From the 1905 book, New England Cookbook distributed “Compliments of Metropolitan Coal Company,” Boston.
EDITORS NOTE: We begin with currently popular turkey and chicken recipes then move on to game which you may not consider popular in current time. Perhaps you need to sharpen you hunting skills or maybe some game was available commercially. The recipes were chosen from 31 given in the book. RECIPES. Roast Turkey.—A young turkey, weighing not more than eight or nine pounds, is the best. Wash and clean thoroughly, wiping dry, as moisture will spoil the stuffing.
Take one small loaf of bread grated fine, rub into it a piece of butter the size of an egg, one small teaspoonful of pepper and one of salt; a sprinkling of sweet marjoram, summer savory, or sage, if liked. Rub all together, and fill the turkey, sewing up so that the stuffing cannot cook out.
Always put the giblets under the side of the fowl, so they will not dry up.
Rub salt, pepper, and butter on the outside; put into dripping-pan with one teacupful of water, basting often, turning the fowl till brown all over; bake about two hours; take out the giblets and chop fine.
After taking out the turkey, put a large tablespoonful of flour into the pan and stir until brown. Put the giblets into a gravyboat, and pour over them the gravy.
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Broiled Chicken.—Only young, tender chickens are nice broiled. After cleaning and washing them, split down the back, wipe dry, season with salt and pepper, and lay them inside down on a hot gridiron over a bed of bright coals. Broil until nicely browned and well cooked through, watching and turning to prevent burning.
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Potted Pigeon.—Clean the birds and then stuff them with a dressing proportioned in following recipe.
Sew them up and truss them;
- boil them for half an hour with just water enough, to cover them; take them out and drain;
- roll in flour and fry brown in pork fat;
- make a gravy out of the liquid in which they were boiled, thickened with flour and seasoned to taste;
- let the pigeons simmer in this gravy for two hours.
Serve with the gravy.
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Poultry Dressing.—Toast eight slices of white bread;
- place in a deep dish,
- add butter the size of an egg,
- cover with hot water to melt butter and make bread of right consistency;
- add one even teaspoonful of Bell’s Spiced Seasoning and one even teaspoonful of salt;
- mix well and stir in one or two raw eggs. | | | | |  | | | | | ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Fried Chicken.—Prepare the chicken as for stewing;
- dry it, season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour,
- fry brown in hot butter or lard.
Take it out, drain, and serve with Challenge Sauce, or some other savory condiment …
… OR … pour into the gravy left in the frying-pan a cup of milk, thicken with flour, add a little butter, and season with Salpicant; boil once and pour over the chicken, or serve separately.
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Pressed Chicken.—Boil three chickens until the meat comes off the bones; then, removing all bones and skin, chop the meat, but do not chop very fine;
- add a piece of butter as large as an egg;
- salt and pepper to season well.
Take about a pint of the broth in which the chickens were boiled, into which put one-half a box of Swampscott Sparkling Gelatine.
When the gelatine has dissolved, put back the chopped chicken and cook until the broth is evenly absorbed.
Pour the whole into a mould or pan and press under a weight until cold.
When ready, serve with sliced hard-boiled eggs and garnish with parsley, water-cress or sliced lemon. Veal may be treated in a similar manner.
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Jellied Chicken.—Cook a chicken in boiling water until tender, remove skin and bones, and season to taste, and place in mould.
Place the bones back in the liquid and boil until there is about one quart of liquid left.
Add one-quarter box Swampscott Sparkling Gelatine and the juice of one lemon; salt and pepper to taste; strain over the chicken and stand in cool place to harden.
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Roast Goose and Duck.—A goose should always be parboiled, as it removes the rank taste and makes it more palatable. Clean, prepare, and roast the same as turkey, only adding to the force-meat a large onion chopped fine.
Ducks do not require parboiling (unless very old), otherwise they are cooked the same as geese.
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Canvas-back Duck.—Having picked, singed, and drawn it well, wipe it carefully, so as to have it clean without washing.
Truss it, leaving the head on, to show its quality.
Place it in a moderately hot oven for at least three-quarters of an hour.
Serve it hot, in its own gravy, on a large chafing-dish. Currant jelly should be on the table. | | | | |  | | | | | ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Roast Pigeons.—Clean, wash, and stuff the same as poultry; lay them in rows in a dripping-pan with a little water.
Unless they are very fat, baste with butter until they are half done, afterward with their own gravy.
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Roast Snipe.—Clean and truss, but do not stuff.
Lay in rows in the dripping-pan, sprinkle with salt, and baste well with butter, then with butter and water.
When they begin to brown, cut as many slices of bread as there are birds.
Toast quickly, butter, and lay in the dripping-pan, a bird upon each.
When the birds are done, serve upon the toast, with the gravy poured over it. The toast should lie under them while cooking at least five minutes, during which time the birds should be basted with melted butter seasoned with pepper.
The largest snipe will not require above twenty minutes to roast.
Or, dip an oyster in melted butter, then in bread-crumbs, seasoned with pepper and salt, and put in each bird before roasting. Small birds are especially delicious cooked in this way.
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Roast Partridges, Pheasants, or Quails.—Pluck, singe, draw, and truss them; season with salt and pepper; roast for about half an hour in a brisk oven, basting often with butter.
When done, place on a dish together with bread-crumbs fried brown and arranged in small heaps. Gravy should be served separately in a tureen.
Quail on Toast.—Clean, wash, slit down the back, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and lay them on a gridiron, the inside down. Broil slowly; when nicely browned, butter well.
Serve with cream gravy on toast. Omitting the cream, gravy, and toast, you have the ordinary broiled quail.
Pigeons, woodcock, and small birds may be broiled in the same manner, and are delicious and nourishing for invalids. | | | | |  | | | | | ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Fried Rabbit.—After the rabbit has been thoroughly cleaned and washed, put it into boiling water and let it boil for about ten minutes; drain, and when cold, cut it into joints; dip into beaten egg, and then into fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper.
When all are ready, fry them in butter over a moderate fire fifteen minutes; thicken the gravy with an ounce of butter and a small teaspoonful of flour. Serve hot.
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Roast Rabbit.—Dress nicely and fill with a dressing made of bread-crumbs, a little onion, sage, pepper, and salt, and a small piece of butter;
- tie a piece of salt pork over it;
- put into a dripping-pan with a little water in a quick oven;
- baste often.
Serve with currant jelly.
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Broiled Steaks of Venison.—Heat the gridiron, grease it well, lay on the steaks; broil quickly, without scorching, turning them two or three times; season with salt and pepper. Have butter melted in a well-heated platter, into which lay steaks, hot from the gridiron, turning them over several times in the butter, and serve hot with currant jelly on each steak. It is well to set the platter into another containing boiling water.
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Game or Poultry in Jelly.—Take a knuckle of veal weighing two pounds; a slice of lean ham; one shallot, minced; a sprig of thyme and one of parsley; six pepper-corns (white) and one teaspoonful of salt, with three pints of cold water.
Boil all these together until the liquor is reduced to a pint; strain without squeezing.
Set to cool until next day. It should then be a firm jelly.
Take off every particle of fat. Then take one package gelatine, soaked in one cupful cold water for three hours; one tablespoonful of sugar; two tablespoonfuls strained lemon juice, and two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly, dissolved in cold water, and strained through a muslin cloth.
Pour a quart of boiling water over the gelatine, stir for a moment, add the jellied “stock,” and when this is dissolved, add sugar, lemon juice, and coloring. Stir until all are mixed and melted together.
Strain without shaking or squeezing through a flannel bag until quite clear.
Have ready several hard-boiled eggs, and the remains of roast game, roast or boiled poultry, cut in neat, thin slices, and salted slightly.
Wet a mold with cold water, and when the jelly begins to harden, pour some in the bottom.
Cut the whites of the eggs in pretty shapes—stars, flowers, rings, leaves—with a keen penknife, and arrange these on the lowest stratum of jelly, which should be thin, that the forms may be visible.
Add more jelly, and on this lay slices of meat, close together. More jelly, and proceed in this order until the mold is full.
Set in a cool place to harden, and then turn out upon a flat dish. A mold with smooth, upright sides, is best for this purpose. | | | | |  | | | | | RECIPES INCIDENTAL TO POULTRY, GAME, ETC. Gravy for Poultry.—Boil the giblets very tender; chop fine; then take the liquor in which they are boiled, thicken with flour; season with salt, pepper, and a little butter; add the giblets and dripping in which the turkey was roasted.
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Potato Staffing.—Take two-thirds bread and one-third boiled potatoes grated, butter size of an egg, pepper, salt, one egg; mix thoroughly.
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Oyster Stuffing.—By substituting oysters for potatoes in the above, you have oyster filling. See also under “Boiled Turkey.”
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Capons.—Young male fowls, prepared by early gelding, and then nicely fattened, are the finest delicacies in the poultry line. They may be known by a small head, pale comb, which is short and withered, the neck feathers longer than usual, smooth legs, and soft, short spurs. They are cooked as ordinary chickens.
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Keeping Game.—Game is rendered more tender, and its flavor is improved by keeping. If wrapped in a cloth saturated with equal parts of pyroligneous acid and water, it will keep many days.
If in danger of tainting, clean, rub well with salt, and plunge into boiling water, letting it run through them for five minutes; then hang in a cold place.
If tainted, put them in new milk over night. Always hang them up by the neck.
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Duckling Pot Roast.—This is a very good way to cook this very acceptable bird.
Put into a shallow crock a thin strip of bacon and a tablespoonful of mixed whole spice.
Clean and truss two ducklings, put them in the crock, add hot water or soup-stock enough to come up half-way on the birds. Then add a sprig of celery and two of parsley;
- place a narrow strip of bacon over each bird;
- cover close and set the crock in a moderate oven, where the birds will cook slowly two hours.
Remove the ducklings, strain the sauce, and reduce it one-third by boiling;
- add a gill of dark wine;
- thicken with a dash of brown flour;
- simmer fifteen minutes;
- add a teaspoonful of lemon-juice and serve with the duck.
A small quantity of the sauce may be boiled down until thick as cream. This is called glaze; it is brushed over the bird before serving. —Thomas J. Murrey. | | | | |  | | | | | ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Fillet of Grouse.—Remove the breast and separate into four or six pieces. Disjoint and cook the remainder in boiling salted water to cover, till tender; then remove all the meat and chop it fine.
Thicken the broth (which should be reduced to half a cup), season, and moisten the meat.
Spread the minced meat on squares of toast; put a layer of currant jelly on each.
Rub the fillets with butter and broil them carefully; season with salt, pepper and butter, and lay them on the jelly.—THE PEERLESS COOKBOOK: Mrs. D. A. Lincoln. Roberts Brothers, Publishers.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: We add a couple of recipes from the fish/seafood section. Most of the other recipes in that section haven’t changed over time.
Broiled Shad.—Scrape, split, wash, and dry the shad on a cloth;
- season with pepper and salt;
- grease the gridiron well;
- as soon as it is hot lay the shad on to broil with the inside downward:
- one side being well browned, turn it.
It should broil a quarter of an hour or more, according to thickness. Butter well and send to table hot.
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Baked Shad.—Many people are of the opinion that the very best method of cooking a shad is to bake it.
Stuff it with bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, and parsley, and mix this up with beaten yolk of egg; fill the fish with it, and sew it up or fasten a string around it.
Pour over it a little water and some butter, and bake as you would a fowl. A shad will require from an hour to an hour and a quarter to bake.
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Terrapins.—Put the terrapins into a pot of boiling water, where they must remain until they are quite dead.
You then divest them of their outer skin and toe-nails; and, after washing them in warm water, boil them again until they become quite tender, adding a handful of salt to the water.
Having satisfied yourself of their being perfectly tender, take off the shells and clean the terrapins very carefully, removing the sandbag and gall without by any means breaking them.
Then cut the meat into small pieces and put into a saucepan, adding the juice which has been given out in cutting them up, but no water, and season with salt, cayenne, and black pepper to your taste, adding a quarter of a pound of good butter for each terrapin and a handful of flour for thickening.
After stirring a short time, add four or five tablespoonfuls of cream, and a half pint of good Maderia to every four terrapins, and serve hot in a deep dish. A very little mace may be added and a large tablespoonful of mustard.
Just before serving, add the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs.
During the stewing, particular attention must be paid to stirring the preparation frequently; and terrapins cannot possibly be served too hot.
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Mock Terrapin.—Take half a calf’s liver, season and fry it brown; chop it into dice, not too small; flour it thickly, and add a teaspoonful of mixed mustard, a little cayenne pepper, two hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, a lump of butter the size of an egg, and a teacupful of water.
Let it boil a minute or two. Cold veal will do as well as liver. | | | | |  | | | | | |