Roast Duck. Stuff the duck with a stuffing prepared as follows:—Take two or three onions, say six ounces, cut them in slices with six or eight sage leaves, blanch both for five minutes; drain and bhop them fine; put the whole in a stewpan with one ounce of butter, two pinches of salt, and two small pinches of pepper; simmer gently for ten minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon; add a handful of bread-crumbs, and stir for two minutes more; the stuffing is then ready for use ; an apple mixed with the stuffing is thought by some to he an improvement. Truss the duck, and put it down to roast before a very hot fire. A young duck, a good fire, and occa sional basting are necessary.
Roast Goose. A goose weighing six or eight pounds is to be preferred. Pick, draw, singe and wipe, and stuff it with stuffing as for roast -duck. Sprinkle with a little salt, baste fre •quently, skim off all the fat, strain the gravy and serve separately or on the dish, as preferred. It is essential that the goose should be young, and roasted before a good fire, hut not a fierce one. Try the pinion, and if the lower part of the beak breaks easily, the goose or duck is young.
Roast Fowl. Pick, draw, wipe, singe and truss a fowl. Unless stuffed, an onion inside and a piece of butter are thought to be an improvement. Tie a rasher of fat bacon over the breast and put the fowl before a bright, clear fire, then roast slowly, with occasional basting. When ready, strain the gravy and pour it under the fowl. Garnish with watercresses. A young fowl is essential, which may be known by the large size of its feet and knee joints, and the smallness of the spurs. Try the pinions aud breast. Baste occasionally.
Roast Turkey. l'repare a turkey; one of about six or seven pounds is to be preferred. Put the turkey before a good fire and roast till of a golden color. Skim off the fat, strain the gravy, and garnish with watercresses. It is necessary to have a young turkey with white flesh. Avoid one with long hairs and flesh inclined to a violet tinge.
Boiled Leg of Mutton. Cut off the shank, wipe it, put it into a, clean saucepan or stewpan with plenty of lukewarm water, and let it come slowly to the boil; skim when necessary. For a leg of eight pounds, let it simmer for two hours. The mutton should be well done, but not overdone, it should retain all the juices and look plump; when the meat is not very white it is sometimes blanched for ten minutes in hot water or wrapped in a floured cloth. A few minutes before it is ready add half a teaspoonful of salt Wether mutton, four or five years old, _is the best both for boiling or roasting; for boiling it is a whiter color if cooked fresh, but more tender if kept four or five days. Serve
with boiled turnips, and caper sauce not poured over it, but served in a boat. Skimming and simmering are necessary, or the meat will be hard and tough.
A Fricasee of Fowl. To prepare a fricas6e of chicken, which may be slightly varied from the following recipe, is one of the best examples of good English cooking. Draw, pick, wash and singe a chicken, cut off the head and legs at the first joint and the wings at the second. In singeing be careful not to break, burn or blacken the fowl. It is necessary to singe all fowls; it not only destroys the small down but tightens the skin. Put the chicken into a clean three quart stewpan with sufficient warm water to cover it; add one onion with a clove, a little salt and a bunch of parsley. Skim when neces sary. Let it boil for ten minutes, remove it to sieve and let it drain for three minutes. With the liquor in which the chicken was boiled pre pare a sauce by adding two ounces of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour, and thoroughly stir. Prepare and blanch for five minutes a dozen mushrooms, in just sufficient water to cover them; add the juice of half a lemon. Strain into the sauce and put the mushrooms aside; be careful that they are not broken. Neatly cut up the fowl into ten pieces, keeping the skin on each piece, and finish cooking the pieces in the sauce, which will take from twenty to twenty five minutes. Arrange them neatly on a dish, strain over them the sauce and garnish with the mushrooms. Four crayfish make a good gar nish, or croutons of bread fried in butter. It is necessary to have a young fowl, and it must not remain in the sauce longer than is necessary for cooking.
Boiled Fowl. Neatly truss and prepare a fowl; be careful not to break the skin in picking, and wrap it in a sheet of white buttered paper, put it into a clean stewpan or saucepan with plenty of lukewarm water, and let it just boil, skim, and in fifteen minutes turn the fowl over for another fifteen minutes, and for a fowl of about three pounds this will be sufficient. Young fowls and all poultry will be the better for being kept two or three days before boiling. Serve with a white sauce, or bechamel sauce, or parsley and butter, according to taste. Choose a young fowl with white or pale-colored legs. Occasional skim ming is necessary.