A Poetical Cook-Book
[56]

BIRDS.

TO ROAST PHEASANTS.

Little birds fly about with the true pheasant taint, And the geese are all born with the liver56-* complaint. Moore.

Moore.

Chop some fine raw oysters, omitting the head part, mix them with salt and nutmeg, and add some beaten yolk of egg to bind the other ingredients. Cut some very thin slices of cold ham or bacon, and cover the birds with them, then wrap them in sheets of paper well buttered, put them on the spit, and roast them before a clear fire.

TO ROAST ORTOLANS.

With all the luxury of statesmen dine, On daily feasts of ortolans and wine. Cawthorn.

Cawthorn.

Put into every bird an oyster, or a little butter[57] mixed with some finely sifted breadcrumbs. Dredge them with flour. Run a small skewer through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with lard or fresh butter. They will be done in ten minutes. Reed birds are very fine made into little dumplings with a thin crust of flour and butter, and boiled about twenty minutes. Each must be tied in a separate cloth.

[57]

WOODCOCKS.

And as for your juries—who would not set o’er them A jury of tasters, with woodcocks before them? Moore.

Moore.

Woodcocks should not be drawn, as the trail is by the lovers of “haut gout” considered a “bonne bouche.” Truss their legs close to the body, and run an iron skewer through each thigh, and put them to roast before the fire; toast a slice of bread for each bird, lay them in the dripping-pan under the bird to catch the trail; baste them with butter, and froth them with flour; lay the toast on a hot dish, and the birds on the toast; pour some good beef gravy into the dish, and send some up in a boat. Twenty or thirty minutes will roast them. Some epicures like this bird very much underdone, and direct that the woodcock should be just introduced to the cook, for her to show it to the fire, then 
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