Читать книгу A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery - Juliet Corson - Страница 11

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After the quail have been picked, cut the wings off at the first joint, cut the legs just above the joint of the drum-stick. Cut off the head, take out the crop, cut the quail down the back bone; from the inside, cut the joint where the wing joins the body; and having cut that wing joint, begin and cut close to the carcass of the bird till you get down to the leg joint, where the second joint of the leg unites with the body; break that joint, and keep on cutting the flesh from the carcass, taking care not to cut through the carcass so that you strike the intestines until you reach the ridge of the breast bone; close to the breast bone you will find that little division in the flesh of the breast which you have noticed in carving chickens and turkeys; it is called the little filet, and lies close to the breast bone; separate this natural division from the outside of the breast. Then beginning again on the other side, cut close to the carcass of the bird until you have reached the breast, as on the other side. Now the flesh is loose on both sides of the bird, and needs only to be taken off without breaking the skin of the breast. You would bone chickens and turkeys in the same way. Take the carcass out entire. Now take out the wing and leg bones from the inside. Do not tear the skin of the bird any more than you can help. Now lay the flesh on the table, with the skin down, and straighten it out a little, distributing the flesh evenly over the skin, and it is ready to stuff. If I were making boned turkey I should have it all ready, just like this, and then put the force meat in, draw the bird up over the force meat, and sew it down the back. This bird is simply going to be broiled. Season with salt and pepper. In preparing boned birds you can use any kind of force meat—a layer of sausage meat, or any kind of chopped cold meat; season it with salt and pepper. Put the birds between the bars of the wire gridiron, and broil them with a very hot fire. The gridiron should be well buttered, so that the birds can not stick. By the time the bird is broiled brown on both sides it will be done. Of course you do half a dozen or a dozen in the same way precisely. Remember, ladies, always, that to broil you should use the hottest fire you can get—the hottest and the clearest fire, because part of the success of broiling depends upon quickly cooking the outside, while the inside of anything you are broiling still remains juicy. If you had a wood fire you would broil over the fire. If you broil over the fire you must expect the blaze to rise, and you must naturally suppose the meat will be smoked; but you can make your fire clear—that is, have it alive; do not have it smoky and full of unburnt wood or coal; have a clear bed of coals if you are going to broil over the fire.

Question. Do you never wash the birds before boiling?

Answer. No; you will find that I am very un-neat about that. In the first place, I would not use a piece of meat or a bird of any kind that was really dirty enough to need washing. If it had anything on it that I could not get off by wiping with a wet cloth, I simply wouldn’t use it. If you wash meat or poultry you destroy a certain amount of its flavoring and take away some of its nourishment.

Question. Sometimes a bird shot will have a great deal of the blood settle in the breast or in the flesh.

Miss Corson. Yes; you want the blood; you want to keep the blood there. The blood is a part of the nourishment. The idea of washing meat comes from the old Hebrew prohibition which involved the removal of every particle of blood. You know that the Hebrews believed that the blood was the life and even to this day every particle of blood is taken away from their meat, not only by washing after it comes into the house, but before that by the treatment it receives from the butcher. The blood is a part of the nourishment, and you want to keep as much of it as you can; in some cooking it forms a very important part; for instance, in cooking a hare or rabbit, the blood which escapes in the dressing is saved and used.

Question. Would you treat prairie chicken, grouse or partridge in this way?

Miss Corson. Yes, in the same way.

Question. Not if you were going to roast turkey?

Miss Corson. One of my good friends in the far Northwest several years ago sent me a nice recipe for making a fricassee of chicken which I will tell you. The recipe said that after the chicken was picked you might wash it thoroughly with nice soap, then rinse it. (Laughter.) Now if you like you can prepare it that way. No, you will find, ladies, that if you use a cloth well wet in cold water you can remove all objectionable matter from the outside of meat or poultry. Indeed, if a piece of meat or poultry can not be cleaned with a wet cloth, it is not clean enough to use. One lady asks me about keeping meat for a long time. Of course that is a question of taste entirely, whether you like meat hung a long time or whether you like it fresh. All meat, when it is first killed, whether it is poultry, or game, or the ordinary domestic meat, is very tender. It is tender until the flesh begins to grow cold, until the animal heat, etc., parts from the flesh. Then it becomes tough, rigid and hard, and remains so until the process of decomposition begins. I do not mean until it begins to taint, but until it begins to decompose; at that point it begins to grow tender; it is still fresh and good enough for food. Remember that the hanging of meat is for the purpose of allowing it to begin to decompose.