Trevor Dailey's Weblog

Rabbits, Hares and Squirrels

Choose rabbits with soft ears and paws—stiffness is a sign of age. Also, be sure that they are fresh and free from any unpleasant odor. Neither hares nor rabbits should be drawn before hanging, as they may become musty. In Winter, select a dry place for hanging, and they may remain for some time.

Dressing and Trussing

To skin and dress a rabbit, hare or squirrel, cut off the fore feet at the first joint, cut the skin around the first joint of the hind leg, loosen it and then with a sharp knife slit the skin on the under side of the leg at the tail. Loosen the skin and turn it back until it is removed from the hind legs. Tie the hind legs together and hang the rabbit to a hook by this fastening. Draw the skin over the head, slipping out the fore legs when they are reached. Cut off the head and thus remove the entire skin. Wipe with a damp cloth. Remove the entrails, saving heart and liver, and wipe carefully inside. If it requires washing inside, use water acidified with vinegar.

Before cooking, soak in tepid water for a time. If blood has settled in any part, cut with the point of a knife where it is black and soak in warm water; this will draw out the blood. Skewer firmly between the shoulders, draw the legs close to the body and fasten with skewers.

ROAST HARE OR RABBIT

Hare or rabbit
Salt and pepper
Butter

Wipe the hare or rabbit dry, fill it with good forcemeat or stuffing, sew up and firmly truss it. Season well with salt and pepper and roast. Baste well with beef-drippings, butter or other fat. A thin piece of beef-suet skin may be tied over the back for the first three-quarters of an hour and then removed. One and three-quarters hours is the full time for roasting a medium-sized hare at 500° F. for the first fifteen minutes and 350°F. for the rest of the time. Serve with brown gravy and currant jelly.

BROILED HARE OR RABBIT

Hare or rabbit
Salt and pepper
Butter

Skin and clean the rabbit or hare, wipe dry, split down the back, and pound flat; then wrap in oiled paper. Any tough white paper may be oiled. Place on a greased gridiron and broil over a clear, brisk fire, turning often. Remove the paper and serve on a hot platter, seasoned with plenty of salt, pepper and butter, turning over and over so it will take up the fat. The oiled paper is not essential but results in a juicier product.

FRIED HARE OR RABBIT

Hare or rabbit
Egg
Bread-crumbs
Flour
Milk or cream
Salt and pepper

Dress as directed and put into boiling water. Boil ten minutes and drain. When cold, cut into joints, dip into beaten egg, then in bread-crumbs and season with salt and pepper. Sauté in any good fat over a moderate fire. Thicken the gravy with the flour and pour in milk or cream, boil up once and pour over the rabbit. Garnish with sliced lemon.

HARE OR RABBIT SALMI

1 hare or rabbit
1 slice onion
1 stalk celery
1 bay-leaf
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons fat
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon "Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon capers
12 stoned olives
Chopped parsley

Clean and dress as directed and place in a baking-pan. Add onion, celery cut fine, and bay-leaf, brush with oil, then bake at 450° F. for thirty minutes. Lift the meat from the pan, add the fat and the flour and stir until a rich brown. Add hot water, stir well, and when smooth, add salt, Worcestershire sauce, capers and olives. Lay the meat again in the pan, cover closely and bake at 350°F. for thirty minutes. Dish the game, strain the sauce over the meat, arrange the olives as a garnish, sprinkle the whole with finely chopped parsley and serve.

HARE OR RABBIT EN CASSEROLE

Hare or rabbit
3 tablespoons fat
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Garlic, if liked

Rub the frying-pan with garlic, if it is not objectionable. Dress and cut up the rabbit and cook in the fat in a frying-pan until brown. Remove the meat from the pan, stir the flour into the fat, add two cups hot water, salt and pepper, and let it come to a boil, stirring it constantly. Place the meat in a baking-dish, pour the gravy over it, cover closely and bake in the oven or fireless cooker (350°F.) until tender.

If the garlic is not used, a teaspoon of currant jelly may be added to the gravy before serving.

ROAST SQUIRRELS

Squirrels
Salad oil
Lemon-juice or tarragon vinegar
1 cup bread-crumbs
Cream
1 cup button mushrooms
Pepper and salt
Onion-juice
Oil
Brown stock
Worcestershire sauce
Paprika

Clean the squirrels thoroughly, wash in several waters and cover with salad oil mixed with lemon-juice or tarragon vinegar. Let stand for an hour on a platter. Soak a cup of bread-crumbs in just enough cream to moisten them, add a cup of button mushrooms cut in dice, pepper, salt and onion-juice. Stuff each squirrel with this mixture, sew and truss as you would a fowl. Rub with oil, place in a dripping-dish, and partly cover with brown stock diluted with a cup of boiling water. When the squirrels are well roasted, make a gravy out of the liquor in the pan, by adding a teaspoon of "Worcestershire sauce, and paprika, salt and lemon-juice to taste.

BRUNSWICK STEW

2 squirrels
1 tablespoon salt
1 minced onion
1 pint Lima beans
6 ears corn
1/2 pound salt pork
6 potatoes
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
1 quart sliced tomatoes
1/2 pound butter

This dish is named for a county in Virginia and is a favorite dish in that section of the country. It is served in soup-plates.

Cut the squirrels in pieces, as for fricassee. Add the salt to four quarts of water and when boiling add the onion, beans, corn, pork, potato, pepper and the squirrels. Cover closely and simmer for two hours, then add the sugar and tomato, and simmer one hour more. Ten minutes before removing the stew from the fire, add the butter cut into pieces the size of a walnut and rolled in flour. Boil up, adding salt and pepper if needed, and turn into a tureen.

OPOSSUM ROAST

Opossum is very fat with a peculiarly flavored meat. To dress, immerse in very hot water (not boiling) for 1 minute. Remove and use a dull knife to scrape off hair so that skin is not cut. Slit from bottom of throat to hind legs and remove entrails. Remove head and tail if desired. Wash thoroughly inside and out with hot water. Cover with cold water to which has been added 1 cup salt. Allow to stand overnight; in the morning drain off the salted water and rinse with clear, boiling water.

Make stuffing as follows: Brown 1 large, fine-chopped onion with 1 tablespoon butter. Add chopped opossum liver and cook until tender. Add 1 cup bread crumbs, a little chopped red pepper, a hard-cooked egg, finely chopped, dash Worcestershire sauce, salt and water to moisten. Stuff opossum with mixture, fastening the opening with skewers or by sewing. With 2 tablespoons water roast in moderate oven (350° F.) until meat is tender and richly browned. Baste constantly with the opossum's own fat. Remove skewers or stitches, serve on heated platter. Skim fat from gravy and serve with baked yams or sweet potatoes.

SOURCE: The American Woman's Cook Book, Culinary Arts Institute by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc., Chicago Illinois, 1939

© Trevor Dailey

POT ROAST OF BEEF

4 pounds chuck, round or rump of beef
1/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons fat
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup water

Dredge meat with flour and brown on all sides in hot fat. Season with salt and pepper. Add water, cover and cook slowly until tender, 3 to 4 hours. As the liquid cooks away add more, as needed. Serve with brown gravy and vegetables. Makes 8 portions.

Variations—1. Add uncooked pared potatoes, carrots, green beans, celery and onions just long enough before serving to cook them. They may be whole, quartered or sliced.

2. Use tomatoes or tomato juice in place of water.
3. After browning, pour 1/4 cup horse-radish over meat.
4. Before cooking, cut slits in the meat and insert stuffed
olives, pushing them into the meat.

ROAST BEEF WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING

In preparing beef for roasting, trim it carefully then skewer and tie it into shape. Rub the lean parts with drippings and rub the whole with salt, pepper and flour.

Place the standing or rolled rib roast fat side up in an open roasting pan. Then the roast will baste itself. Insert meat thermometer so that bulb reaches the center of the largest muscle, taking care that it does not rest on the fat or bone. Roast in a slow oven (300-350° F.) or, if a brown crust is wanted, start in hot oven (500° F.) for 20 minutes, then reduce to 300° F. until done as desired. The thermometer will read 140° F. for rare, 160° F. for medium, 170° F. for well done. The time per pound needed is 18-22 minutes for rare; 22-25 for medium and 27-30 for well done. For making gravy, see page 314.

MADE GRAVY

2 small onions
1 carrot
Small piece of lean beef, size of egg or 1 beef cube or 1 teaspoon beef extract
Butter or other fat
Flour
Pepper
Salt
Catchup

Cut up onions and carrot, place them with the lean beef or extract in a stew-pan with the fat and brown all together. Add enough water to cover the mixture and stir slowly until the vegetables are cooked. Strain, thicken with flour, using two tablespoons to each cup of liquid, and add pepper, salt and catchup. Color brown with caramel or vegetable flavoring if necessary.

Yorkshire Pudding

1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Put flour, salt, milk and eggs together in a bowl. Beat well with a rotary egg-beater. Pour drippings to the depth of one inch in to a shallow pan. Have the drippings hot and pour in the mixture quickly. Bake for one-half hour in a hot oven (400°-425°F.). The pudding may then be placed under the trivet that holds the roast beef and left for about fifteen minutes to catch the gravy that flows from the roast. If a trivet is not used, cut the pudding into squares and lay them around the roast in the pan. Serve the pudding with the beef.

BEEF STEW WITH DUMPLINGS

1/4 pounds shank, neck, plate, flank, rump or brisket
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2  teaspoons salt
1/4  teaspoon pepper
1 small onion
1/3 cup cubed carrots
1/3 cup cubed turnips
4 cups potatoes, cut in quarters

Wipe meat, remove from bone, cut in cubes of about one and one-half inch. Mix flour with salt and pepper and dredge the cubes of meat with it. Cut some of the fat from the meat and heat in a frying-pan. When part of the fat has tried out, add the cubes of meat and brown the surface, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Put this meat, with the melted fat in which it was browned, into the stew-kettle. Add enough boiling water to cover the meat or a pint of tomatoes, stewed and strained, and simmer until the meat is tender (about three hours)

The carrots and turnips are to be added during the last hour of cooking, and the potatoes twenty minutes before serving time. Fifteen minutes before serving time, add the dumplings to the stew.

Dumplings—No. 1.

2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, well beaten
3 tablespoons melted butter or other shortening
Milk (about 2/3 cup)

Sift dry ingredients together. Add egg, melted shortening and enough milk to make a moist, stiff batter. Drop by teaspoons into boiling liquid. Cover very closely and cook for 18 minutes. Makes 2 dozen dumplings.

These dumplings may be steamed in another kettle, as in following recipe.

No. 2.

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking-powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tablespoon fat

Sift together the dry ingredients and rub in the fat. Add enough milk to moisten the flour, but do not make the mixture too wet. Roll out the dough on a board, making it about one inch thick, and cut with a biscuit cutter. Put the pieces on a plate in a steamer and steam twenty to thirty minutes. It is better not to steam the dumplings over the stew, as the rapid boiling required reduces the gravy too much. These dumplings may be cooked on top of the stew, as in the recipe above, but they will be lighter if steamed.

BEEF GOULASH

3 pounds beef chuck
Vinegar
Summer savory
1/3 cup fat
1 teaspoon salt
1/2  teaspoon paprika
8 onions

Cook the onions slowly in the fat. Cut the beef into cubes or slices and sprinkle with vinegar and a little savory. Add the salt and paprika. Add the cooked onions, cover tightly, and simmer for about two hours. The liquid may be increased just before serving by the addition of a little beef stock, or cream, either sweet or sour.

BEEF LOAF

1 1/2 pounds chopped beef
2 eggs
1/4 cups bread-crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
Additional seasonings to suit, such as chopped celery or onion, poultry seasoning, a dash of thyme, savory, sage, etc.

Chop the meat. Mix it thoroughly with one unbeaten egg, bread-crumbs, chopped parsley, pepper and salt. Turn into a bread pan until almost filled. Press a hollow with spoon and drop an egg into the opening. Season, cover egg and continue to fill pan. Bake 40 minutes in hot oven (400° F.), basting every 8-10 minutes with stock or butter in hot water. Garnish with parsley or watercress and serve hot with mushroom sauce or onion sauce. It is simple to serve cold with horse-radish sauce.

BROWN SAUCE

No. 2—In making brown sauce for a roast, the simplest way is to use the fat and juice of the roast. Add two tablespoons of flour to two tablespoons of the hot drippings, stir and cook well. Then add one cup of boiling water, stir well to avoid lumps, and season to taste with salt and pepper. If liked, add a tablespoon or two of catchup or a flavoring of Worcestershire or other sauce.

MUSHROOM SAUCE

4 tablespoons fat
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups stock
1 cup mushrooms, fresh or canned
Salt and pepper

Make a brown sauce of the fat, flour and stock. Add one cup mushrooms and cook until hot. If mushrooms are over-cooked they will become tough. Three or four minutes is sufficient for those that have been canned and five or six minutes for fresh ones.

This sauce is used with any kind of roasted, broiled or braised meat, particularly with beef.

ONION SAUCE

1/2 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons fat
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2  cups beef stock
1 tablespoon minced parsley

Cook the onion with the fat until slightly browned. Stir in the flour, then add the stock and parsley, stirring constantly. Serve with beef.

HAMBURG STEAK

2 pounds chopped beef
1/4 pound suet
Butter
Onion-juice Flour
Salt and pepper

Have the butcher chop the beef and suet together twice. Press it into a flat steak about three-fourths of an inch thick, sprinkle with salt, pepper, a little onion-juice and flour. Broil on a fine wire broiler or sauté in a little fat. Spread with butter and serve on a hot dish. This steak is sometimes shaped into small, thin, flatcakes. When it is sautéd, a gravy may be made by thickening the juices in the pan, to which a little water has been added. Two tablespoons of melted butter and one tablespoon minced onion mixed with the meat and seasonings improves Hamburg steak.

BAKED HAMBURG STEAK

1/4 pounds chopped beef
2 cups bread soaked in milk
1 small onion, minced
1 tablespoon butter or other fat
2 eggs
4 hard-cooked eggs
1 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced onion
Salt, pepper, ginger

Have the meat put through the grinder twice. Add the bread, the onion, seasonings to taste and the two uncooked eggs, well-beaten. Arrange the hard-cooked eggs end to end across the middle of the meat and roll the meat mixture around them. Place the roll in a baking-pan, pour over it a sauce composed of the tomatoes, sliced onions, butter or other fat and water, and bake in moderate oven (350°-375° F.) for about two hours, basting frequently with sauce. In serving, slice the roll crosswise. The hard-cooked eggs may be omitted.

BEEF BALLS

1 1/2 pounds beef from the shank
1/3  cup bread-crumbs
3 tablespoons soft fat
1 cup stock
1 egg
Flour
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon lemon-juice
Nutmeg

Put the meat twice through a food-chopper, add bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, lemon-juice, a little nutmeg and the beaten egg. Shape into balls lightly and let them stand for half an hour or more to become firm, then roll them in flour and brown them in the frying-pan with the fat. Take out the meat balls, add to the fat a tablespoon of flour and a cup of stock. Season well, put the meat balls into this mixture, cover the frying-pan closely and simmer for an hour and a half.

SOURCE: The American Woman's Cook Book, Culinary Arts Institute by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc., Chicago Illinois, 1939

© Trevor Dailey

ROAST LOIN OF PORK

Wipe a five-pound loin of pork (little pig if possible); sprinkle with salt, pepper, powdered sage and dredge with flour. Place in dripping pan, surround with some of the fat cut in small cubes. Set to cook in a moderate oven* for four hours, basting every ten minutes for the first half hour and afterwards every fifteen minutes, with dripping in pan. Remove to serving platter, surround with Apple Rings and make a gravy same as for other roast meats.

PORK TENDERLOIN LYONNAISE

Wipe and split two large pork tenderloins in halves lengthwise; sprinkle with salt, pepper and dredge with flour. Melt two tablespoons each of Cottolene** and butter in an iron frying pan, and brown tenderloin richly on both sides in the hot fat. Remove to well-greased dripping pan and add to fat three onions thinly sliced; cook until delicately browned, stirring often. Sprinkle over onions two tablespoons flour, stir well. Put two tablespoons vinegar into one-half cup hot water, add slowly to onions, mix thoroughly. Lay tenderloins over onions, cover closely and cook in the oven until meat is tender. Dispose tenderloin on hot serving platter and pour over contents of frying pan. Vinegar may be omitted and more water added.

SOURCE: Unknown

*350° F. to 400° F.

**Cottolene is a discontinued brand of vegetable shortening that was produced for decades by The N.K. Fairbank Company.

© Trevor Dailey

 

POULTRY includes all the domesticated birds that are used for food-chicken and fowl, turkeys, squabs and pigeons, geese and ducks. Game includes wild birds-ducks, geese, partridge, reed birds, quail, plover, etc., and animal suitable for food which are pursued and taken in field or forest, as deer, moose and rabbit.

The flesh of game, except that of partridge and quail, is dark in color and has a fine strong flavor. The flesh of wild birds, except that of wild ducks and geese, contains less fat than the flesh of poultry.

Seasons for Fresh Poultry and Game

Poultry in some form is available in the market at every season. Chickens weighing about one and one-half pounds, known as Spring chickens or broilers, begin to appear in the market during January. The height of the season for broilers, however, is May and June. The so-called milk-fed or early Spring chickens appear in the market in July and are available until August.

Roasting chickens begin to appear in September, and Philadelphia capons come into the market at about the same time. Fowl are in the market now-a-days throughout the year.

The season for turkey and ducks is the same as for chickens.

Goose about twelve weeks old, known as green goose, is available from May to September. Geese, also, may be found in the market throughout the year.

Fresh quail and partridge are in the market from Oct. 15 to Jan. 1. Cold-storage birds may be found much later. Grouse is fresh in the Fall. The cold-storage birds are obtainable throughout the year. Plover are in season from April to September.

Selecting Poultry and Game

There are a few general rules to be observed in the selection of young tender poultry and game.

They should be plump in appearance, have smooth, soft legs and feet and smooth, moist skin.

The lower or rear end of the breast-bone should be flexible, the skin should be easily broken when twisted between the thumb and finger, and the joint of the wing should yield readily when turned backward.

The eyes should be bright, the comb red, and there should be an abundance of pin feathers.

Birds with a yellow skin are likely to be plump, those with white skins are likely to be tender.

Bruised, dry or purplish skin is an indication of careless dressing and of age. Hard, dry, scaly legs, hard breast-bone and the presence of long hairs are all signs of an old and tough bird.

Avoid birds with a full crop. Buy dry-picked poultry whenever possible. Scalding the bird before plucking it impairs the flavor.

Poultry and game unless they are in cold storage, should not be kept long uncooked. They should be drawn as soon as purchased, and should be kept in a cool place.

Unless hen turkeys are young, small and plump, cock turkeys are more satisfactory.

Geese should have an abundance of pin-feathers, soft feet and pliable bills.

There is more meat in proportion to the amount of bone in fowls weighing five to six pounds than there is in smaller birds.

Broilers should weigh one to two pounds.

To Clean and Dress Poultry

Cut off the head and remove the pin-feathers with a sharp, pointed knife. Singe by holding the bird over a flame, turning on all sides until all down and hair have been burnt off.

If the feet and tendons were not removed at the market, cut through the skin around the lower joint or "drum-stick," one and one-half inches below the joint that connects the foot with the leg, but do not cut the tendons. Place the leg with this cut at the edge of the table and break the bone by pressing downward. Hold the bird in the left hand and with the right pull off the foot, and with it the tendons. In an old bird, the tendons must be removed one by one with a skewer or trussing needle.

To Prepare Poultry for Cooking Whole

Make a small incision below the breast-bone. Insert the hand and carefully loosen the internal organs, the entrails, the gizzard, the heart and the liver. Reserve the last three; these are known as the giblets. Care should be taken not to break the gall bladder, which is attached to the liver. The liquid content of the gall bladder is very bitter, and makes the flesh unpleasant to eat.

Remove and discard the lungs and the kidneys. Insert two fingers under the skin close to the neck and remove the windpipe and the crop. Pull back the skin of the neck and cut off the neck close to the body, leaving enough of the neck skin to fold down under the back if the bird is to be roasted. Remove the oil bag from the tail.

Clean the inside of the bird by running water through it and wipe the outside with a damp cloth.

To Stuff Poultry or Game—Fill the opening at the neck end with sufficient stuffing to make the bird look plump. Put the remaining stuffing in the body. If the body is full, sew up the opening; if not full, bring the skin together with a skewer. Do not fill the cavity too full. Allowance must be made for swelling of the stuffing especially when the stuffing is made with cracker-crumbs.

To Truss Poultry or Game for Roasting—Clean, dress and stuff. Tie a piece of twine to the end of the neck-skin and pull the neck-skin over the back. Slip the ends of the wings over the back and press the wings close to the body. Press the thighs close to the body, draw the ends of the twine back on each side and up over the thighs. Cross the twine between the legs, and tie it down under the tail.

If the poultry or game has little fat it should be larded with thin strips of salt pork or bacon laid across the breast. To prevent the burning of the legs, wind them with strips of cloth which have been dipped in melted fat.

To Dress Birds for Broiling, Frying, Etc.

For Broiling—Singe the bird, cut off the head and neck close to the breast and the legs at the knee joints. Beginning at the neck, make a cut through the back-bone for the entire length of the bird. Lay the bird open and remove the contents. Cut the tendons or break the joints. Cut out the rib-bones and remove the breast-bone, to facilitate carving.

To Make Fillets—Remove the skin from the breast and with a sharp knife make an incision close to the breast-bone, beginning at the end next the wish-bone and cutting through the entire length. Following the bone closely, remove all the meat, cutting it away from the wing joint. This fillet may be separated into two parts, the upper or larger muscle making the "large fillet" and the smaller “fillet mignon."

To Cut Up a Fowl—Remove pin-feathers, singe the fowl, cut off the head, tendons and oil-bag. Cut off the legs at the thigh joint. Separate the first joint or drumstick from the thigh. Cut the wings from the body. Cut off the tips of the wings.

Separate the breast from the back by cutting clear down both sides of the bird below the ribs. Remove the heart, liver, gizzard, entrails and fat all together. Remove windpipe and crop. Carefully remove the lungs and kidneys from the back-bone.

Cut back and breast into two pieces each, cutting crosswise. The back is sometimes further divided by cutting lengthwise. The wish-bone may be removed by inserting a knife under the tip and cutting downward, the knife following the bone.

To Clean Giblets

Cut the fat and membrane from the gizzard. Make a gash in the thickest part, cutting to, but not through the inner lining. Remove the inner sac and throw it away. Carefully separate the gall bladder from the liver and cut off any part of the liver that has a greenish color. Remove arteries and veins from the top of the heart and squeeze out the clot of blood.

Broiling is cooking over or under or in front of a fire of live coals or a gas or electric burner, or other direct heat.

Oven Broiling is cooking in a broiler pan (either with or without a rack) that runs close under the heat in the broiling oven of a gas or electric stove.

Pan Broiling is cooking in a hot griddle or pan greased only enough to prevent food from sticking.

Baking is cooking in the oven. The temperature of baking varies with the food to be prepared. A slow oven should be from 250° F. to 350° F.  A moderate oven should be from 350° F. to 400° F.  A hot oven should be from 400° F. to 450° F.  A very hot oven should be from 450° F. to 550° F.

Roasting as now used means the same as baking. Originally it meant cooking before an open fire and was similar to broiling.

Chickens

ROAST CHICKEN

1 roasting chicken
Stuffing
Fat
Salt and pepper
Flour

Wash, singe and draw the bird, rub it with salt and pepper inside and out, and stuff with any desired stuffing. Bread stuffing, chestnut stuffing and celery stuffing are particularly good. Truss and tie the fowl. Brush skin with melted or softened fat. Turn breast side down and cover bird with a cloth dipped in fat. Place in a moderate oven (325° to 350° F.). Cook uncovered breast side down about one half the total time. Turn breast side up. Place any strips of body fat removed in dressing over breastbone. Bacon or salt pork strips may be used. Baste with extra fat. The cloth may be removed toward the end of the cooking if the bird is not well browned. Allow 30 minutes per pound for small birds; 22 to 25 minutes per pound for larger birds.

BROILED CHICKEN

Unless you are quite certain the chickens are tender, it is wise to steam them before broiling. This may be done as follows: Set the dripping-pan in a moderate oven (350° - 400° F.) and nearly fill it with boiling water. Place two sticks across the pan, extending from side to side, and upon them lay the chicken. Invert a tin pan over it, shut the oven door and let the chicken steam slowly for thirty minutes. This process relaxes the muscles and makes the joints supple, besides preserving the juices that would be lost in parboiling.

Transfer the chicken from this vapor bath to a wire broiler, turning the inside to the fire first. Broil until the chicken is tender and brown, turning it frequently. If the chicken is small, it will cook in twenty minutes or less. Do not have too hot a fire. Lay the chicken on a warmed platter, spread it with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve.

PANNED CHICKEN

1 chicken
1/4 cup fat
Flour
1 cup hot milk
Cress
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon cracker or bread-crumbs
Onion-juice
Chopped parsley or tarragon

Prepare a chicken as for broiling and slightly flatten it with a rolling-pin. Place in pan, lay bits of fat upon it, and place it in a moderate oven (350° F.) allowing 15 to 20 minutes per pound. Bake uncovered. Baste with drippings every half hour. When it is nearly done, remove from the oven, salt and pepper both sides, strew once more with bits of fat, dredge with flour and return to the oven to brown slightly on both sides, the under side first.

When the chicken is thoroughly done, place it on a hot platter with the skin side uppermost, cover, and set it where it will be kept warm. Pour hot milk into the pan and add cracker or bread-crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, if necessary, and add a few drops of onion-juice or a teaspoon of chopped parsley or tarragon, as preferred. Stir the gravy vigorously, let it boil one minute and turn it over the chicken. Garnish with cress or parsley and serve.

CHICKEN, MARYLAND STYLE

2 chickens Flour

Salt and pepper
Bread-crumbs
1 cup milk or cream
1/2 cup butter or other mild fat
2 eggs

Clean and disjoint young chickens, leaving the breasts whole. Put the necks and giblets into cold water and simmer to obtain a cup of stock for the gravy. Sprinkle each piece of chicken with salt and pepper, dip in flour, beaten eggs and soft crumbs and place in a greased pan. Bake in a hot oven (480° F.) from thirty to forty minutes, basting frequently with one- fourth cup of fat melted in one-fourth cup of hot water.

When the chicken is done, make a gravy from the fat left in the pan, stirring in two tablespoons of flour, one cup of milk or cream and the cup of stock made from the giblets. If you like, add a few button mushrooms. Serve the chicken with the gravy poured around it.

PLANKED CHICKEN

2 large broilers
1/4 cup fat
1 teaspoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon minced green pepper
1 teaspoon lemon-juice
1 teaspoon minced onion
Salt and pepper
1 pint sautéed mushrooms
1 quart seasoned mashed potato
Garnishes for plank

Make a savory fat by rubbing the minced parsley, green pepper and onion into the fat. Flavor with lemon-juice, salt and pepper. Split the broilers, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put in a pan. Pour over them a little oil or melted fat and bake them (400° F.) until nearly done (about twenty minutes).

Prepare a plank of proper size, oil it, garnish with a border of potatoes forced through pastry-bag and tube, place the chicken in the center of the plank, arrange around it sautéed mushrooms and spread over the chicken the savory fat. Place the plank in a very hot oven (500° F.) to brown the potato border and to give the chicken the final cooking. Planked dishes are invariably served on the plank. They may be elaborately garnished with stuffed tomatoes, green peppers and fancifully cut vegetables.

FRIED CHICKEN

No. 1 —Southern Style

2 small chickens
Salt and pepper
Flour
1/4 cup fat

Cut each chicken into four or six pieces, dip each piece quickly in cold water, then sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roll in plenty of flour. Sauté the chicken in a little fat until each piece is brown on both sides, and admits a fork easily. Drain the pieces well and arrange on a warm platter, setting the dish in a hot place to keep the meat from cooling while the gravy is being made, as on page 279.

No. 2—

Dip the chicken into fritter batter and fry in deep fat (375°-390° F.) until brown. Transfer to a casserole or baking dish and bake in a moderate oven (250° F.-3 50° F.) for 30-60 minutes. If the chicken is not young, parboiling before cutting will shorten the baking time.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN

2 small chickens or 1 large one
Salt and pepper
2 or more tablespoons fat
Flour

This is one of the most delicious ways of cooking chicken. Take off the neck and split the chicken down the back, wiping it with a damp towel. Season inside and out with salt and pepper, and dredge on all sides with flour. Lay the chicken,with the inside down, in a small baking-tin, and add a very- little water. The pan should be very little larger than the chickens, otherwise the gravy will be too quickly evaporated. Set into a rather slow oven (300°-350° F.) and cook for one hour in a covered baking-pan or, if baked without a cover, baste every ten minutes after the first twenty minutes.

Should the chicken be decidedly lacking in fat, add fat as needed. When done, place the chicken on a hot platter, add enough water to make two cups gravy and thicken with two tablespoons flour. Should the chicken be quite fat, remove all but two tablespoons of the oil from the pan before making the gravy. Season with salt and pepper, pour it over the chicken and serve at once.

BOILED CHICKEN

In Winter there is no better way to prepare chickens than to simmer them whole and pour over them oyster or parsley sauce. The chicken should be well secured in a wet cloth that has been generously sprinkled with flour, then plunged into boiling water and simmered (not boiled) gently until the chicken is done. Allow twenty to thirty minutes to each pound of chicken. A large, tough chicken may be made very palatable by preparing it in this way.

STEAMED CHICKEN OR FOWL

1 fowl (about 5 pounds)
1 onion
1 bay-leaf
Salt and pepper
Flour

A chicken is more tender than a fowl and is to be preferred for light cooking, but a fat fowl a year or two old has a richer and finer flavor, and if steamed properly, will be perfectly tender. Singe and wash the fowl, draw and dress it as carefully as for roasting and wipe it dry inside and out. Rub it inside and out with salt and pepper, place an onion and a bay-leaf
inside and tie the fowl into shape as for roasting.

Then flour a cloth and wrap it about the fowl. Lay the chicken, back downward, in a steamer and allow it to steam continuously for three to four hours, according to its age and size. If properly steamed it will be as good as a roasted chicken. Serve with celery, oyster or parsley sauce. Steamed chicken may subsequently be browned in the oven if desired.

STEAMED WHOLE SPRING CHICKEN

1 chicken
1 cup oysters
1 tablespoon fat
1 tablespoon flour
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup cream or milk
3 hard-cooked eggs
Minced herbs

Prepare a full-grown Spring chicken as for roasting, season inside and out with salt and pepper, stuff with whole, raw oysters and place it in a steamer with a close-fitting cover, and steam until the chicken is done, then place the chicken on a warm dish and make a gravy as follows: Put the fat into a saucepan with the minced herbs and flour and stir until the mixture bubbles; add the liquor in the kettle below the steamer, the cream or milk, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Add the eggs, chopped fine, let the whole boil, pour it over the chicken and serve at once.

CHICKEN POT-PIE

1 chicken
3 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Clean, singe and cut up the chicken, place it in a pot and nearly cover with water. Cover the pot and simmer gently. An old fowl will require at least three or four hours' slow cook- ing, but a year-old chicken should be done in one and one- half hours. Remove the cover during the last half-hour of cooking, to reduce the gravy to about one and one-half pints when done.

Three-fourths of an hour before time to serve, make Dumplings No. 2 (see Index). When the dumplings are ready to serve, add salt and pepper to the chicken and make the gravy by adding to the liquor in the kettle three tablespoons of flour stirred to a paste in one cup of milk. Skim out the chicken, lay it on a platter, place the dumplings on the top and pour over them the gravy.'

PRESSED CHICKEN

1 chicken
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon gelatin to each pint broth

Clean, singe and cut up a chicken. Place it in a kettle with a little water, cover closely and simmer until the meat will fall from the bones. Lift the pieces from the kettle with a skimmer and scrape all the meat from the bones, separating the white meat from the dark and taking out the pieces of skin. Season with salt and pepper.

Soften gelatin in two tablespoons of water for each tablespoon of gelatin and add to the boiling chicken broth. Place the meat in the dish it is to be pressed in, laying the white and dark in alternate layers, and adding from time to time a little of the broth to moisten all well. When all the meat is in the dish,^ pour over it enough of the broth to cover it; lay a plate on top of it; place a heavy weight upon the plate and set away in a cool place. This makes an attractive dish for luncheon, sliced and garnished with parsley.

FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN

WHITE

1 chicken
2 tablespoons fat
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk or cream
1 egg-yolk
Salt and pepper
Herbs
Salt pork
Rice or dumplings

Singe, clean and cup up the chicken. Brown in a pan with the fat. Cover with boiling water, add salt, pepper, herbs and a few slices of salt pork. Simmer until tender (about an hour) strain and thicken one pint of the liquor with the flour mixed to a smooth paste with a little cold water; add the milk or cream beaten with the yolk of the egg. Heat again until slightly thickened, pour over the chicken and serve with rice or dumplings (see Index for recipe).

BROWN

1 chicken
2 or 3 small slices salt pork
2 tablespoons flour
1 pint boiling water
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon onion-juice, if desired

Cut in pieces as directed for white fricassee. Place salt pork in a frying-pan, and when hot put in the chicken, leaving plenty of room to turn the meat; cook until each piece is a rich brown. Remove the chicken and keep it warm. Add the flour to the fat in the pan, stir well and when it has cooked two minutes, add the boiling water. When the gravy is smooth and boiling, replace the chicken, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan, and simmer gently until the chicken is tender, then add a teaspoon of onion-juice, if desired, and serve at once. The gravy will be thick enough, and if the pan has a tight cover, it will not be diminished, even after long cooking.

CHICKEN PIE

1 chicken
Pie paste
Salt and pepper  
Flour
Milk

Clean, singe and cut up chicken as for fricassee. Place in a kettle and add enough hot water to cover. Put the cover on the kettle, and simmer slowly until the chicken is tender, adding a little more water if needed. Make a gravy of the stock, using two tablespoons flour for each cup of stock. Use for the crust puff paste, or a good pie paste, rolled a little thicker than for fruit pies. Line the sides of a deep baking-dish with crust; invert in the middle of the dish a small cup or ramekin; put in part of the chicken and season with salt and pepper, then add the rest of the chicken, and season the same way.

Put in the dish two cups or more of the gravy made from broth in which the chicken was cooked and cover the top with crust. The cup or ramekin will hold the crust up and will prevent evaporation. Most chicken pie is too dry; therefore, use a generous amount of the broth. Bake in a hot oven(450°F.) until crust is done (one-half hour).When serving, after cutting the first slice, carefully slip the knife under the ramekin and release the gravy which is held there by suction. Additional gravy should be served in a gravy-dish.

CURRY OF CHICKEN

1 chicken ( 1 1/2 or 2 pounds)
1 teaspoon salt
2 onions
1 egg-yolk
2 tablespoons fat
1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons curry-powder
1 tablespoon flour

Cut up the chicken as for fricassee, put in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover it, and simmer until tender, keeping the pan closely covered. Remove from the fire, take the chicken out and pour the liquor into a bowl. Put  the onions into the saucepan with the fat and sauté until brown, then skim them out and put in the chicken; fry for three or four minutes, then sprinkle over it the curry-powder. Next pour in the chicken liquor, stew five minutes longer and stir in the flour mixed until smooth with a little cold water. Stir the mixture until it thickens; add the beaten yolk of egg, adding a little of the hot mixture to the egg first. Serve with a border of hot boiled rice.

SAVORY CHICKEN

1/4 cup fat
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 chopped carrot
1 slice turnip
5/4 cup flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups strained tomatoes
Salt, pepper and paprika
1 chicken
Salt-pork fat
1 cup button mushrooms
2 tablespoons chopped olives

Make a savory sauce by melting the fat and cooking in it chopped onion, carrot and turnip cut in small pieces. Stir in flour and add gradually boiling water and tomato, previously stewed and strained. Season with salt, pepper and paprika.

Cut up a chicken, dredge with flour, and sauté in salt-pork fat. Remove from the pan, place in a saucepan and cover with the savory sauce. Cook until the chicken is tender. At the last moment, add the mushrooms and chopped olives. Ar- range the pieces of chicken in the center of the platter and pour the sauce around them, garnishing with triangles of toast and stuffed olives.

SCALLOPED CHICKEN

2 cups cooked chicken meat
1 pint broth in which chicken was cooked
Fat
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper
Bread-crumbs
2 cups sliced, cooked potatoes

Cut the cooked chicken meat into dice. Thicken the broth with a paste made of the flour and two tablespoons of fat and season with salt and pepper. Fill a pudding-dish with alternate layers of bread-crumbs, chicken and potatoes. Cover the top with crumbs. Pour in the gravy and add a few bits of butter or other fat and bake fifteen to thirty minutes in a moderate oven (3 50°-400° F.).

CREAMED CHICKEN

2 cups cooked chicken
2 tablespoons fat
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk or cream
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon parsley
1 egg-yolk

Make a white sauce of the fat, flour and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley and chicken and cook until the sauce is thoroughly hot again. Beat the egg-yolk, adding two tablespoons of milk, and pour into the mixture. Cook two minutes, stirring constantly, and serve in a border of riced potatoes or in croustades.

Creamed chicken may be varied in a number of ways: by substituting mushrooms or chopped cooked eggs for part of the chicken or by adding chopped pimientos and olives.

Capons

Capons are large, plump young roosters, especially fattened for the table. They are prepared for cooking in the same way as chickens. For stuffing, choose a delicate flavoring such as oysters or chestnuts. Mushrooms or truffles are especially good with capon.

Turkeys

ROAST TURKEY

Dress as directed for roast chicken and roast in an uncovered roaster in a slow oven (300° F.) allowing 15 to 25 minutes per pound, depending upon age and size of bird. The larger birds require less time per pound than the small birds. Baste the bird at half hour intervals. Serve with giblet gravy.

BRAISED TURKEY

1 turkey
Stuffing
1/2 pound salt pork
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup onion
1/2 cup turnip
4 cups water or stock
Salt and pepper

This is a very satisfactory way of cooking an old turkey that is unfit for roasting. Stuff the body and breast with any desired stuffing, and truss. Spread thin slices of salt pork over the breast and legs, and cover the turkey with a strong sheet of oiled paper, fastening the paper on by passing a string around the body. In a double roasting-pan large enough to hold the turkey, spread sliced salt pork and the chopped vegetables. Lay the turkey on this mixture, with the breast up, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover the pan tightly, and place in a moderate oven (350° - 400°F.). Allow twenty-five minutes for each pound.

At the end of thirty minutes, add water or stock. During the last half-hour take the cover from the pan, remove the paper and pork from the turkey. This permits the meat to brown lightly. Serve with mushroom sauce, or with the gravy in the pan, strained and thickened.

FILLETS OF TURKEY WITH RICE

Breast fillets
Egg and crumbs
1 cup white stock 1 cup rice
6 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon onion-juice
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons butter
1 tablespoon grated cheese

Skin the breast of a plump turkey, and slice. The slices should be nearly half an inch thick, and as nearly uniform in size as possible. Dip in beaten egg, then in crumbs, again in the egg, and once more in the crumbs. Set in the refrigerator. Put the white stock into a saucepan; add rice, onion-juice and one-half teaspoon salt and simmer slowly until the liquid is absorbed.
When the rice is tender, add butter and grated cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let it stand at the side of the fire until the fillets are ready. Heat salad-oil or cooking fat slowly in a frying-pan to 375°-390° F., and cook the fillets to a nice brown. Mound the rice in the center of a hot dish and arrange the fillets about it.

BROILED YOUNG TURKEY

Young turkeys may be broiled or panned, like chickens. A young turkey is easily distinguished by its smooth, black legs and white skin.

Pigeons and Squabs

Pigeons need long, slow cooking to make them tender. Squabs are tender and are usually broiled.

BROILED SQUAB

6 squabs
Salt and pepper
Toast

Split the birds down the back, flatten the breast, wipe inside and out with a damp cloth. Put on a broiler, season with pepper and salt, and when nicely browned, pour a generous amount of melted butter over them. Serve on toast.

PIGEON AND MUSHROOM STEW

3 pigeons
1 tablespoon fat
1 pint stock or gravy
2 tablespoons cream
1/2 cup mushrooms
2 tablespoons mushroom catchup
Salt and pepper
Cayenne

Clean and cut pigeons into small portions and let them cook a short time in the fat in a saucepan, being careful not to brown them. Next add to the contents of the pan the stock or gravy, the mushroom catchup, and salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Simmer an hour, or until tender, add the mushrooms, simmer ten minutes more, and then stir in the cream. Arrange the mushrooms around the pigeons on a hot platter.

POTTED PIGEONS

6 pigeons
3 slices bacon
Any simple stuffing 1 diced carrot
1 diced onion
Chopped parsley Hot water or stock
1/4 cup fat
1/4 cup flour
Buttered toast

Clean and dress pigeons, stuff, truss, and place them upright in a stew-pan on the slices of bacon. Add the carrot, onion, and a little parsley, and cover with boiling water or stock Cover the pot closely and let simmer from two to three hours, or until tender, adding boiling water or stock when necessary. Make a sauce of the fat and flour and two cups of the stock remaining in the pan.

Serve each pigeon on a thin piece of moistened toast, and pour gravy over all.

PIGEON PIE

6 pigeons
Bread stuffing
Salt and pepper
Fat
Flour
Rich pie paste
3 hard-cooked eggs

Stuff each pigeon with bread stuffing. Loosen the joints with a knife, but do not cut them through. Simmer the birds in a stew-pan, with water enough to cover, until nearly tender, then season with salt and pepper. Make a medium thick gravy with flour, fat and liquor in which pigeons have cooked and let it cool. Line the sides of a greased pudding-dish with rich paste and cut the hard-cooked eggs in slices. Put successive layers of egg, pigeon and gravy into the dish until it is filled, put on a cover of paste and bake (at 450° F.) for one-half hour.

Wild Ducks

Nearly all wild ducks are likely to have a fishy flavor, and when dressed by an inexperienced cook are often unfit to eat. This flavor may be much lessened by placing in each duck a small peeled carrot, plunging the fowls in boiling water and simmering them for ten minutes before roasting. The carrot will absorb some of the unpleasant taste. An onion will have somewhat the same effect, but unless a stuffing with onions is used, the carrot is to be preferred. When there is an objection to parboiling (as when the ducks are young) rub them lightly with an onion cut in two and put three or four uncooked cranberries in each before cooking.

ROAST WILD DUCK

Clean, wiping inside and outside with a damp towel. Tuck back the wings, and truss. Dust with salt, pepper and flour. If not fat, cover the breast with two thin slices of salt pork. Place duck in a baking-pan, and add one cup of water, and two tablespoons of fat. Bake in a very hot oven (500° F.) from fifteen to thirty minutes, according to rareness desired, basting frequently. Reduce the heat after fifteen minutes. Serve with slices of lemon or orange and a brown gravy or with olive sauce. Currant jelly may also be served. Wild ducks are served rare and are seldom stuffed when roasted. An old saying is that a young wild duck to be well cooked should only fly through a very hot oven.

CANVASBACK DUCK, DELMONICO STYLE

This bird is in season from the last of November until March. As it feeds mainly on wild celery, it requires no spices in cooking. Its flavor is best preserved by roasting quickly in a very hot oven (500° F.) so that it will be brown on the outside and under done on the inside. Dress it in the usual way and wipe with a wet towel. Truss its head under the wing, place in a dripping-pan and roast one-half hour, or twenty minutes if liked underdone, basting often. Reduce the heat after fifteen minutes. Season with salt and pepper and pour over it the gravy in the baking-dish.

MALLARD WILD DUCK

These ducks, in season during the Fall and Winter, are very dry when roasted. They are good if stuffed with bread stuffing, then well sewed up, tied in shape and placed in a large kettle with a couple of slices of onion, a little thyme, and a small quantity of water and cooked slowly for one hour. Turn the bird frequently during the cooking; replenish the water if necessary, but use only enough to keep the ducks from burning.

CHICKEN OR TURKEY BONE SOUP

Never discard the bones of turkey or chicken as they always will make a delicious soup. Scrape the meat from the bones, break the bones, pack in a kettle, and cover with cold water, adding a small onion. Cover closely and simmer very gently for three hours. Strain and cool. One-half hour before it is to be served, return to the fire and for every quart of stock add one cup of the cold meat, season and keep hot till needed. This soup may be greatly improved by adding to it, three minutes before serving, ten oysters to each quart of soup.

TURKEY CURRY

6 tablespoons fat
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1 large apple, peeled, diced 1 large can mushrooms or
1 pound fresh mushrooms
3 cups turkey, diced
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 1/2 cups turkey stock and top milk, or cream

Cook onion, apple, mushrooms, and turkey in the fat until onion and apple begin to be transparent: 10 to 15 minutes. If fresh mushrooms are used, sauté several minutes before adding to other ingredients. Remove from heat, add salt, flour, and curry powder and stir thoroughly. Add liquid, and cook until thickened throughout. Set over hot water, cover and cook 15 minutes longer to blend the flavors. Taste and add more seasoning if desired. Serve with hot boiled rice. Little or no salt is added in cooking rice.

Goose

ROAST GOOSE WITH POTATO STUFFING

1 goose (about 8 pounds)
Potato stuffing
Salt pork if goose is not fat
Salt and pepper
Flour

Select a goose that is about four months old. An old goose is better braised than roasted. Singe the goose, wash it carefully in hot water, and wipe it dry on the outside; then draw it and clean it thoroughly inside. Flatten the breast-bone by striking it with a rolling-pin. Partly fill the cavity with potato stuffing, stitch up the openings and truss the goose. If it is not fat, lay thin slices of pork upon the breast, but if the goose has considerable fat, omit the pork. Bake in a hot oven (500°F.) for forty-five minutes. Remove it from the oven, pour out all the fat, sprinkle the bird all over with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and return it to the oven. Reduce the heat but do not let it get below 350° F.

When the flour is a good brown, pour one cup of hot water into the pan and baste the goose often, dredging it each time with a slight sifting of flour to absorb the fat. Allow twenty minutes to the pound for a young goose and twenty-five for one that is old. Remove the goose from the pan, add a cup of hot water to the gravy and thicken it, if necessary, with browned flour. Garnish the goose with parsley and serve with giblet gravy.

Apple sauce is often served with roast goose.

Goslings may be roasted in the same way, allowing, however, only fifteen minutes to the pound for cooking.

ROAST GOOSE WITH BAKED APPLE

1 eight-pound goose
2 cups bread-crumbs
1 chopped onion
2 tablespoons fat
1/4 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
6 to 8 apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 sweet potatoes

Cook the giblets until tender, chop and add to stuffing made by mixing bread-crumbs, onion, fat, sage, salt and pepper. After cleaning and washing the goose thoroughly, stuff, and sew the neck and back. Roast for fifteen minutes at 500°F., then reduce the heat to 350°F. and cook about three hours. Wash and core six to eight apples; sprinkle with brown sugar, stuff with mashed and seasoned sweet potato; bake until tender and serve hot with the goose.

DEVILED GOOSE

1 goose
Potato stuffing
1/4 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons made mustard
1 tablespoon salt

After cleaning the goose and wiping it well with a damp cloth, plunge it into a kettle of boiling water, and simmer for one hour. Take it from the kettle, drain well, and wipe it dry. Partly fill the body and neck with potato stuffing, sew up and truss, and roast in a moderately hot oven (350° - 400° F.), allowing fifteen to twenty minutes to the pound. Pour over it a mixture of the vinegar, pepper, and made mustard, and baste frequently. Serve with giblet gravy.

An old goose that can not be made eatable in any other way may be cooked in this way, two hours instead of one hour being allowed for the simmering.

Ducks

ROAST DUCK

Epicures prefer young ducks rare, and without stuffing. Some people consider that ducks have too strong a flavor, and to absorb this flavor lay cored and quartered apples inside the body. These apples are removed before the duck is sent to the table. Celery and onions also may be placed inside the duck to season it and improve the flavor, two tablespoons of chopped onion being used to every cup of chopped celery, which may consist of the green stalks that are not desired for the table. This stuffing is also removed from the bird before it is sent to the table. Should filling be preferred, use potato stuffing, putting it in very hot.

Truss the duck, sprinkle it with salt, pepper and flour, and roast in a very hot oven (500° F.) fifteen to thirty minutes, provided the duck is young and is desired rare.

Full-grown domestic ducks are roasted in a moderate oven (350° F.) allowing 20 to 25 minutes per pound. Bake uncovered. Baste every half hour with drippings in pan. Serve with giblet gravy and applesauce or grape or currant jelly. Green peas should also be served with roast duck.

BRAISED DUCKS

1 brace ducks
3 slices bacon
1 carrot
1 onion stuck with cloves Thyme
Parsley
Salt and pepper
1 small turnip, diced
Oil or cooking fat
Flour

Prepare ducks as for roasting, put them into a large stew-pan with the bacon, carrot, onion and a little thyme and parsley; season with salt and pepper and cover with water. Simmer over a low fire until the ducks are tender, then remove them from the pan. Cook the turnip in the fat until brown, then drain and cook in liquor in the stew-pan, until tender. Strain the liquor, thicken with flour and pour the gravy thus made over the ducks. Garnish with pieces of turnip.

DUCK À LA CREOLE

2 cups cooked duck
2 tablespoons fat
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons chopped ham
2 tablespoons onion
Chopped celery
Chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Paprika
1 1/2 cups consommé or bouillon
1 clove
1/4 teaspoon mace
Chopped sweet pepper

Melt the fat and add the flour, then stir in the ham. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, onion, celery, sweet pepper and parsley. Stir for two minutes, add the consommé or bouillon, the clove and mace. Simmer one hour. Strain this sauce and stir in the cooked duck, cut into cubes. Cook just enough longer to heat all thoroughly. Serve with diamonds of fried hominy or mush.

STUFFINGS FOR FISH, MEAT, POULTRY AND GAME

STUFFING does not necessarily have to be baked in the fowl or meat. If the bird is small or if there is some stuffing left over, it may be baked or steamed in a well-greased ring mold, loaf pan or individual molds. Fill center of ring with vegetables. Croquettes of stuffing, made by the usual method, are served in a circle around the bird.

BREAD STUFFING

No. 1.

1 1/2 cups bread-crumbs
1/4 cup butter or other fat
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg

Moisten the bread-crumbs with the egg slightly beaten and the melted fat. Season and mix well. This makes a rich, moist dressing.

No. 2.

2 to 3 tablespoons melted fat
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 cup dry bread-crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons milk or stock
1/2 teaspoon each sage, chopped celery, parsley

Melt the fat in the frying-pan; add the onion, and sauté until tender. Add the bread-crumbs and seasonings and mix well. Then add the milk or stock. This makes a loose, light stuffing much preferred by many to the soft moist or compact type. It can be varied by leaving out the onion or the sage, by adding chopped celery or by adding two tablespoons of seeded raisins.

No. 3.

1/2 cup milk
2 cups grated bread-crumbs
1 1/2 tablespoons melted fat
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon powdered sage
1/2 teaspoon chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon summer savory

Pour the milk on the crumbs and let stand about one hour, then add the seasonings, the fat, and the egg slightly beaten.

CRACKER CRUMB STUFFING

1 cup cracker-crumbs
2 tablespoons butter or other fat
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

Melt the fat and mix with the crumbs. Add the water, and then the seasonings. When this stuffing is used, a greater allowance than usual must be made for swelling.

POTATO STUFFING

2 cups hot mashed potato
1 cup bread-crumbs
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sage
4 tablespoons melted butter or other fat
2 tablespoons onion-juice

Mix the ingredients in the order given.

CELERY STUFFING

2 cups chopped celery
2 tablespoons fat
2 cups stale bread-crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2  teaspoon pepper

Chop the celery fine. Melt the fat, add the crumbs and mix well. Add the celery, salt and pepper.

OYSTER STUFFING

2 cups oysters
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups dry bread-crumbs
1/4 cup fat

Mix the oysters well with the bread-crumbs and seasoning, and add the melted fat.

PINEAPPLE-NUT STUFFING

4 cups stale bread, 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cup celery, finely chopped
3/4 cup pineapple, small pieces
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pimiento
Dash cayenne
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs

Combine bread, celery, walnuts, pineapple, pimiento, and seasoning. Melt butter, remove from heat, stir in unbeaten eggs, add to bread mixture. Toss lightly. Use as stuffing for turkey, chicken, duck, veal roll, lamb chops or pork chops. Substitute crisp bacon cut in small pieces for nuts, reduce salt one-third and add grated onion, or substitute red or green bell pepper for pimiento.

SAUSAGE STUFFING

1/2 pound sausage-meat
2 cups dried bread-crumbs
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon onion-juice
1 tablespoon minced parsley

Mix sausage and crumbs, then add seasonings.

MUSHROOM STUFFING

3 cups stale bread-crumbs
6 tablespoons butter or other fat
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme
1 teaspoon minced parsley

Mix ingredients in the order given.

RICE STUFFING

1 cup milk
1 cup soft bread-crumbs
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter or other fat
Salt and pepper
4 cups cold boiled rice
1/2 pound sausage
Sage
Parsley
Sweet herbs

Pour the milk over the crumbs. Cook the onion in the fat until brown, then add the rice, the soaked crumbs, the sausage, and seasonings to taste.

CHESTNUT STUFFING

No. 1.

1 quart chestnuts
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper

Shell and blanch chestnuts and boil one-half hour in water enough to cover them, then drain. Do not chop or mash them. Add to them the butter, salt and pepper.

No. 2.

1 quart chestnuts
1/4 cup bread-crumbs
2 tablespoons butter or other fat
2 tablespoons cream
Salt and pepper
Onion-juice, if desired

Shell and blanch the chestnuts and cook in boiling water until tender. While they are still hot, rub them through a coarse sieve or colander. Add other ingredients in order given.

RAISIN-NUT STUFFING

2 cups stale bread crumbs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped seeded raisins
1/2 cup broken walnut meats
1 teaspoon salt
1/8  teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage

Mix ingredients together lightly with fork. Yield: 2 1/2  cups stuffing.

WILD RICE AND MUSHROOM STUFFING

1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 pound sausage meat
3 cups boiled wild rice
1 teaspoon salt

Sauté onion in 2 tablespoons butter 5 minutes, or until lightly browned, and remove from pan; add remaining 2 tablespoons butter and mushrooms, and cook 5 minutes, then remove from pan. Fry sausage meat until lightly browned, stirring constantly; remove from heat and stir in onion and mushrooms; add wild rice and salt, mixing lightly. This makes a light goose stuffing. Yields 5 cups stuffing or enough for 1 (10 lb.) goose.

GIBLET GRAVY

Giblets and neck of fowl
2 tablespoons chicken fat
2 tablespoons flour  
Salt and pepper

Place the giblets (liver, heart and gizzard) and the neck in a saucepan and cover them with cold water. Simmer slowly and when they are tender remove the flesh from the neck and chop it fine with the giblets. Save the stock in which the giblets and neck were cooked. Heat the fat in a small saucepan on top of the stove and when it is hot stir in the flour. Cook two minutes, then add one cup of the stock pouring it in gradually so that it will not thin the gravy too much. If the gravy seems too thick, add a little, hot water. Last, put in the chopped giblets and season to taste with salt and pepper.

TO CARVE POULTRY

Roast Turkey or Chicken

Let the bird rest on its back on the platter, with the drumsticks pointing toward your left. Grasp the carving-fork firmly in the left hand, with the tines pointing toward the bird's neck and the tips turned from the bird. Insert it into the leg so that one tine goes diagonally through the drumstick and the other through the second joint.

Cut all around the hip joint. Press against the side of the bird with the flat of the knife and use the fork as a lever to bend the leg back. This will separate the hip joint and the leg can be lifted off without difficulty.

Without removing the fork, lay the leg down flat, with the open end pointing, toward the left, and insert the knife from right to left between the tines of the fork. Press the knife down and it should go through the joint. At first you may have to do a little feeling around to locate the joint, but with practice you will learn how to insert the fork so that when the knife is placed between the tines it will fall directly over the joint.

Next thrust the fork into the side of the bird, rather low down, and cut the breast downward in thin even slices.

Slice the meat from the second joint and serve a slice of white meat and a slice of dark meat to each guest.

If more portions are needed, turn the bird so that it is lying with the carved side down. Separate the second leg in the same way you did the first, and slice the breast.

If the wings are needed they may be cut from the bird and divided in the same manner as the legs.

Ordinarily the tips of the wings and the drumsticks are not served with the roasted bird but are reserved for other uses.

Roast Ducks

Follow the same method as for turkeys and chickens, but keep in mind that a duck's joints are much farther toward the back than those of turkeys and chickens.

With Wild Duck, only the breast is served. Half a breast is usually removed in one portion and served to one person.

Broilers

Arrange the bird on the platter so that the neck is toward you. Insert the fork in the second joint; cut the flesh around the hip joint; bend the joint over sharply with the knife and separate it from the body. Separate the drumstick from the second joint or leave them together, as you prefer. Split the breast in two. Serve half the breast and a second joint or whole leg to each person.

Source: The American Woman's Cook Book, Culinary Arts Institute by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc., Chicago Illinois, 1939

© Trevor Dailey

 

Tea and biscuits go together for me, like some other people. Today I bought a very inexpensive brand of biscuits called Parle - G. Only 300 grams packages were available on the shelf. I bought one package in case I didn’t like them. The package is plastic wrapped, not a boxed. Opening the package, there are four plastic wrapped packages containing 15 biscuits each. The biscuit is approximately the size of a domino. 

The first thing that I notice is a pleasant odour from the still sealed biscuits. They smell good! I open one package. There are certain things I am looking for.

None of the biscuits are broken. This is a good sign. This biscuits were manufactured in Mumbai, India. The product arrived to the store shelf intact.

The biscuits are all the same colour, all identical. This indicates to me proper baking. This is important because one does not want one biscuit that looks or tastes different from the next, that looks or tastes different from the first, and so on.

A design is along the edge, and the brand name on the front. This is something I like. It tells me they take pride in their product, and they stand by it by putting their name on it. This practice is old, so I suspect this company has been around a while. It turns out they have, for 80 years.

The taste is excellent! The biscuit has just the right amount of sweetness to it. It is not a too hard biscuit. After eating one on its own, I dunk another into my tea. The biscuit turns soft very quickly, but holds together long enough without falling apart. To be fair, this biscuit is likely not intended to be dunked into hot tea, unlike the Maria biscuit that is a very good biscuit for dunking into tea.

My conclusion is I will definitely purchase and enjoy this fine biscuit again in the future. In fact, I have had to stop myself from eating the entire package in one sitting. Tea or not, these Parle - G biscuits are a quality and delicious product.

© Trevor Dailey

 

When was the last time you bought cereal? What is called ready to eat cereal that is eaten right out of the box? If you are like many people, you might have stopped buying this kind of cereal because you may believe it is an unhealthy food. There are a lot of food fads that have come and gone, and all food fads are driven mostly by the wealthy. Those people who have enough money to have the luxury of turning down food. They can be picky eaters and not go hungry. The downward trend in consumer cereal purchases is another affluent food fad.

Ready to eat cereal is claimed to be bad for you by some. It is claimed by some that grains and sugar are bad for you. Cereal is nothing but unhealthy grains and sugar, they say. When the Kellogg brothers first invented their toasted flakes of corn, it was very bland, and over time improvements were made to the taste. One of these improvements to taste was the addition of sugar.

How much sugar is in the typical can of soda? Online one will likely find some video of a person heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar into a glass to demonstrate just how much sugar is in a can of soda. One can imagine people pouring their soft drinks down the drain after watching such a video. The video is wrong (and not just because granulated sugar is not used in the making of soft drinks). In the food industry, where food product is mass produced, weight is the most accurate form of measurement. This is why on a can of soda the sugar content is in grams, and not in tablespoons. When the person in the video converts grams to tablespoons, the person gets the sugar content wrong. It is inaccurate. A tablespoon of sugar (or a sugar cube, or a packet of sugar), is not automatically the weight of a gram of sugar. Tablespoons are tablespoons, grams are grams. These units cannot be accurately interchanged. A gram of sugar must be accurately weighed to be a gram of sugar.

When I was a kid, General Mills advertised their Cheerios® cereal had less than one gram of sugar per serving. Other cereals, like Shredded Wheat, advertised no added sugar. Some cereal has more sugar, and some has less sugar. The consumer can choose. One doesn't even have to read the nutritional label to make an informed choice on sugar content because the name on the box and the picture is usually enough information. Sugar is used for a few reasons, one being taste.

Humans like the taste of sugar, the human body needs it, but more is not always better. Few people will eat spoonfuls of sugar from a bowl, or eat sugar cubes by the handful. Putting too much sugar in cereal will spoil the taste just as adding too little sugar might do the same. For example, I drink a lot of tea and I know how much sugar I need to make my tea taste how I like it. Too little or too much sugar and I have tea that I don't like the taste of. Put simply, sugar is an ingredient that is part of a recipe. Sugar is not added indiscriminately by manufactures. Doing that will result in a poor product that can't be sold. Sugar is also a commodity that is bought and sold each day on the world market. The price of sugar rises and falls daily, and manufactures want to use as little as possible of a commodity that has constant price fluctuations. Low prices are good, but high prices are bad. Sugar is not the only thing added to many cereals.

If one looks at the nutrition label on a box of ready to eat cereal, one will see that cereal is packed with added essential nutrients on top of the already present nutrients of the cereal crop (wheat, oats, or corn). Cereal has long been a simple healthy and fortified food. One of the best things about ready to eat cereal is it is inexpensive. Fortified cereal has the benefit of low cost.

Cereal does not cost much money. For people like me, cereal is an inexpensive fortified healthy food product. I need quality food at a low price. I do not follow the asinine food fads; however, food producers listen to consumers, no matter how dumb they are, because companies need to stay in business. I understand this, I know I am a consumer minority, but it is an extreme annoyance for me when alternatives to the food fads are not available. I either have to pay more for the same or lower quality, or I have to go without. I do not look forward to a day when I have to go without another healthy food product like cereal because of yet another stupid food fad.

© Trevor Dailey

Bif Naked is one of my favourite singers. She also has an incredible positive look on her life despite every bad thing she has been through including the breakup of her marriage and the worst of all her heath issues, cancer. Bif Naked, or Beth Torbert, is someone I think I would get along with very well if I knew her, notwithstanding some topics we might disagree on. Even though Beth may hold some views different than mine, I have never read or heard anything from her that I feel is self-righteous. Beth, as far as I can tell, says what she thinks, but leaves it to others make up their own minds. I agree with that. So, with that in mind, I decided to take Beth's challenge.

In 2014, Beth challenged the residents of British Columbia to try eating a "welfare diet" for one week. She did the same. What a "welfare diet" cost in BC was $21 per week for food. That isn't much for food. There is one thing Beth and I have in common: we are both former welfare recipients. I was on Ontario welfare for 5 years. That was 20 years ago, and I haven't been back in spite of more job lay offs than I can remember and continuing periods of long-term unemployment. I learned to survive without welfare. I am determined to live without welfare. I have started my "welfare diet" of only $20 per week, instead of $21. For $19.71 this is what I bought:

Light Flake Tuna: 170 grams (drained 120 grams) - 7 @ $0.99
Ketchup: 1 litre - 1 @ $2.00
Frozen Chopped Spinach: 300 grams (two portions in each package) - 7 @ $0.97
Pasta ("Tricolour" Rotini): 1.81 kilograms - 1 @ $3.99

That leaves me with $0.29 to add to my $20 food budget next week. 

One might argue that it would be clear to anyone that this is not enough food to last one week, even for a single person like me. I can only speak for myself. It might be a challenge to make that food last, just like Beth probably intended to show; but the answer isn't adding more money to the welfare cheque. The answer is jobs for those who want to work because one can have a lot more than $20 - $21 for food each week by working. The more socialism we have, the less work there is for people, and the more money those working have to give up to those who are not working. The more capitalism we have, the better off everyone is. 

Know that your place in life
Is where you want to be
Don’t let them tell you that
You owe it all to me

Live for yourself, there’s no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts
Will only cry for more

Anthem by RUSH

Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Lyrics: Neil Peart

© Trevor Dailey 

Just Right show 391 – The allure of the irrational / Contradiction / Superstition discussed how it seems many people today think, or don't think. There seems to be so much of the later. Many more examples can be pointed to, but I thought of a couple after I bought some sweet potatoes and rutabagas at the grocery store.

I am not sure where the sweet potatoes and rutabagas I bought came from, but they certainly were not 'local'. The price was affordable to me, and the quality was to my standards. But since the sweet potatoes and rutabagas were not 'local' by some twisted thinking I did something wrong by buying them. I don't buy anything because it is 'local'. Quality food at a fair price is what I want. I don't care where it comes from.

There are a few reasons why humans have been trading with each other for thousands of years, and the best reason is honest trade benefits both parties. Closed markets and protectionism (like Canada's so-called 'Dairy Cartel' which is buying local on a massive scale) benefits only one party. The sweet potatoes and rutabagas were not 'organic' either.

'Organic', Kosher, and Halal are all similar to me. They are based in religion, and are not better for you nutritionally, or safer for you than other foods. 'Organic' is the Kosher and Halal of the environmentalist's religion. The difference is the Jews and Muslims choose to eat their food prepared to their religious beliefs, but they do not try to force everyone else to eat the same way they eat as the environmental movement is determined to do when it comes to 'organic' food.

Not all Jews eat Kosher, and not all Muslims eat Halal, but if you don't eat 'organic' you can't be an environmentalist because, according to the self-righteous of them, you are destroying nature. I think, and eat, for myself. 

© Trevor Dailey

The food industry is one of the most competitive and crazy industries there is. Competitive because there are so many food producing companies out there making all kinds of food products that are all competing for the money in shopper's pockets, from the snack cakes to the breakfast cereal. Crazy because there are a bunch of people lacking intelligence or common sense on the Internet spreading misinformation and lies about modern food products.

We live in a world of fear instead of curiosity. What is not understood is not met with reason and objective investigation it is attacked with ignorance and self-righteousness. I see this frequently in the unfounded attacks against harmless additives and natural occurring proteins in food. Unfortunately, food manufacturers seem to think they need to cater to these asinine fads and trends, or they capitulate to the demands of the Internet food ignoramus.

Since the processing of raw materials and the manufacture of foods in factories began companies have been making sure the food they are selling to their customers is the best quality that they can offer. Quality ingredients have always been the first part of a successful food manufacturing operation. Food manufacturers do not put anything into their food that would cause harm to anyone consuming their product. That would put the Company out of business fast and would have legal ramifications. Many eat the same food they produce and sell. Employees of a big food company usually buy the brands their company makes, people working in the fast food restaurants usually eat the food prepared there. The owners and workers in the food industry are not mindless and immoral people.   

Food safety, quality product control, and sanitary conditions at a food producing facility are paramount. A recall of a product will cost a company thousands or even millions of dollars. Each food additive is tested with rigour for safety before being approved for use. Ingredients are a big and expensive part of food production and companies don't use an ingredient they don't have a reason for using. It is preposterous to even suggest that a company is poisoning its customers, and yet this is exactly what some people are promoting.

I hear some people say, "it doesn't need to be in the bread" referring to some additive in bread. My reply would be milk, butter, eggs, raisins, nuts, or cranberries don't have to be in bread either. In fact, bread can be reduced to just flour and water if that is what one wants, but it is a chemical additive they might argue. Here it starts. This anti-chemical, anti-science, anti-company campaign we see today.

Yes, humans use chemicals. Humans learned about chemicals from nature. Nature taught humans about chemicals because nature started using chemicals first, and humans saw the benefits of chemical use. Chemistry was created from what humans learned from nature. Chemicals are used in industry and in medicine. Just because it is a chemical does not mean it is harmful, nor does something natural mean it is not harmful. The vitamins and minerals added to fortified ready to eat cereal, for example, are synthetic (chemicals). These additives are beneficial, not harmful. 

A food product can be used in an non food application. Vegetable oil can be used to cook food and it can be used to power a diesel engine. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is used in baking as a leavening agent, used in effervescent drinks, and used in fire extinguishers. These non food uses does not mean vegetable oil and baking soda is harmful in food. 

The dosage is the poison. Solanine is a poison found naturally in potatoes that in large dosages can lead to death. However, the small amount ingested by eating potatoes is harmless. One would have to eat about 70 large potatoes in one sitting to receive a lethal dosage of solanine that is found in the potato. Would one stop eating potatoes and campaign with an Internet petition for the potato to be banned because the potato contains solanine? 

Many food additives are so small they are calculated in PPM (part(s) per million). A safe additive common in the fast food industry to make the bread rise more has a legal limit of 45 PPM. 1 PPM is 1 milligram of something per 1 litre of something, or 1 kilogram of something. If the maximum amount of the additive allowed is 45 PPM, then the maximum amount of additive in 45 kilograms of dough is just 45 milligrams.

The standard amount of the additive used is far lower than the maximum allowed, but even if the maximum was used each time, that 45 milligrams would be spread out over the number of loaves of bread made from the 45 kg of dough. In the end, the bread one would eat would have so little of the additive in it the additive would be barely detectable, if detectable at all because of its low PPM, and that this particular additive breaks down during baking. The additive even in its low PPM amounts still increases the rising of the bread loaf, and that is why this safe additive is used.

Unfortunately, I can't put these Internet food idiots in a time machine and send them back to a time before we had modern food processing and preservation to know just how much our food has improved over the years, and how it is the best it has ever been in both quality and convenience. That is where they want to take us, back in time. They don't know what it is like to have to take hours preparing each meal, food that lacked nutrients, was scarce, spoiled easily, having to deal with mouldy bread, or insects living in their food. If one does not like a type of food product, one has the choice to not buy it, but one does not have the right to force anyone else to do the same. 

A company must give what its customers want, but there is a line between serving customers with integrity, and promoting misinformation and lies to them to make some easy money. Food manufactures are playing a dangerous game by following nonsensical trends and fads, not standing by their products, and especially by not fighting back against the Internet food ignoramus.

© Trevor Dailey

carbohydrate |kɑːbəˈhʌɪdreɪt|

noun

Biochemistry any of a large group of organic compounds occurring in foods and living tissues and including sugars, starch, and cellulose. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as water (2:1) and typically can be broken down to release energy in the animal body.

Source: Oxford Dictionary

gluten |ˈgluːt(ə)n|

noun

a substance present in cereal grains, esp. wheat, that is responsible for the elastic texture of dough. A mixture of two proteins, it causes illness in people with celiac disease. ORIGIN late 16th cent. (originally denoting protein from animal tissue): via French from Latin, literally ‘glue.’

Source: Oxford Dictionary

"Buy local" is a slogan used a lot in the retail food market, specifically in agriculture. The slogan is intended to convince shoppers to buy all their food, mostly fruits and vegetables, that has been "locally grown". What the boundary is for "local" I do not know. 

I never really understood the "buy local" movement. Looking into the reasons for "buying local", I found a lot of specious arguments.

What "buy local" is really about is certain food producers not wanting competition. They do not want to have to compete with other food producers for customers. They want a closed market.

Unless one wants to have a very limited choice in food, it all cannot be grown locally. Crops also fail sometimes. When was the last time there were no potatoes at the store because the season's potato crop had failed? Prince Edward Island and Idaho grow potatoes too.

We have so much food, and there is so much we can buy at the store. Foods that we take for granted today people generations ago would have thought such foodstuffs luxuries, or even unheard of. Apples were once the only winter fruit available to people because there were no other fruits that could be grown and stored through winter.

The fact that one has access to a world food market, there is competition among agriculture producers for customers, and consumers having choice, should be something one considers to be of great benefit to the producer and the consumer; because it is.

© Trevor Dailey

Abbott: Do you know they spend millions of dollars every year to put up factories just to manufacture mustard? Do you know those factories employ thousands and thousands of men just to manufacture mustard? Do you know those men take care of thousands of families and homes all on a count of mustard? And you, just because you don't like mustard. What do you want them to do? close those factories down and put all those people out of work?

Costello: You mean to sit there and tell me just because I don't eat mustard I'm [going to] close down a mustard factory? Are you trying to tell me that those thousands of people are making one little jar of mustard like this just for me? Well, if they are, you can tell 'em not to make anymore 'cause I'm not [going to] eat it!

Abbott and Costello: The Noose Hangs High (1948)

Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when we get together with friends and family and enjoy eating a feast. The Autumn harvest was once all the food one had to live on until crops could be harvested again in the new year. Of course, things have changed since the days we had to live on the Autumn harvest through the Winter. Food is plentiful throughout the year, and if there is something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving then I suggest this would be it. Unfortunately, people today are turning on their food in greater numbers than ever before.

One of the most persistent attacks on our food is objections to additives and preservatives. These two things are considered by many to be harmful, and should be removed from foodstuffs. Without offering a shred of scientific evidence, some people claim our food is poison. These people do do not know what it was like to live without the additives and preservatives in food we have today. Back then, sometimes people really got sick from eating their spoiled food, and sometimes people starved from not having enough food to eat. Lets look at a few of the reasons safe additives and safe preservatives are added to our food today.

An additive might be mixed with the bread dough so that the bread rises to a higher volume than regular bread giving a better value to the consumer. An additive could be a vitamin that is added to increase the nutritional value of the food. Fortified cereal is an example of this. Your body does not care where the nutrients come from, nor whether the nutrients are natural or synthetic or not. An additive can also be a flavouring ingredient, or a food colouring. We like to eat food that tastes and looks good.

Preservatives are most important for health reasons. Some preservatives, for example, inhibit mold growth in bread. Some types of mold can create toxins harmful to human health. This was a serious problem in the past. Our bread does not go moldy after a few days. Preservatives might also help keep insects from contaminating foodstuffs by keeping the food from spoiling sooner. Our biscuits are not crawling with bugs after a while. There is also the change in habits of the shopper. Most of us do not buy food each day, we buy our food usually once per week. Because of this, food needs to last longer in our cupboards, and on store shelves. Many of us tend to buy more food than we can eat before it would normally spoil. Mechanical refrigeration and canning has gone a long way in foodstuff preservation, but not all our foodstuffs is refrigerated or canned. Preservatives, and additives, are used in minuscule amounts in our food because that is all that is needed. This is a long way from the days when meat was coated with salt and packed in brine to persevere it. This required a lot of salt, time, and expertise because if not done correctly the meat would still spoil.

Too many people today believe in the false conclusion that additives and preservatives in food are harmful despite the stringent burden of proof requirement before any food additive or preservative is approved to be safe, and the scientific evidence. Just because one can not pronounce the scientific name, or because one does not know what the additive or preservative is, or its purpose, or something was on the Internet, or in a book, or was said by some person, is not proof anything in the food is harmful.

© Trevor Dailey

A few of the reasons why I do not support capital punishment are:

It does not deter murder (A weak argument. Which judicial punishment deters any crime?)

Innocent people, the wrongly convicted, will be executed. The justice system is not infallible, and it never will be. I will not have an innocent person executed in order to have a guilty person executed.

I have an issue with government sanctioned killing of citizens.

Canada abolished capital punishment (Canada's method of execution was hanging) on July 14, 1976, but there have since been attempts to reinstate it.

I am going to briefly comment on a "documentary" I watched online called "The Last Supper: The Life of the Death Row Chef" (2005) This is my opinion of the film.

The film contains many interesting, but trivial, bits of information on the last meal of the convicted and condemned to death throughout history. Scattered throughout the film are short, seemingly random, interviews with different people from several countries involved in judicial executions: a warden, an executioner, a judge, one person once condemned to death, but not executed.

Brian Price, the former "death row chef" is the feature of the film. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Price was sentenced to 15 years in a Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas for a crime (rape of his ex wife) he says he didn't actually commit. A former "professional photographer" and "professional bass player" for "different hard rock bands" from "1975 to 1988" the middled aged, greying, ponytailed Price is back in Huntsville, still a chef from his prison days, to prepare the same last meal he prepared for an executed Texas murderer.

The film is obvious in its attempt to gain sympathy for the condemned to death, and the film is far more art than documentary containing many "artistic" visuals. One is food falling in slow motion onto a table with a white table cloth as the screen titles list the amount of food from a feast some centuries ago before an execution. After thinking how it shows I am not watching an objective documentary, but rather a modern art film, my mind drifted to thoughts of all the food they were wasting (I am not a wealthy man), especially the many pounds of meat, in this pointless visual effect. However; it was their food to do with what they wished. 

During the cuts of Price in the film, as he prepares the meal at the Harvest Church kitchen, he speaks his commentary against the death penalty in Texas, and how he became the so-called death row chef. Price tells his story of volunteering to prepare a last meal while incarcerated working as a cook. Price's face is emotional as he recalls his first last meal for man who was executed, and that the man gave a message for Price before he died that he "really liked his meal, and he appreciated it". This made Price decide to volunteer to be the last meal chef for 11 years preparing hundreds of last meals.

Price appears likeable, friendly, articulate, and a smart person who doesn't seem like he spent a day in jail. His stories, true or not, like the story of Patrick Rogers' execution, are clearly intended to provoke sympathy for the condemned to death, to create a loathing for capital punishment in general, and capital punishment in Texas specifically.

During the film, Price speaks the name of the executed person whose last meal Price is recreating: James Beathard. At the end of the film, Price is shown going to the prison cemetery where Price locates the grave of Lawrence Buxton, the person he made his first last meal for, the one whose comments on his last meal moved Price so much that Price became the death row chef.

I found this film only annoyed me because of its lack of objectivity before I looked up the names of the executed mentioned in the film. Now the film disgusts me. The film wants the viewer to feel sympathy for Beathard, Buxton, and Rogers, three condemned and executed murders who were cold-blooded killers.

I am still not supporting capital punishment, but I find this anti-death penalty film to be self-righteous and repugnant.

© Trevor Dailey