Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie Published: 1840
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VENISON, Etc.
TO ROAST A SADDLE OR HAUNCH OF VENISON.
Wipe it all over with a sponge dipped in warm water Then rub the
skin with lard or nice dripping. Cover the fat with sheets of
paper two double, buttered, and tied on with packthread that has
been soaked to keep it from burning. Or, what is still better, you
may cover the first sheets of paper with a coarse paste of flour
and water rolled out half an inch thick, and then cover the paste
with the second sheets of paper, securing the whole well with the
string to prevent its falling off. Place the venison on the spit
before a strong clear fire, such as you would have for a sirloin
of beef, and let the fire be well kept up all the time. Put some
claret and butter into the dripping-pan and baste the meat with it
frequently. If wrapped in paste, it will not be done in less than
five hours. Half an hour before you take it up, remove the
coverings carefully, place the meat nearer to the fire, baste it
with fresh butter and dredge it very lightly with flour. Send it
to table with fringed white paper wrapped round the bone, and its
own gravy well skimmed. Have currant jelly to eat with it. As
venison chills immediately, the plates should be kept on heaters.
You may make another gravy with a pound and a half of scraps and
trimmings or inferior pieces of venison, put into a sauce-pan with
three pints of water, a few cloves, a few blades of mace, half a
nutmeg; and salt and cayenne to your taste. Boil it down slowly to
a pint. Then skim off the fat, and strain the gravy into a clean
sauce-pan. Add to it half a pint of currant jelly, half a pint of
claret, and near a quarter of a pound of butter divided into bits
and rolled in flour. Send it to table in two small tureens or
sauce-boats. This gravy will be found very fine.
Venison should never be roasted unless very fat. The shoulder is a
roasting piece, and may be done without the paper or paste.
Venison is best when quite fresh; but if it is expedient to keep
it a week before you cook it, wash it well with milk and water,
and then dry it perfectly with cloths till there is not the least
damp remaining on it. Then mix together powdered ginger and
pepper, and rub it well over every part of the meat. Do not,
however, attempt to keep it unless the weather is quite cold.
TO HASH COLD VENISON.
Cut the meat in nice small slices, and put the trimmings and bones
into a sauce-pan with barely water enough to cover them. Let them
stew for an hour. Then strain the liquid into a stew-pan; add to
it some bits of butter rolled in flour, and whatever gravy was
left of the venison the day before. Stir in some currant jelly,
and give it a boil up. Then put in the meat, and keep it over the
fire just long enough to warm it through; but do not allow it to
boil, as it has been once cooked already.
VENISON STEAKS.
Cut them from the neck or haunch. Season them with pepper and
salt. When the gridiron has been well heated over a bed of bright
coals, grease the bars, and lay the steaks upon it. Broil them
well, turning them once, and taking care to save as much of the
gravy as possible. Serve them up with some currant jelly laid on
each steak. Have your plates set on heaters.
VENISON PASTY.
The neck, breast, and shoulder are the parts used for a venison
pie or pasty. Cut the meat into pieces (fat and lean together) and
put the bones and trimmings into a stew-pan with pepper and salt,
and water or veal broth enough to cover it. Simmer it till you
have drawn out a good gravy. Then strain it.
In the mean time make a good rich paste, and roll it rather thick.
Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with one sheet of it,
and put in your meat, having seasoned it with pepper, salt,
nutmeg, and mace. Pour in the gravy which you have prepared from
the trimmings, and two glasses of port or claret, and lay on the
top some hits of butter rolled in flour. Cover the pie with a
thick lid of paste, and ornament it handsomely with leaves and
flowers formed with a tin cutter. Bake it two hours or more,
according to its size.
VENISON HAMS.
Venison for hams must be newly killed, and in every respect as
good as possible. Mix together equal quantities of salt and brown
sugar, and rub it well into the hams. Put them into a tub, and let
them lie seven days; turning them and rubbing them daily with the
mixture of salt and sugar. Next mix together saltpetre and common
salt, in the proportion of two ounces of saltpetre to a handful of
salt. Rub it well into your hams, and let them lie a week longer.
Then wipe them, rub them with bran, and smoke them a fortnight
over hickory wood. Pack them in wood ashes.
Venison ham must not be cooked before it is eaten. It is used for
the tea-table, chipped or shred like dried beef, to which it is
considered very superior.
It will not keep as long as other smoked meat.
TO ROAST A KID.
A kid should be cooked the day it is killed, or the day after at
farthest. They are best from three to four months old, and are
only eaten while they live on milk.
Wash the kid well, wipe it dry, and truss it. Stuff the body with
a force-meat of grated bread, butter or suet, sweet herbs, pepper,
salt, nutmeg, grated lemon-peel, and beaten egg; and sew it up to
keep the stuffing in its place. Put it on the spit and rub it over
with lard, or sweet oil. Put a little salt and water into the
dripping-pan, and baste the kid first with that, and afterwards
with its own gravy. Or you may make it very nice by basting it
with cream. It should roast about three hours. At the last,
transfer the gravy to a small sauce-pan; thicken it with a little
butter rolled in flour, give it a boil up, and send it to table in
a boat. Garnish the kid with lumps of currant jelly laid round the
edge of the dish.
A fawn (which should never be kept more than one day) may be
roasted in the same manner; also, a hare, or a couple of rabbits.
You may send to table, to eat with the kid, a dish of chestnuts
boiled or roasted, and divested of the shells.
TO ROAST A HARE.
If a hare is old do not roast it, but make soup of it. Wash and
soak it in water for an hour, and change the water several times,
having made a little slit in the neck to let out the blood. Take
out the heart and liver, and scald them. Drain, dry, and truss the
hare. Make a force-meat richer and more moist than usual, and add
to it the heart and liver minced fine. Soak the bread-crumbs in a
little claret before you mix them with the other ingredients.
Stuff the body of the hare with this force-meat, and sew it up.
Put it on the spit, rub it with butter, and roast it before a
brisk fire. For the first half hour baste it with butter; and
afterwards with cream, or with milk thickened with beaten yolk of
egg. At the last, dredge it lightly with flour. The hare will
require about two hours roasting.
For sauce, take the drippings of the hare mixed with cream or with
claret, and a little lemon-juice, a bit of butter, and some bread-crumbs.
Give it a boil up, and send it to table in a boat. Garnish
the hare with slices of currant jelly laid round it in the dish.
FRICASSEED RABBITS.
The best way of cooking rabbits is to fricassee them. Take a
couple of fine ones, and cut them up, or disjoint them. Put them
into a stew-pan; season them with cayenne pepper and salt, some
chopped parsley, and some powdered mace. Pour in a pint of warm
water (or of veal broth, if you have it) and stew it over a slow
fire till the rabbits are quite tender; adding (when they are
about half done) some bits of butter rolled in flour. Just before
you take it from the fire, enrich the gravy with a jill or more of
thick cream with some nutmeg grated into it. Stir the gravy well,
but take care not to let it boil after the cream is in, lest it
curdle.
Put the pieces of rabbit on a hot dish, and pour the gravy over
them.
TO STEW RABBITS.
Having trussed the rabbits, lay them in a pan of warm water for
about fifteen minutes. Then put them into a pot with plenty of
water and a little salt, and stew them slowly for about an hour,
or till they are quite tender. In the mean time, peel and boil in
a sauce-pan a dozen onions. When they are quite tender all
through, take them out, and drain and slice them. Have ready some
drawn, butter, prepared by taking six ounces of butter, (cut into
bits and rolled in about three tea-spoonfuls of flour,) and
melting it in a jill of milk. After shaking it round-over hot
coals till it simmers, add to it the onions, and give it one boil
up.
When the rabbits are done stewing lay them on a large dish (having
first cut off their heads, which should not he sent to table) and
cover them all over with the onion-sauce, to which you may add
some grated nutmeg.
TO FRY RABBITS.
Having washed the rabbits well, put them into a pan of cold water,
and let them lie in it two or three hours. Then cut them into
joints, dry them in a cloth, dredge them with flour, strew them
with chopped parsley, and fry them in butter. After you take them
out of the frying-pan, stir a wine-glass of cream into the gravy,
or the beaten yolk of an egg. Do not let it boil, but pour it at
once into the dish with the rabbits.
Rabbits are very good baked in a pie. A boiled or pot-pie may be
made of them.
They may he stuffed with force-meat and roasted, basting them with
butter. Cut off their heads before you send them to table.
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