POULTRY.

PICK, singe, draw, clean and season them well inside and out, with salt mixed with a little ginger and pepper, and then stuff them with well seasoned bread dressing. Pack them closely in a deep stew pan and cover with flakes of butter or goose fat, minced parsley and a little chopped onion. Cover with a lid that fits close and stew gently, adding water when necessary. Do not let them get too brown. They should be of a light yellow.

Squabs are a great delicacy, especially in the convalescent's menu, being peculiarly savory and nourishing. Clean the squabs; lay them in salt water for about ten minutes and then rub dry with a clean towel. Split them down the back and broil over a clear coal fire. Season with salt and pepper; lay them on a heated platter and butter or grease them liberally with goose fat and cover with a deep platter. Now toast a piece of bread for each pigeon, removing the crust. Dip the toast in boiling water for an instant. In serving lay a squab upon a piece of toast. Crabapple jelly is a nice accompaniment.

Select a nice, fat turkey and see that it is young. If the breastbone yields to the touch or pressure of your finger it is the one you want. Singe, wash and clean thoroughly and let it lay it salt water for a quarter of an hour. In the meantime prepare this dressing: Soak a stale loaf of baker's white bread. Heat some goose fat (about a tablespoonful) in a spider and cut up an onion quite fine and throw it into the hot fat. Squeeze every drop of water out of the bread, and put it in the hot fat to dry. Remove from the fire, throw the bread into a bowl, season with salt, pepper, ginger and a little nutmeg and add two tablespoonfuls of canned tomatoes, or one fresh one, and two eggs. Mix as you would dough. After having rubbed the turkey inside and out with salt, pepper and a very little ground ginger, stuff it with the prepared dressing, sew up and leave in refrigerator until next day. If my readers will try this method of dressing poultry the day previous to using, they will surely try it again as it helps to season the meat and renders it much more juicy. I frequently have the dressing prepared before the butcher delivers the poultry. It saves time.

Singe off all the small feathers; cut off neck and wings, which may be used for soup; wash thoroughly and rub well with salt, ginger and a little pepper, inside and out. Now prepare this dressing: Take the liver, gizzard and heart and chop to a powder in chopping bowl. Grate in a little nutmeg, add a piece of celery root, half an onion and a tomato. Put all this into your chopping bowl. Soak some stale bread, squeeze out all the water and fry in a spider of hot fat. Throw this soaked bread into the bowl; add one or two eggs, salt, pepper and a speck of ginger and mix all thoroughly. Fill the duck with this and sew it up. Lay in the roasting pan with slices of onions, celery and tomatoes and specks of fat. Put some on top of fowl; roast covered up tight and baste often. Roast two hours.

Joint a chicken; season with salt and ground ginger and boil in a deep porcelain-lined dish with water enough to just cover. Allow one-half pound of rice to one chicken. Boil this after chicken is tender. Serve together on a large platter. If prepared separately it will require less attention. This is a wholesome dish.

After the goose has been picked, take some old newspapers, light them in a coal-bucket, hold the goose over the flames in this way: Take the neck in your left hand and the feet in your right, swing it back and forth over the blaze until the little hairs are all singed off, being very, very careful that your dress or apron does not take fire. Now wash the goose and take out all pin feathers. Make an incision in the stomach just large enough to insert your hand, take out the fat and loosen the entrails with your forefinger. When everything is removed, wash out well with salt water and cut off the wings close to the body, also the neck, feet and head. Separate the gall from the liver. In doing this be very careful not to break the gall, which has a very thin skin. Lay the liver in salt water. Srape all the fat off carefully that adheres to the entrails and lay it in a separate dish of water over night. Cut off the point and top of the heart and cut open so as to let out all of the congealed blood. Cut open the gizzard, clean and pull off the skin, or inner lining, as it is called. Lay gizzard and feet in boiling water to scald the skin, which can then be easily removed. Chop off nails of the feet, and if you make use of the head, which you may in soup, cut off the top of the bill. Split open the head lengthwise, take out brains, eyes and tongue.

All goose meat tastes better if it is well rubbed with salt, ginger and a very little garlic a day or two previous to using. Now, to roast a goose, prepare as above directed and dress with bread dressing, or chestnuts--a dressing of apples is also very nice. Sew up, then line a sheet iron pan with a few slices of onion and celery and lay the goose upon this, breast downward. Fill up half way with water, cover closely and stew in the oven. If it browns too quickly, cover with greased paper. When half done, turn the goose on its back, and when tender remove cover and have a hot fire to brown quickly. Baste frequently.

Rub wings, neck, gizzard, heart and back of goose with salt, ginger, pepper and garlic and set on the fire in a stew pan with cold water. Cover tightly and stew slowly but steadily for four hours at least. When done skim off all the fat. Now put a spider over the fire, put into it about two or three spoonfuls of the fat that you have just skimmed off and then add the fat to the meat again. Cut up fine a very small piece of garlic and throw in a heaping teaspoonful of flour (brown). Add the hot gravy and pour all over the goose. Cover up tightly and set on back of stove till you wish to serve. You may cook the whole goose in this way after it is cut up. A great many prefer it to roast.

Take only a very fat goose for this purpose. After cleaning and singeing, cut off neck, wings and feet. Lay the goose on a table, back up (for this is the proper way to begin to take off the skin or hide). Take a sharp knife, make a cut from the neck down to the tail end. Begin again at the top near the neck, take off the skin, holding it in your left hand, your knife in your right to assist you (I wish I could show you this personally, for I am afraid my young housekeepers will not understand just how). After all the skin is removed, which can easily be done, and all in one piece, throw it into cold water; separate the breast from back and cut off joints, and proceed with entrails as described in Roast Goose. Have ready in a plate a mixture of salt ginger and a very little garlic; cut up fine. Rub the joints and small pieces with this, and make a small incision in each leg and four in the breast. Put in each incision a small piece of garlic, and rub also with a prepared mixture of salt and ginger. Put away in stone jars until you wish to use.

Cut up the fat into two-inch squares. Put on to boil slowly for about three hours with salt but no water. You may preserve one or two breasts of geese by laying them in the hot goose oil half an hour before taking off the fire and leave them in the goose fat until spring. You may also roast the goose breasts and joints. Keep closely covered all the time, so as not to get too brown. They cut up nicely cold for sandwiches. The best way to roast a goose breast is to remove the skin from the neck and sew it over the breast (easily done), and fasten it with a few stitches under the breast. Roast covered all the time. Make it more like a pot roast.If any of my readers object to garlic in the preparation of the above (which you will not if you are a Frenchman) you may use onions instead. I also forgot to mention that you should make an incision with a pointed knife in the breast and joints of the goose, so as to be able to insert a little garlic (or onion) in each incision, also a little salt and ginger.

Take the entire breast of a goose, chop up fine in a chopping bowl; grate in part of an onion, and season with salt, pepper and a tiny piece of garlic. Add some grated stale bread and work in a few eggs. Press this chopped meat back on to the breast bone and roast, basting very often with goose fat. This is "Hungarian," and is very nice for a change.

Dried or smoked goose breast must be prepared in the following manner: take the breast of the fattest goose you can find; leave the skin on; rub well with salt, pepper and saltpetre; pack in a stone jar and let it remain pickled thus four or five days at least. Dry well and cover with gauze and send away to be smoked.

Cut up after being skinned and stew, after seasoning with salt, pepper, a few cloves and a very little lemon peel. When done heat a little goose fat in a frying pan, brown half a tablespoonful of flour, add a little vinegar and the juice of half a lemon.

After the chicken has been cleaned and singed lay it in salt water for half an hour. Cut it up as for fricassee and see that every piece is wiped dry. Have ready heated in a spider some goose fat or other poultry drippings. Season each piece of chicken with salt and ground ginger, or pepper (I prefer the ginger, it is also more wholesome than pepper). Roll each piece of chicken in sifted cracker crumbs (which you have previously seasoned with salt). Fry in the spider, turning often, and browning evenly. You may cut up some parsley and add while frying. If the chicken is quite large, it is better to steam it before frying.

After the chicken has been singed and thoroughly cleaned, cut off the wings, legs and neck. Then separate the breast from the chicken, leaving it whole. Cut the back into two pieces. Then prepare a mixture of salt, ginger and a very little pepper in a saucer and dust each piece of chicken with this mixture, and, if possible, let the chicken remain salted a whole day before using. When you are ready to cook the chicken, take all the particles of fat you have removed from it and lay in the bottom of the kettle, also a small onion, cut up, some parsley root and celery. Lay the chicken upon this, breast first, then the leg, and so on. Then lay on top one or two tomatoes, cut up, or one or two spoonfuls of canned tomatoes, and then cover up tight and let it stew slowly on the back of the stove, adding hot water when necessary. Just before serving chop up some parsley fine and rub a teaspoonful of flour in a little cold water, and add. Let it boil up once. Shake the kettle back and forth to prevent becoming lumpy.

Fill the inside of a spring chicken with oysters, seasoned with salt, pepper and butter. Season the outside of the chicken as well; steam in a pan set in another one of water and boil one hour and a half. Then add half a cup of cream, one egg and sufficient butter and flour to thicken the gravy in the pan. You may add oysters to this gravy.

Cut up the white meat of one cold boiled chicken and pound it to a paste, together with a large boiled sweetbread, adding salt and pepper. Beat up one egg, with a teaspoonful of flour, and a wineglassful of rich cream. Mix all together; put in a pan and simmer just enough to absorb part of the moisture, stirring all the time. Turn it out on a flat dish and place in ice-box to cool. Then roll into small cones, dip in beaten egg, roll again in powdered bread or cracker crumbs and drop them into boiling fat until a delicate brown. This is a dainty breakfast dish.

Grate some stale white bread, add flakes of butter, salt, pepper, a beaten egg and the oyster liquor and oysters and mix all thoroughly. Stuff the turkey the day previous to roasting with this or any other dressing.

If you can not buy sausage meat at your butcher's have him chop some for you, adding a little suet. Also mix in some veal with the beef while chopping. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, or thyme. Grate in a piece of celery root and a piece of garlic about the size of a bean, add a small onion, add a minced tomato and then add a quarter of a loaf of stale bread, also grated, and mix up the whole with one or two eggs. If you prefer, you may soak the bread, press out every drop of water and dry in a heated spider with fat. You will find this a very superior dressing.