Common-Sense Papers on Cookery

we referred to before. The first brace of grouse shot were sent to a neighbouring farm to be cooked for lunch. The farmer’s wife, however, had them _boiled_, and stuffed with sage and onions. There are various ways of cooking grouse, but only one which we consider to be worthy of consideration, and that is what we term grouse _au naturel_, or in other words plain roast, with good gravy and fried bread-crumbs, or bread sauce. To overpower the delicious flavour of a good grouse with strong sauces seems to us as cruel a waste as to mull good 1848 La Fitte claret, and mix in cinnamon and sugar. As an instance, however, of what cooks may come to, we will mention an Italian method of spoiling grouse—the ingredients for this extraordinary dish comprising mace, garlic, brandy, macaroni, tomato sauce, and Parmesan cheese. Imagine what a dish this Italian cook and our farmer’s wife could manufacture between them! The first point to be considered with regard to game is, How long should it be kept? When game is bought, it is of course impossible to say how long it has been killed, except from appearances. As a rule, the first symptom of discolouring, or the faintest smell of being high, shows that the birds are ripe for cooking. We would, however, allow a pheasant a longer time than either a partridge or a grouse. A thoroughly fresh pheasant is more tough than a fowl. Game, in fact, should be treated exactly like a good haunch of mutton. No one would keep a haunch till it is _high_, but yet every one knows that the longer it is kept the more tender it becomes. In a large number of London shops the game for sale has already been kept too long, reminding one of the story of the man who arrived home after a days’ shooting, who had, however, been driven to buy a brace for appearances, the look of which called forth the remark from his wife— “Well, my dear, it is time they were shot, for they are getting