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A FEW THINGS I OBJECT TO, THAT IS, NOT TO USE IN COOKERY COMESTIBLES WHEN OUT OF, OR BEFORE, THEIR PROPER SEASON.

For Butcher’s Meat, see page 637, Kitchen at Home.

In Poultry. I never use turkeys before Michaelmas, and not after the latter end of March.

Ditto turkey poults before the end of June, and not after September.

Capons, poulardes, pullets, and fowls, I use all the year round. I begin about March with the spring chickens, till the beginning of July.

Geese are in season almost all the year round.

Goslings, or green geese, commence early in the spring, and are called so till the end of September, thus there is hardly any difference between them and the Michaelmas geese.

Ducks and ducklings the same.

Rabbits and pigeons may be used all the year round; but it is only in the early part of the spring that I use tame rabbits.

Guinea-fowls are used when pheasants go out, which is about the latter end of January, and are used till the end of May. Their eggs are very good, more delicate than the common ones.

I never use grouse before the 14th Aug., nor after the 22d December.

Black cocks and gray hens about the same time as grouse, but they are more uncertain.

Ptarmigans are sent from Norway about the middle of January, and continue till March, but that depends upon the weather.

Though the shooting season for partridges is the first of September, and lasts till the end of January, I never cook one before the 3d, except being desired to do so, but I often keep some for three weeks after the shooting season is over.

The same with pheasants, which begins from the 1st of October till the end of January. By hanging them by the necks and putting a piece of garlic in the beak and a little cayenne, I one cold winter kept one six weeks after the shooting time had expired, which I afterwards presented to a party of real gourmets, who said it was the best they had partaken of during the season.

I always use wild ducks, widgeons, teal, pintails, larks, golden plovers, snipes, woodcocks from the commencement of November till the end of March, after which the flesh becomes rank and unfit for table.

Young pea-fowls are very good, and make a noble roast, see p. 401, and are in season from January till June, but they are very uncertain.

Plovers’ eggs, my favorite, an unparalleled delicacy, come about the middle of March, and are not considered good after the latter end of May; but when I can get them fresh in June, I do not discontinue their use, because they are, in my estimation, worthy of the patronage of the greatest gourmet. I have paid for them, at the beginning of the season, three shillings and sixpence each; they are the black plover or peweet’s eggs.