a tumbler of hot water and a tumbler of white Burgundy or Bordeaux wine; salt and pepper. Add a few mushrooms, a truffle, a bunch of parsley, a little garlic and nutmeg, and twelve small onions. Put the rabbit, cut in pieces, into the pan, and let it boil slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Dish the pieces of rabbit, take the parsley and garlic out of the pan; thicken the sauce with a liaison (see No. 66), and pour it upon the rabbit.

211. Lapereau sauté.

See Levraut sauté (No. 205).

CHAPTER XI.

GIBIER A PLUMES-FLYING GAME.

Faisan (Pheasan.).

Hang it for eight or ten days in winter, for three or four in summer. Some people lard pheasants and, indeed, all pieces of game; but it is much better to lay a thin slice of fat bacon upon the breast, so as to cover it, and to place a large vine-leaf, if you have any, upon the bacon. Larding game is a bad method: the gravy comes out of the bird through the holes made in larding, and dries on the surface; whereas, the way indicated above keeps the bird juicy, and the vineleaf gives it a delicate flavour.

The feathers of a pheasant are not to be plucked off the head: roll several layers of well-buttered paper around the head, and take them off when the bird is roasted.

212. Faisan rôti (Roasted Pheasant).

Proceed as above, then roast the pheasant at a moderate fire: three-quarters of an hour is sufficient. If you have any truffles, cut them in slices, and add them to the gravy about half an hour before the pheasant is done. Serve with the gravy under the

bird, or with a sauce piquante (see Sauce piquante, No. 54) separately.

213. Faisan à l'étouffée.

Cut some slices of fat bacon, cover them with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg; let them remain so for an hour; take them either to bard1 or to lard the pheasant. Lay some thin slices of raw ham, bacon, and veal at the bottom of a pan, put the pheasant thereupon, with two carrots cut in slices, and two large onions with cloves stuck in them, salt and pepper; add a tumbler of white Burgundy wine and a tumbler of water, or broth, if you have any. Set the pan on a slow fire, and put some red charcoal on the lid. Let it simmer for an hour; dish the pheasant and keep it warm; pass the gravy through a fine sieve in another pan, which you put on a quick fire; add to the gravy a few chopped truffles, and pour it upon the pheasant.

214. Faisan en salmis.

Roast one or two pheasants under-done; let them cool. Prepare a sauce de salmis (see No. 53), carve the pheasants as if they were to be served, put them in the sauce until they are done, and serve them upon

toast.

215. Perdrix (Partridge).

Red partridges are much better than the common partridges, but they are generally much dearer. When you want to truffle a partridge, do it four or five days before roasting it, and proceed as for Dinde trufféc (see Index).

1 To lay a thin piece of bawn upon the breast of the fowl.

216. Perdreau à la broche (Roasted Partridge).

If it is young, roast it like a pheasant (see No. 212), only pluck the head, and serve with slices of orange around the dish.

The remains of a roasted partridge may be served cold with a mayonnaise (see No. 61).

217. Perdrix en salmis.

Roast it under-done, and let it cool.

Prepare a

sauce de salmis (see No. 53), carve the partridge, and put it in the sauce until it is done.

218. Perdrix à l'étouffée.

Lard the breast of the partridge, and put it in a pan with four ounces of butter and four ounces of lean bacon or ham; let the whole take colour; add a tumbler of white Burgundy wine, two carrots cut in slices, two onions, three cloves, a tumbler of boiling water, salt, pepper, a bay-leaf and a little thyme, a bunch of parsley. Let the whole simmer on a slow fire for an hour, and keep some red charcoal on the lid of the pan. Dish the partridge, and keep it warm; pass the gravy through a fine sieve into another pan, and let it boil quickly to get thicker; when it is thick enough squeeze into it the juice of a lemon, and pour it upon the partridge.

If you have a handful of mushrooms put them into the pan with the other seasoning.

If the partridge is to be eaten in a private way— that is, if there are no guests to dinner-the vegetables,

such as carrots, mushrooms, and onions, may be served along with the partridge.

219. Perdrix aux choux.

Put six ounces of butter in a pan on a brisk fire, when it is very hot add six ounces of bacon cut in dice, and four sausages: let them take colour, and take them out of the pan. Cut one or two cabbages through the middle, put them in the pan and let them become of a light brown; take them out and put the partridge in their stead; when of a nice colour take it out. Mix a table-spoonful of flour with the butter and when it is of a dark brown pour upon it two tumblers of boiling water, or broth if you have any. Put the partridge in the pan, and around it the dice of bacon, two onions with cloves stuck in each, two carrots cut in slices, a bay-leaf, a bunch of parsley, a little thyme tied together, and let the gravy boil away for five minutes.

This is a very good way to cook old partridges which cannot be roasted,

220. Canard (Duck).

Wild ducks are infinitely superior to tame ducks ; sometimes they are so fat that the only way is to roast them, for if you put vegetables along with them they would be oily: the greater part of the fat is to be removed from the gravy and used for cooking all sorts of vegetables.