast until a steam emits from the breast, put one third of a pound of butter into the gravy, dust flour over the bird and baste with the gravy; serve up with boiled onions and cramberry-sauce, mangoes, pickles or celery. 2. Others omit the sweet herbs, and add parsley done with potatoes. 3. Boil and mash 3 pints potatoes, wet them with butter, add sweet herbs, pepper, salt, fill and roast as above.
Make a force-meat of grated bread, and minced onion and sage, pepper, salt, and beaten yolk of egg; mix it well, and spread it all over the inside of the pork. Then roll up the meat, and with a sharp knife score it round in circles, rubbing powdered sage into the cuts. Tie a buttered twine round the roll of meat so as to keep it together in every direction. Put a hook through one end, and roast the pork before a clear brisk fire, moistening the skin occasionally with butter. Or you may bake it in a Dutch oven. It is a good side dish. Thicken the gravy with a little flour, and flavour it with a glass of wine. Have currant jelly to eat with it. It should be delicate young pork.
My readers have probably tasted a shoulder of kid dressed as mutton. Let them therefore try the converse of the dish, and, if they really take trouble with it, they will have a dinner of the most delicious. Put into a deep dish that will hold your shoulder of mutton the following mixture: A cupful each of oil, vinegar, white wine, red wine, an onion stuffed with cloves, a bunch of herbs which must be fresh ones--thyme, parsley, marjoram, sage, a tiny bit of mint, a few bay-leaves--two medium carrots cut in slices. Put the shoulder of mutton in this mixture and keep it there for four days, turning it every now and then and pouring the mixture on it. On the fifth day take it out, and, if you care to take the trouble, you will improve it by larding the meat here and there. Put it to roast in front of a good fire, with your liquor, which serves to baste it with, in a pan beneath. If you cannot arrange to hang the mutton by a string to turn like a roasting jack, then bake it, and continually baste it. A small shoulder is most successful. For one of four pounds bake for fifty minutes.
The fowls for this purpose should be young and fine. You may either boil or roast them. They must be quite cold. Having removed all the skin and fat, and disjointed the fowls cut the meat from the bones into very small pieces, not exceeding an inch. Wash and split two large fine heads of celery, and cut the white part into pieces also about an inch long; and having mixed the chicken and celery together, put them into a deep china dish, cover it and set it away. It is best not to prepare the dressing till just before the salad is to be eaten, that it may be as fresh as possible. Have ready the yolks of eight hard-boiled eggs. Put them into a flat dish, and mash them to a paste with the back of a wooden spoon. Add to the egg a small tea-spoonful of fine salt, the same quantity of cayenne pepper, half a jill of made mustard, a jill or a wine-glass and a half of vinegar, and rather more than two wine-glasses of sweet oil. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly; stirring them a long time till they are quite smooth. The dressing should not be put on till a few minutes before the salad is sent in; as by lying in it the chicken and celery will become tough and hard. After you pour it on, mix the whole well together with a silver fork. Chicken salad should be accompanied with plates of bread and butter, and a plate of crackers. It is a supper dish, and is brought in with terrapin, oysters, &c. Cold turkey is excellent prepared as above. An inferior salad may be made with cold fillet of veal, instead of chickens. Cold boiled lobster is very fine cut up and drest in this manner, only substituting for celery, lettuce cut up and mixed with the lobster.
After the ducks are drawn, wipe out the inside with a clean cloth, and prepare your stuffing. Mince very fine some green sage leaves, and twice their quantity of onion, (which should first be parboiled,) and add a little butter, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. Mix the whole very well, and fill the crops and bodies of the ducks with it, leaving a little space for the stuffing to swell. Reserve the livers, gizzards, and hearts to put in the gravy. Tie the bodies of the ducks firmly round with strings, (which should be wetted or buttered to keep them from burning,) and put them on the spit before a clear brisk fire. Baste them first with a little salt and water, and then with their own gravy, dredging them lightly with flour at the last. They will be done in about an hour. After boiling the livers, gizzards and hearts, chop them, and put them into the gravy; having first skimmed it, and thickened it with a little browned flour. Send to table with the ducks a small tureen of onion-sauce with chopped sage leaves in it. Accompany them also with stewed cranberries and green peas. Canvas-back ducks are roasted in the same manner, omitting the stuffing. They will generally be done enough in three quarters of an hour. Send currant jelly to table with them, and have heaters to place under the plates. Add to the gravy a little cayenne, and a large wine-glass of claret or port. Other wild ducks and teal may be roasted in about half an hour. Before cooking soak them all night in salt and water, to draw out whatever fishy or sedgy taste they may happen to have, and which may otherwise render them uneatable. Then early in the morning put them in fresh water (without salt,) changing it several times before you spit them. You may serve up with wild ducks, &c. orange-sauce, which is made by boiling in a little water two large sweet oranges cut into slices, having first removed the rind. When the pulp is all dissolved, strain and press it through a sieve, and add to it the juice of two more oranges, and a little sugar. Send it to table either warm or cold.
