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Communicating with
Data
Communicating with
Data
The Art of Writing
for Data Science

d eborah nolan
sara stou dt

1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Deborah Nolan and Sara Stoudt 2021
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2021
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952658
ISBN 978–0–19–886274–1 (hbk.)
ISBN 978–0–19–886275–8 (pbk.)
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198862741.001.0001
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
To Our Dads–Bill and Gary
Preface

C ommunication is critical yet often overlooked in the data-science pipeline. This

book aims to help students and researchers write about their data insights in a way
that is both compelling and faithful to the data. We address writing challenges specific to
scientific investigations of data, such as how to describe data succinctly, create effective
visualizations, write clean code, and accurately summarize statistical findings. We also
provide more general advice on science writing, including how to distill findings into a
story and organize and revise the story, and how to write clearly, concisely, and precisely.

Objective In our experience, university training in writing rarely addresses the chal-
lenges associated with technical writing. Our students lack opportunities to practice
writing about their data-analytic processes and to learn from examples of good, domain-
specific writing. To compound this problem, instructors of science courses typically
have little experience in teaching technical writing. Many of us find it difficult to give
students advice when we have only our personal experience with writing to draw from.
In this book, we attempt to address both the teaching and learning challenges relevant
to communicating the story behind a data analysis.

Audience We aim for this book to be a resource for students who want to learn
how to write about scientific findings where the focus is on presenting the results of
a data analysis. Instructors teaching a course in science communication can use it as a
textbook, and others teaching a science course that has a writing component can use
the book as a supplement. In addition, a researcher who is looking for help writing can
use this book to self-train. Practicing statisticians, data scientists, or scientists who need
assistance with writing about their data analysis findings will hopefully find guidance
they can use to practice their communication skills in the context of their own work.
The only prerequisite is a knowledge of statistics at the introductory level. While
we expect the reader to have at least a rudimentary understanding of statistics, the
principles of communication found on these pages carry over to writing about more
complex data analyses.

Examples and Activities Each chapter includes many examples and concludes
with a collection of activities for practice writing. These examples and activities come
from several scientific fields and a broad variety of publications. The main sources are
viii | Preface

scientific journals, but the advice is equally relevant to writing a report for a supervisor,
a paper for an instructor, or an article for a popular magazine. To this point, we use
the terms article, paper, and report interchangeably throughout. Additionally, many
of the activities at the end of chapters give practice for those who want to write for a
broader audience, such as a blog post or press release. We have honed the examples and
activities in this book to focus on the essentials of writing about data and, at the same
time, we have attempted to create scenarios that allow for individual creativity. Also,
we use samples from our own writing and anonymized student work for examples of
what not to do.

Organization The book consists of five parts. Part I aims to help the novice learn
how to write by reading the work of others. We identify the main components of a
data analysis, examine the argument, and point out how components of an analysis
are organized into a story and written for a technical article. In addition, we read
and examine material written for broader audiences, e.g., press releases and blog
posts. Part II delves into the specifics of how to describe data at a level appropriate
for publication, create informative and effective visualizations that support the main
findings, and communicate an analysis pipeline through well-written, reproducible
code. Part III demonstrates how to distill a data analysis into a compelling story and
organize and write the first draft of a technical paper. Part IV addresses revision; this
includes advice on writing about statistical findings in a clear and accurate way, general
writing advice, and strategies for proof-reading and revising. Part V gives advice about
communication strategies beyond the page, which includes giving talks, building a
professional network, and participating in online communities. This part also provides
over twenty portfolio assignments that are aimed at building upon the guidance and
examples in the earlier parts of the book and continued writing practice.
We have provided online at http://communicating-with-data.github.io additional
materials to use in a course. These include a detailed week-by-week syllabus that
describes the topics covered, in-class activities, assignments, and additional reading.
Along with the syllabus, we provide pointers to avoid potential problems with some
classroom activities and ideas for grading written work. We also give ideas for how to
use this book as a supplemental text in a science course or as the main text for a large
course in technical writing where the student work is more limited in scope.

Acknowledgements This book grew out of a course on technical writing that we

developed and first taught in the fall of 2017. Chapters 6 and 11 as well as portions
of each of the Chapters 1–11 make up part of Sara Stoudt’s PhD dissertation. We are
grateful to the Art of Writing Program at UC Berkeley for providing a grant that enabled
us to design and co-teach the course. We also owe a debt of gratitude to our students who
willingly worked with us as we class-tested and developed the activities, assignments,
and course materials. Their respect for each other, good humor, and diligence made the
course a rewarding experience for all of us. Thanks also go to those who read earlier
versions of this manuscript and tried it out with their students. In particular, we thank
 Preface | ix

Ben Baumer, Beth Chance, Kelly McConville, Amelia McNamara, Pamela Matheson,
and Susan Wang.
The Art of Writing Program also supported our creation of this book by organizing
a workshop where participants read and commented on all aspects of the book. We
are much indebted to the workshop participants: Andrew Bray, Kathleen Donegan,
Nicholas Horton, Ramona Naddaff, and Evan Variano, for their thoughtful and con-
structive comments that led to a much-improved manuscript.
Finally, thank you to all of the writers who agreed to let us use their work as examples
throughout this book. We appreciate your willingness to have others learn from you and
your writing.
Deborah Nolan and Sara Stoudt
July 2020
 Part I
Reading to Write

B ecoming a better science writer starts with reading, where we study how other
scientists write. The idea is to start from the beginning and learn how to read and
take notes, not simply as a consumer but as a creator–as a scientist writing about their
data findings. We call this activity “reading to write”.
The aim of Chapter 1 is to guide your reading of a technical article by helping you
identify the main components of a data analysis, examine the argument the author is
making, and recognize how these components are organized into a story. We examine
how findings are motivated and how limitations are discussed, consider the level of
detail provided about the data and findings, and read figures used to convey a core
finding or justify an approach. We show how to pay attention to the details a writer
uses to construct their argument and the choice of words they use in making claims.
Knowing how to read as a writer will help you learn how to write well, correctly
represent your findings, and generally become a more efficient writer.
While Chapter 1 focuses on reading formal science articles, Chapter 2 extends the
reading-to-write process to other less formal genres, namely press releases and blog
posts. If your main interest is in writing for a broader audience, we still recommend
reading Chapter 1 first because it lays the groundwork for Chapter 2.
1 Reading Science Articles

L earning how to write effectively about data begins with a strategy for reading and
examining how the author organizes and writes about their findings. When we
read to write, we identify the main components of an analysis and notice how the author
brings these components together to form a logical and compelling story. During this
process, we discover examples and templates that we can use to organize our own work
and write about our findings. To get started, the following three steps can be helpful.

• Identify the elements of the data analysis. We begin by looking throughout the
article for various building blocks of the data analysis. We often find that some
of the elements of a data analysis are included in the article, while others are
not. This investigation helps us understand the choices that an author makes
in writing about their findings, and, as a reader, we assess whether particular
omissions impact the credibility of the conclusions or whether any included
details are superfluous to the main story.

• Examine the argument. When we read an article, we expect to be convinced of

the importance and validity of the findings. We look for context that explains
how the findings fit with others’ work, and we try to discern whether the new
insights support, counter, or extend current views in the field. We consider the
appropriateness of the analysis, the generalizability of the conclusions drawn,
and whether others’ work have been adequately and convincingly presented. To
help make this assessment, we pay close attention to the words the writer uses
and consider how an alternative, similar word choice could impact the strength of
a claim. We also pay attention to the article’s tone and whether it adds credibility
and to the connections between paragraphs and between sections and whether
they convey a cohesive story.

• Map the organization of the document. At a basic level, science articles have three
main parts–a beginning, which serves to define and motivate the problem; a

Communicating with Data: The Art of Writing for Data Science. Deborah Nolan and Sara Stoudt,
Oxford University Press (2021). © Deborah Nolan and Sara Stoudt.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198862741.003.0001
4 | Reading Science Articles

middle that presents the findings and explains what they mean; and an end,
which summarizes the conclusions and their importance. Mapping out these
parts of the document helps us see how the author chooses to organize their
analysis, gives a sense of what a reader might expect when reading an article,
and provides templates that we might follow.

The remaining sections of this chapter describe how to carry out these steps for
reading an article. We place ourselves in the position of a reader and identify what we
look for when we read with an eye towards writing. Several examples are provided; some
come from publications aimed at a broad audience, such as a popular statistics magazine
and a journal focused on the history and culture of mathematics. Other examples are
from more technical science journals but do not require a lot of background in the field
to understand the core argument. Most of these articles are about four pages long so you
can quickly read them in their entirety. Links to them can be found in the notes section
at the end of the chapter.
This description of how to read an article also serves to introduce the goals of the
book, and it provides a map of the topics covered in later chapters. Our main focus is
on writing a technical article, but we also address how to write for other audiences. If
general science communication interests you, then Chapter 2 extends the approach for
reading technical articles to press releases and blog posts. Additionally, writing for these
other “publics” is covered in designated sections and activities in Chapters 6–10.

1.1 Identify the Elements of a Data Analysis

If we are to be convinced of the conclusions of a data analysis, we must have enough
information to assess the quality of the data. We need to know about the kind of data
collected and the conditions under which they were collected. This information allows
us, as readers, to evaluate the appropriateness of the methods used to analyze the
data, decide how reasonable the conclusions that the author draws are, and assess the
limitations, generalizability, and impact of the study. We look for the following aspects
of the data and their analysis.

Design The question of how the data arose is the foundation to understanding an
analysis. The data at hand can be generated from an experimental or observational
process. Or, the analysis can be model-based and rely on summary statistics, or a meta-
analysis that collectively examines several earlier studies.

Protocol The conditions under which the data were collected are critical. We want
to know about the setting of the study, such as the time period, location, etc., and
how subjects were selected, e.g., a probability sample, self-selection, or an administra-
tive collection. Additionally, we also want to read about the outcome (i.e., response)
measurements, covariates, and about nonresponse, including missing values, drop-out,
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 PORK.
A little salted pork or bacon should always be kept in the house. I
confess to having a decided prejudice against this meat, considering it
unwholesome and dangerous, especially in cities, unless used in the
smallest quantities. Yet pork makes a delicious flavoring for cooking other
meats, and thin, small slices of breakfast bacon are a relishing garnish for
beefsteak, veal cutlets, liver, etc. In the country, perhaps, there is less cause
for doubt about its use, where the animal is raised with corn, and where
much outdoor life will permit the taking of stronger food.
To Cure Bacon.
For every three hundred pounds of pork use fourteen pounds of common
salt, and one pound each of brown sugar and saltpetre. Rub them into the
meat, and let it lie for three weeks, rubbing and turning it occasionally.
Then wipe dry, rub again with dry fine salt, wrap it in a thick cloth (canvas)
or paper, and hang it in a cool, dry place.
Roast Little Pig.
I trust entirely to the following receipt. Any one who fancies can cook a
little pig, not I.
The pig should be three weeks old, well cleaned, and stuffed with a
dressing of this proportion: Two large onions, four times the quantity of
bread-crumbs, three tea-spoonfuls of chopped sage, two ounces of butter,
half a salt-spoonful of pepper, one salt-spoonful of salt, and one egg. Or it
may be filled with a veal force-meat stuffing, if preferred; or, it may be
stuffed with hot mashed potatoes. Sew it together with a strong thread,
trussing its fore legs forward and its hind legs backward. Rub the pig with
butter, flour, pepper, and salt. Roast it at first before a very slow fire, as it
should be thoroughly done; or, if it is baked, the oven should not be too hot
at first. Baste it very often. When done (in about three hours), place a cob or
a potato in the mouth, having put something in at first to keep it open. Serve
it with apple-sauce or tomato-sauce.
Roast Pork.
 The roasting pieces are the spare rib, the leg, the loin, the saddle, the
fillet, and the shoulder. They may be stuffed with a common well-seasoned
sage stuffing. The skin, if left on, should be cut in lines forming little
squares; if the skin is taken off, sprinkle a little pounded sage over all, and
put over it a buttered paper. Be careful, in roasting pork, to put the meat far
enough from the fire at first, as it must be thoroughly done. The rule for the
time of roasting pork is twenty minutes for each pound. Baste it at first with
butter, and afterward with its own drippings. A roast loin of pork is very
nice (allowing it to remain well sprinkled with salt an hour or two before
roasting) served with cabbage cooked with a little vinegar, or served with
sauer-krout.
Broiled Pork Cutlets (Dubois).
Take a fresh neck of pork (free from fat); shorten the bones of the ribs,
and remove those of the chine; cut six cutlets off each neck, taking them a
little obliquely; trim them, season, and roll them in melted butter and bread-
crumbs. Broil them. Pour into a stew-pan four or five table-spoonfuls of
vinegar, and double its volume of stock or gravy; let it boil, and thicken it
with a little flour. Pass it through a sieve, and add to it pepper and some
spoonfuls of chopped pickles. Dish the cutlets in a circle, and pour over
them the sauce; or pork cutlets may be fried or sautéd in a stew-pan, in a
little hot lard, and served with the same sauce.
Pork and Beans.
Soak a quart of beans overnight. The next day boil them with a sliced
onion, one large onion to a quart of beans (they will not taste of the onion),
and when they are almost done, put them into a baking-dish, taking out the
onions. Almost bury in the centre of the beans a quarter of a pound of salt
pork; pour in some of the water in which the beans were boiled, and bake
about an hour.
Another way is to omit the onions, and after parboiling the beans put
them into the bake-pan with one large spoonful of molasses and a quarter of
a pound of pork, and bake them two hours.
Boston Baked Beans.
Put one and one-half pints of medium-sized navy beans into a quart
bean-pot; fill it with water, and let it stand overnight. In the morning, pour
off the water, and cover the beans with fresh water in which is mixed one
table-spoonful of molasses. Put a quarter of a pound of pickled pork in the
centre, leaving a quarter of an inch of pork above the beans. Bake them
eight hours with a steady fire, and, without stirring the beans, add a cupful
of hot water every hour but the last two. Earthen pots with narrow mouths
are made expressly for baking beans. Cooking them in this manner, without
first boiling them, renders each bean perfectly whole and at the same time
thoroughly cooked. When done, place the pork in the centre of a platter,
with the beans around it.
Entrée of Apples and Pork.
Cut sour apples (pippins) into slices without skinning them; fry or sauté
them with small strips of pork. Serve both, tastefully arranged, on the same
dish.
Sausages (Warne).
“Two pounds and a half of pork, fat and lean mixed (three times as much
lean as fat), one ounce of fine salt, a quarter of a pound of pepper, two tea-
spoonfuls of powdered sage, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of allspice, and a
quarter of a tea-spoonful of cloves. Chop the meat as fine as possible: there
are machines for the purpose. Mix the seasoning well through the whole;
pack the sausage-meat down hard in stone jars, which should be kept in a
cool place, well covered. When wanted for use, form them into little cakes,
dip them in beaten egg, then in wheat flour, and fry them in hot lard.”
Always serve apple-sauce with pork sausages. Two dishes never suited
better. For breakfast, it would be well to have a centre of apple-sauce on a
platter, with sausages around, or vice versâ. They are a fine garnish for a
roast turkey.
It is said that sausages will keep forever, by frying them and putting
them in little jars, with a cover of hot lard.
To Cure Hams (Mrs. Lestlie).
For one hundred pounds of fine pork take seven pounds of coarse salt,
five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of soda,
and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold.
Pour it on the meat, which should first be rubbed all over with red pepper.
Let hams and tongues remain in the pickle eight weeks. Before they are
smoked, hang them up, and dry them two or three days. Then sew the hams
in cases.
To Boil Ham.
If it is quite salt, let it soak twenty-four hours. Cut off the end of the
knuckle-bone; put it into a pot with cold water at the back of the range to
simmer slowly for eight hours; then take it off the fire, and let it remain in
the water until nearly cold; then peel off the skin carefully, make spots at
uniform distances with pepper, and wind fringed paper around the bone.
Mrs. Lestlie boils her hams with a bed of hay in the bottom of the pot.
Some sprinkle grated bread or crackers over the ham when trimmed, and
brown it in the oven; others brush it thickly over with glaze. However well
cooked, it would be utterly ruined if it were not cut into thin, neat slices for
eating.
Ham and Eggs.
The ham, cut into thin slices, can be broiled or sautéd. If broiled, spread
over a little butter when cooked. The eggs can be fried; but they are more
wholesome poached in salted water. In both cases they should be carefully
cooked, neatly trimmed, and an egg served on each slice of ham.
To Fry or Sauté Ham.
The ham should be cut into thin, neat slices, and sautéd only for a
minute in a hot sauté pan. If it is much more than thoroughly heated, it will
become tough and dry.
Pork Fried in Batter, or Egged and Bread-crumbed.
Roll very thin slices of breakfast bacon or fat pork in fritter batter, or egg
and bread-crumb them, and fry them in boiling lard. Serve on toast or fried
mush as a dish by itself, or as a garnish for beefsteak, fried chickens,
breaded chops, etc.
Mrs. Trowbridge’s Breakfast-bacon Dish.
Soak slices of bacon or pork in milk for fifteen minutes; then dip them
into flour, and fry them in the sauté pan. When done, sauté some slices of
potato in the same hot fat, and serve them in the centre of a hot dish, with a
circle of the slices of pork around them.
Rashers of Pork (to serve with Beefsteak, Roast Beef, etc.).
 Breakfast bacon should be cut very thin (one-eighth of an inch thick),
and in strips three or four inches long. It should be fried in the sauté pan
only long enough to become transparent, or thoroughly hot; if cooked crisp,
it is ruined. The French usually serve these strips of bacon laid over
beefsteak, roast beef, game, etc.
Sandwiches (Mrs. Geo. H. Williams), No. 1.
Cut some fresh bread very thin, and of square equal shapes. Chop some
cold boiled ham very fine, and mix with it the yolks of one or two uncooked
eggs, a little pepper and mustard. Spread some of this mixture over the
buttered slices of bread; roll them, pinching each roll at the end to keep it in
shape.
If there is difficulty in cutting fresh bread, use that which is a day old,
then cut it in very thin slices, buttering it on the loaf before it is cut; cut the
slices into little even squares or diamonds (the crust being all removed),
spread with the chopped ham mixture before mentioned, and fit two squares
together.
Sandwiches (New York Cooking-school), No. 2.
Chop fine half a pound of boiled ham, and season it with one table-
spoonful of olive-oil, one table-spoonful of lemon-juice, a little cayenne or
mustard, and rub it through a sieve. Butter the bread on the loaf before
cutting it, and spread the ham between the slices.
Small Rolls, with Salad Filling.
Cut off a little piece of the top of a French roll, and remove carefully the
crumb from the inside. Prepare a stuffing of cold chicken, tongue, and
celery (cut in dice), mixed in Mayonnaise dressing, and fill the roll,
covering the top with the small piece cut off.
This makes a very nice lunch dish, or a lunch for traveling. The rolls
may be filled with cold cooked lobster, cut into little dice, and covered with
a Mayonnaise dressing.
 POULTRY.
If care is taken in picking and dressing fowls or birds, there is no need of
washing them. In France it is never done, unless there is absolutely
something to wash off; then it is done as delicately as possible. In
expostulating once with an old negro auntie for soaking all the blood and
flavor out of a fowl, she quickly replied, “Bless my soul, child! haven’t I
cooked chickens for fifty years?”
When you buy a goose or a duck, be sure that it is young. Never buy an
old duck. The first I ever bought were from a penful at market. I thought
myself very clever in choosing the largest, all being one price; not so clever
at dinner, when my husband tried to carve those tough and aged drakes.
Roast Turkey.
The secret in having a good roast turkey is to baste it often, and to cook
it long enough. A small turkey of seven or eight pounds (the best selection if
fat) should be roasted or baked three hours at least. A very large turkey
should not be cooked a minute less than four hours; an extra hour is
preferable to a minute less. If properly basted, they will not become dry.
With much experience in hotel life, where turkeys are ruined by the
wholesale, I have never seen a piece of turkey that was fit to eat. Besides
being tasteless, they are almost invariably undercooked. First, then, after the
turkey is dressed, season it well, sprinkling pepper and salt on the inside;
stuff it, and tie it well in shape; either lard the top or lay slices of bacon over
it; wet the skin, and sprinkle it well with pepper, salt, and flour. It is well to
allow a turkey to remain some time stuffed before cooking. Pour a little
boiling water into the bottom of the dripping-pan. If it is to be roasted, do
not put it too near the coals at first, until it gets well heated through; then
gradually draw it nearer. The excellence of the turkey depends much upon
the frequency of basting it; occasionally baste it with a little butter, oftener
with its own drippings. Just before taking it from the fire or out of the oven,
put on more melted butter, and sprinkle over more flour; this will make the
skin more crisp and brown. While the turkey is cooking, boil the giblets
well; chop them fine, and mash the liver. When the turkey is done, put it on
a hot platter. Put the baking-pan on the fire, dredge in a little flour, and
when cooked stir in a little boiling water or stock; strain it, skim off every
particle of fat; add the giblets; season with salt and pepper. If chestnut
stuffing is used, add some boiled chestnuts to the gravy; this is decidedly
the best sauce for a turkey. Besides the gravy, always serve cranberry (see
receipt, page 204), currant, or plum jelly with turkey. These are more
attractive molded the day before they are served. The currant or plum jelly
is melted and remolded in a pretty form. Roast turkeys are often garnished
with little sausage-balls.

Stuffing for Baked Turkey, Chicken, Veal, and Lamb (New York
Cooking-school).
Soak half a pound of bread (with the crust cut off) in tepid water, then
squeeze it dry. Put three ounces of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot stir
in a small onion minced (one and a half ounces), which color slightly; then
add the bread, with three table-spoonfuls of parsley (half an ounce) chopped
fine, half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, a little grated nutmeg, pepper,
salt, and a gill of stock. Stir it over the fire until it leaves the bottom and
sides; then mix in two eggs.
Stuffing for Roast Turkeys, Chickens, Ducks, and Geese.
The commonest stuffing is this: Two onions, five ounces of soaked and
squeezed bread, eight sage leaves, an ounce of butter, pepper, salt, one egg,
a little piece of pork minced. Mince the onions, and fry them in the sauté
pan before adding them to the other ingredients. Some chopped celery is
always a good addition.
Chestnut, Potato, Veal, and Oyster Stuffings.
The chestnut stuffing is made by adding chestnuts to the ordinary
stuffing. They are put on the fire in a saucepan or spider to burst the skins;
they are then boiled in very salted water or stock; some are also put into the
sauce. Or turkeys, etc., may be stuffed with boiled, mashed, and seasoned
sweet-potatoes or Irish potatoes.
The great cooks make extra trouble and expense in preparing a force-
meat stuffing of cold veal, cold ham, bacon, and a few bread-crumbs, mixed
and seasoned with cayenne, salt, lemon-juice, summer savory, parsley, or
any sweet herbs. Then they often add truffles cut into little balls; or, an
oyster stuffing is made by merely adding plenty of whole oysters (not
chopped) to the ordinary turkey bread stuffing. It should be well seasoned,
or the oysters will taste insipid.
Boiled Turkey.
If a boiled turkey is not well managed, it will be quite tasteless. Choose a
hen turkey. If not well trussed and tied, the legs and wings of a boiled fowl
will be found pointing to all the directions of the compass. Cut the legs at
the first joint and draw them into the body. Fasten the small ends of the
wings under the back, and tie them securely with strong twine. Sprinkle
over plenty of salt, pepper, and lemon-juice, and put it into boiling water.
Boil it slowly two hours, or until quite tender. It is generally served in a bed
of rice, with oyster, caper, cauliflower, parsley, or Hollandaise sauce. Pour
part of the sauce over the turkey. Reserve the giblets for giblet soup. It can
be stuffed or not, the same as for roasting.
Turkey or Chicken Hash
is made like beef hash, only substituting turkey or chicken for beef.
Turkey Braised.
If you have an old turkey unfit for roasting or boiling, braise it for four
or five hours, adding a little wine (toward the last) to the stock, if you
choose.
Turkey Galantine, or Boned Turkey.
 Choose a fat hen turkey. When dressing it, leave the crop skin (the skin
over the breast) whole; cut off the legs, wings, and neck. Now slit the skin
at the back, and carefully remove it all around. Cut out the breasts carefully;
cut them into little elongated pieces, about a quarter of an inch square and
an inch long (parallelograms); or cut them any way you like. Season them
with pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, mace, pounded cloves, sweet basil, and a
little chopped parsley, all mixed. Now make a force-meat, with a pound and
a quarter of lean veal or fresh pork, well freed from skin and gristle. Mix
this with the meat of the turkey (all but the breasts); chop it well. Then chop
an equal volume of fresh bacon, which mix with the other chopped meat:
season this with the condiments last mentioned. Now pound it in a mortar to
a paste. Cut one pound of truffles, half a pound of cooked pickled tongue,
and half a pound of cooked fat bacon, into three-quarter-inch dice. Season
these also.
Spread the turkey skin on a board. Make alternate layers on it, first of
half of the force-meat, then half of the turkey breasts, then half of the dice
of tongue, truffles, and bacon, then, turkey fillets and dice again: save some
of the force-meat to put on the last layer. Now begin at one side and roll it
over, giving it a round and long shape; sew up the skin; wrap it, pressing it
closely in a napkin; tie it at the extremities, and also tie it across in two
places, to keep it in an oval shape with round ends.
Boil the galantine gently for four hours in boiling water (or, better, in
stock), with the bones of the turkey thrown in. At the end of that time, take
the stew-pan off the fire. Let the galantine cool in the liquor one hour; then
drain it, and put it on a dish with a seven-pound weight on it.
When cold, take the galantine out of the napkin; put it at the end of an
open oven for some minutes to melt the fat, which wipe off with a cloth;
glaze it, or sprinkle it with a little egg and fine bread-crumbs, and bake it a
few minutes. It is, of course, to be sliced when eaten. It is generally served
placed on a wooden standard, as described for a Mayonnaise of salmon.
A boned turkey, or galantine, is seen at almost all large parties. It is
convenient to have one in the house, as it will keep for a long time, and is
very nice for lunch or tea. It costs ten dollars to buy one, and about half of
the amount to make it. Of course, it is some trouble to make; yet if one’s
time is worth less than one’s money, there is plenty of time for the purpose,
as it can be made three or four days before an entertainment. Chicken and
game galantines are made in the same way. The figure on page 169 is a
boned turkey or chicken prepared for boiling.
Mixed Spices for Seasoning.
In cities, mixed spices can be purchased, which are prepared by
professional cooks, and which save much trouble to inexperienced
compounders. This is one of their receipts: “Take of nutmegs and mace, one
ounce each; of cloves and white pepper-corns, two ounces each; of sweet
basil, marjoram, and thyme, one ounce each, and half an ounce of bay
leaves: these herbs should be previously dried for the purpose. Roughly
pound the spices, then place the whole of the above ingredients between
two sheets of white paper, and after the sides have been folded over tightly,
to prevent the evaporation of the volatile properties of the herbs and spices,
place them in a warm place to become perfectly dry. They must then be
pounded quickly, put through a sieve, corked up tightly in bottles, and kept
for use.”
A Simple Way of Preparing Boned Turkey or Chicken.
Boil a turkey or chicken in as little water as possible, until the bones can
easily be separated from the meat. Remove all of the skin; slice and mix
together the light and dark parts; season with pepper and salt. Boil down the
liquid in which the turkey or chicken was boiled; then pour it on the meat.
Shape it like a loaf of bread; wrap it tightly in a cloth; press it with a heavy
weight for a few hours. When served, it is cut into thin slices.
CHICKENS.
One is absolutely bewildered at the hundred dishes which are made of
chickens. Most of the entrées are prepared with the breasts alone, called
fillets. There are boudins and quenelles of fowls, and fillets of fowls à la
Toulouse, à la maréchale, etc., etc., and supreme of fillets of fowls à
l’écarlate, etc., and aspics of fowls; then, chickens à la Marengo, à la
Lyonnaise, à la reine; then, marinades and capitolades of chickens, and
fricassees of chickens of scores of names. I would explain some of these
long-sounding terms if this book were not already too long, and if at last
they were any better than when cooked in the more simple ways.
Spring Chickens.
The excellence of spring chickens depends as much on feeding as on
cooking them. If there are conveniences for building a coop, say five feet
square, on the ground, where some spring chickens can be kept for a few
weeks, feeding them with the scraps from the kitchen, and grain, they will
be found plump, the meat white, and the flavor quite different from the thin,
poorly fed chickens just from market.
The Southern negro cooks have certainly the best way of cooking spring
chickens, and the manner is very simple. Cut them into pieces, dip each
piece hastily in water, then sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and roll it in
plenty of flour. Have some lard in a sauté pan very hot, in which fry, or
rather sauté, the chickens, covering them well, and watching that they may
not burn. When done, arrange them on a hot dish; pour out the lard from the
spider, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; throw in a cupful or more of
milk, or, better, cream thickened with a little flour; stir it constantly,
seasoning it with pepper and salt; pour it over the chickens. It makes a
pleasant change to add chopped parsley to the gravy.
A nice dish is made by serving cauliflowers in the same platter with the
dressing poured over both; or with potatoes cut out in little balls, and boiled
in very salt water, served in the same way; or they may be surrounded with
water-cresses.
Spring Chickens, Baked.
Cut them open at the back, spread them out in a baking-pan, sprinkle on
plenty of pepper, salt, and a little flour. Baste them well with hot water,
which should be in the bottom of the pan, also at different times with a little
butter. When done, rub butter over them, as you would beefsteak, and set
them in the oven for a moment before serving.
Roast and Boiled Chickens.
 Chickens are roasted and boiled as are turkeys. In winter there is no
better way of cooking chickens than to boil them whole, and pour over
them a good caper or pickle sauce just before serving. A large tough chicken
is very good managed in this manner. Of course, the chicken should be put
into boiling water, which should not stop boiling until the chicken is
entirely done. With this management it will retain its flavor, yet the water in
which it is boiled should always be saved for soup. It is a valuable addition
to any kind of soup. The cut represents a chicken in a bed of rice.
Baked Chickens or Fish (for Camping Parties).
Dress the chickens or fish, making as small incisions as possible, and
without removing the skin, feathers, or scales. Fill them with the usual
bread stuffing, well seasoned with chopped pork, onion, pepper, and salt.
Sew the cut quite firmly. Cover the chicken or fish entirely with wet clay,
spreading it half an inch to an inch thick. Bury it in a bed of hot ashes, with
coals on top, and let it bake about an hour and a quarter if it weighs two
pounds. The skin, feathers, or scales will peel off when removing the cake
of clay, leaving the object quite clean, and especially delicious with that
“best of sauces, a good appetite;” however, there is no reason why a
camping party should not indulge in other sauces at the same time.
A chicken may be surrounded in the same way with a paste of flour and
water, and baked in the oven.
A Fricassee of Chicken.
 Cut two chickens into pieces. Reserve all the white meat and the best
pieces for the fricassee. The trimmings and the inferior pieces use to make
the gravy. Put these pieces into a porcelain kettle, with a quart of cold water,
one clove, pepper, salt, a small onion, a little bunch of parsley, and a small
piece of pork; let it simmer for half an hour, and then put in the pieces for
the fricassee; let them boil slowly until they are quite done; take them out
then, and keep them in a hot place. Now strain the gravy, take off all the fat,
and add it to a roux of half a cupful of flour and a small piece of butter. Let
this boil; take it off the stove and stir in three yolks of eggs mixed with two
or three table-spoonfuls of cream; also the juice of half a lemon. Do not let
it boil after the eggs are in, or they will curdle. Stir it well, keeping it hot a
moment; then pour it over the chicken, and serve. Some of the fricassees
with long and formidable names are not much more than wine or
mushrooms, or both, added to this receipt.
Fricassee of Chicken (Mrs. Gratz Brown).
Sauté a chicken (cut into pieces) with a little minced onion, in hot lard.
When the pieces are brown, add a table-spoonful of flour, and let it cook a
minute, stirring it constantly. Add then one and a half pints of boiling water
or stock, a table-spoonful of vinegar, a table-spoonful of sherry, a tea-
spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. When it is taken off the
fire, strain the sauce, taking off any particles of fat; mix in the yolk of an
egg. Pour it over the chicken, and serve.
Ranaque Chickens.
 After the first experience in making this chicken dish, it is not difficult to
prepare, and it makes an exceedingly nice course for dinner. With a sharp
penknife, slit the chicken down the back; then, keeping the knife close to
the bones, scrape down the sides, and the bones will come out. Break them
at the joints when coming to the drumsticks and wing-bones. These bones
are left in. Now chop fine, cold cooked lamb enough to stuff the chicken;
season it with pepper, salt, one even tea-spoonful of summer savory, two
heaping table-spoonfuls of chopped pork, and plenty of lemon-juice, or
juice of one lemon. Stuff the chicken, and sew it, giving it a good shape;
turn the ends of the wings under the back, and tie them there firmly, also the
legs of the chicken down close to the back, so that the top may present a
plump surface, to carve in slices across, without having bones in the way.
Now lard the chicken two or three rows on top. If you have no larding-
needle, cut open the skin with the penknife, and insert the little pieces of
pork, all of equal length and size. Bake this until it is thoroughly done,
basting it very often (once or twice with a little butter). Pour a tomato-sauce
(see page 125) around it in the bottom of the dish in which it is served.
Chicken Breasts.
Trim the breasts of some chickens to resemble trimmed lamb chops.
Stick a leg bone (the joints cut off at each end) into the end of each cutlet;
pepper and salt them, roll them in flour, and fry them in a sauté pan with
butter. Serve them in a circle in a dish with pease, mashed potatoes,
cauliflowers, beans, or tomatoes, or almost any kind of vegetable, in the
centre. They are still nicer larded on one side, choosing the same side for all
of them. When larded, they should not be rolled in flour. This is a very nice
course for a dinner company. These fillets are also nice served in a circle,
with the same sauce poured in the centre as is served with deviled chicken.
 Deviled Chicken, with Sauce (Cunard Steamer).
The chicken is boiled tender in a little salted water. When cold, it is cut
into pieces; these pieces are basted with butter, and broiled.
Sauce.—One tea-spoonful of made mustard, two table-spoonfuls of
Worcestershire sauce, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; boil all together, and
pour over the chicken. This dish is generally served on the Cunard steamers
for supper. Or, boil the chickens, cut them into pieces, pepper and salt them,
roll them in flour, sauté them in a little hot lard, and serve cream-sauce, the
same as for fried spring chickens. This makes a good winter breakfast.
Chicken Croquettes (French Cook).
Boil one chicken, with an onion and a clove of garlic (if you have it)
thrown into the water, add some bones and pieces of beef also; this will
make a stock, if you have not some already saved. Cut the chicken, when
cooked, into small dice; mince half of a large onion, or one small one, and
two sprigs of parsley together. Put into a saucepan a piece of butter the size
of a small egg; when hot, put in the minced onion and parsley and half a
cupful of flour; stir well until it is well cooked and of a light-brown color;
then add a cupful and a half of stock, or of the stock in the kettle, boiled
down or reduced until it is quite strong, then freed of fat; the stronger the
stock, the better of course. Stir it into a smooth paste, add pepper, salt, not
quite half of a grated nutmeg, the juice of about a quarter of a lemon, and
two table-spoonfuls of sherry, Madeira, or port wine. When all is well
stirred, mix in the pieces of chicken. Mold into the ordinary croquette
shape, or into the form of pears. When they are egged and cracker-crumbed,
fry them in boiling-hot lard. If they are molded into pear shape, a little stem
of parsley may be stuck into each pear after it is cooked, to represent the
pear stem.

Chicken Croquettes (Mrs. Chauncey I. Filley).

 Ingredients: Two chickens and two sets of brains, both boiled; one tea-
cupful of suet, chopped fine; two sprigs of parsley, chopped; one nutmeg,
grated; an even table-spoonful of onion, after it is chopped as fine as
possible; the juice and grated rind of one lemon; salt and black and red
pepper, to taste. Chop the meat very fine; mix all well together; add cream
until it is quite moist, or just right for molding. This quantity will make two
dozen croquettes. Now mold them as in cut (see above); dip them into
beaten egg, and roll them in pounded cracker or bread-crumbs; fry in
boiling-hot lard. Cold meat of any kind can be made into croquettes
following this receipt, only substituting an equal amount of meat for the
chicken, and of boiled rice for the brains. Cold lamb or veal is especially
good in croquettes. Cold beef is very good also. Many prefer two cupfuls of
boiled rice (fresh boiled and still hot when mixed with the chicken) for the
chicken croquettes, instead of brains.
Chicken Cutlets.
These cutlets are only chicken croquettes in a different form. Prepare
them like trimmed lamb chops, in the following manner: Make a shape
pointed at one end and round at the other; then press it with the blade of a
knife, giving it the shape of a cutlet. Egg and bread-crumb these cutlets, and
fry them in boiling lard; then stick in a paper ruffle at the pointed end. Serve
them, one cutlet overlapping the other, in a circle, with a tomato-sauce in
the centre of it, or around a pile of mushrooms or of pease. This is
considered a very palatable dish for a dinner company.
Chicken, With Macaroni or with Rice (French Cook).
Cut the chicken into pieces; fry or sauté them in a little hot drippings, or
in butter the size of an egg; when nearly done, put the pieces into another
saucepan; add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour to the hot drippings, and
brown it. Mix a little cold or lukewarm water to the roux; when smooth, add
a pint or more of boiling water; pour this over the chicken in the saucepan,
add a chopped sprig of parsley, a clove of garlic, pepper, and salt. Let the
chicken boil half or three-quarters of an hour, or until it is thoroughly done;
then take out the pieces of chicken. Pass the sauce through a sieve, and
remove all the fat. Have ready some macaroni which has been boiled in
salted water, and let it boil in this sauce. Arrange the pieces of chicken
tastefully on a dish; pour the macaroni and sauce over them, and serve; or,
instead of macaroni, use boiled rice, which may be managed in the same
way as the macaroni.
Chetney of Chicken (Mrs. E. L. Youmans).
Ingredients: One large or two small chickens, one-quart can of tomatoes,
butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, one table-spoonful of flour, one heaping
tea-spoonful of minced onion, one tea-spoonful of minced pork, one small
bottle of chetney (one gill).
Press the tomatoes through a sieve. Put the butter (one and a half ounces)
into a stew-pan, and when hot throw in the minced onions; cook them a few
minutes, then add the flour, which cook thoroughly; now pour in the tomato
pulp, seasoned with pepper, salt, and the minced pork, and stir it thoroughly
with an egg-whisk until quite smooth, and then mix well into it the chetney,
and next the cooked chicken cut into pieces. The chicken may be sautéd (if
young) in a little hot fat, or it may be roasted or boiled as for a fricassee.
The chicken is neatly arranged on a hot platter, with the sauce poured over.
Slices of beef (the fillet preferable) may be served in the same way with the
chetney sauce.
This chetney is an Indian sauce, and can be procured at the first-class
groceries.
Curry of Chicken (Mrs. Youmans).
Cut the chicken into pieces, leaving out the body bones; season them
with pepper and salt; fry them in a sauté pan in butter; cut an onion into
small slices, which fry in the butter until quite red; now add a tea-cupful of
stock freed from fat, an even tea-spoonful of sugar, and a table-spoonful of
curry-powder, mixed with a little flour; rub the curry-powder and flour
smooth with a little stock before adding it to the saucepan; put in the
chicken pieces, and let them boil two or three minutes; add then the juice of
half a lemon. Serve this in the centre of a bed of boiled rice.
Veal, lamb, rabbits, or turkey may be cooked in the same way. The
addition of half a cocoa-nut, grated, is an improvement.
Chickens for Supper (Mrs. Roberts, of Utica).
 After having boiled a chicken or chickens in as little water as possible
until the meat falls from the bones, pick off the meat, chop it rather fine,
and season it well with pepper and salt. Now put into the bottom of a mold
some slices of hard-boiled eggs, next a layer of chopped chicken, then more
slices of eggs and layers of chicken until the mold is nearly full; boil down
the water in which the chicken was boiled until there is about a cupful left,
season it well, and pour it over the chicken; it will sink through, forming a
jelly around it. Let it stand overnight or all day on the ice. It is to be sliced
at table. If there is any fear about the jelly not being stiff enough, a little
gelatine may be soaked and added to the cupful of stock. Garnish the dish
with light-colored celery leaves, or with fringed celery.
To Fringe Celery for Garnishing.
Cut the stalks into two-inch lengths; stick plenty of coarse needles into
the top of a cork; draw half of the stalk of each piece of celery through the
needles. When all the fibrous parts are separated, lay the celery in some
cold place to curl and crisp.
Chicken Livers.
Chop a little onion, and fry it in butter without allowing it to color; put in
the livers and some parsley, and fry or sauté them until they are done; take
out the livers, add a little hot water or stock to the onions and parsley,
thicken it with some flour (roux, page 51); strain, season, and pour it over
the livers.
If stale bread is cut into the shape of a small vase or cup, then fried to a
good color in boiling lard, it is called a croustade. One of these is often
used with chicken livers. Part of the livers are put in the top of the
croustade in the centre of the dish, and the remainder are placed around it at
the base. The dish is called “croustade of livers.”
 Turkish Pilau.
Truss one chicken (two and a half pounds) for boiling, and cut five
pounds of shoulder of mutton (boned) into two pieces, which roll into
shape; put some trimmings of pork (enough to keep the meat from sticking)
into a large saucepan, and when hot place in the chicken and the rolls of
mutton, and brown them completely by turning them over the fire. Now
make what is called a bouquet, viz.: Put a bay leaf on the table; on this
place three or four sprigs of parsley, one sprig of thyme, half of a shallot,
four cloves, and one table-spoonful of saffron (five cents’ worth), and tie all
together, leaving one end of the string long, to hang over the top of the
saucepan for convenience in taking out the bouquet. Put the chicken, the
mutton, the bouquet, and a pinch of salt and pepper into three quarts of
boiling water; twenty minutes before they are done (it will require a short
hour to cook them), put in five ounces of rice (soaked an hour in cold
water); when done, take out the bouquet; put the chicken in the centre of a
warm platter; cut the mutton into slices or scollops about half an inch thick,
and form them in a circle by lapping one over the other around the chicken.
Pour the hot soup (freed from grease) over the chicken; or the chicken may
be cut into joints (seven pieces), and the circle around the platter may be
formed of the chicken pieces and mutton scollops alternating, with the soup
poured in the centre.
 GEESE, DUCKS, AND GAME.
Roast Goose.
The goose should be absolutely young. Green geese are best, i. e., when
they are about four months old. In trussing, cut the neck close to the back,
leaving the skin long enough to turn over the back; beat the breast-bone flat
with the rolling-pin; tie or skewer the legs and wings securely. Stuff the
goose with the following mixture: Four large onions (chopped), ten sage
leaves, quarter of a pound of bread-crumbs, one and a half ounces of butter,
salt and pepper, one egg, a slice of pork (chopped). Now sprinkle the top of
the goose well with salt, pepper, and flour. Reserve the giblets to boil and
chop for the gravy, as you would for a turkey. Baste the goose repeatedly. If
it is a green one, roast it at least an hour and a half; if an older one, it would
be preferable to bake it in an oven, with plenty of hot water in the baking-
pan. It should be basted very often with this water, and when it is nearly
done baste it with butter and a little flour. Bake it three or four hours.
Decorate the goose with water-cresses, and serve it with the brown giblet
gravy in the sauce-boat. Always serve an apple-sauce with this dish.
Goose Stuffing (Soyer’s Receipt).
Take four apples peeled and cored, four onions, four leaves of sage, and
four of thyme. Boil them with sufficient water to cover them; when done,
pulp them through a sieve, removing the sage and thyme; then add enough
pulp of mealy potatoes to cause the stuffing to be sufficiently dry, without
sticking to the hand. Add pepper and salt, and stuff the bird.
Ducks.
Truss and stuff them with sage and onions as you would a goose. If they
are ducklings, roast them from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Epicures say
they like them quite under-done, yet, at the same time, very hot. Full-grown
ducks should be roasted an hour, and frequently basted. Serve with them the
brown giblet gravy or apple-sauce, or both. Green pease should accompany
the dish. Many parboil ducks before roasting or baking them. If there is a
suspicion of advanced age, parboil them.
Wild Ducks.
 Wild ducks should be cooked rare, with or without stuffing. Baste them a
few minutes at first with hot water to which have been added an onion and
salt. Then take away the pan, and baste with butter, and a little flour to froth
and brown them. The fire should be quite hot, and twenty to twenty-five
minutes are considered the outside limit for cooking them. A brown gravy
made with the giblets should be served in the bottom of the dish. Serve also
a currant-jelly. Garnish the dish with slices of lemons.
Duck and Pease Stewed (Warne).
Remains of cold roast duck, with peel of half a lemon, one quart of green
pease, a piece of butter rolled in flour, three-quarters of a pint of gravy,
pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste. Cut the duck into joints; season it with a
very little Cayenne pepper and salt, and the yellow peel of half a lemon
minced fine. Put it into a stew-pan, pour the gravy over, and place the pan
over a clear fire to become very hot; but do not let the stew boil.[C] Boil a
quart of green young pease; when they are done, drain off the water, add
some butter, pepper, and salt. Warm this again over the fire. Pile the pease
in the centre of a hot dish; arrange the pieces of duck around them, and
serve.
Stewed Duck.
Cut the duck into joints. Put the giblets into a stew-pan, adding water
enough to cover them for the purpose of making a gravy. Add two onions,
chopped fine, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, a sage leaf, pepper, and
salt. Let the gravy simmer until it is strong enough, then add the pieces of
duck. Cover, and let them stew slowly for two hours, adding a little boiling
water when necessary. Just before they are done, add a small glassful of
port-wine and a few drops of lemon-juice. Put the duck on a warm platter,
pour the gravy around, and serve it with little diamonds of fried bread
(croûtons) placed around the dish.
Fillets of Duck.
Roast the ducks, remove the breasts or fillets, and dish them in a circle.
Pour over a poivrade sauce, and fill the circle with olives.
Poivrade Sauce.
Mince an onion; fry it a yellow color, with butter, in a stew-pan; pour on
a gill of vinegar; let it remain on the fire until a third of it is boiled away;
then add a pint of gravy or stock, a bunch of parsley, two or three cloves,
pepper, and salt; let it boil a minute; thicken it with a little butter and flour
(roux); strain it, and remove any particles of fat.
Pigeons Stewed in Broth.
Unless pigeons are quite young, they are better braised or stewed in
broth than cooked in any other manner. In fact, I consider it always the best
way of cooking them. Tie them in shape; place slices of bacon at the bottom
of a stew-pan; lay in the pigeons, side by side, all their breasts uppermost;
add a sliced carrot, an onion, with a clove stuck in, a tea-spoonful of sugar,
and some parsley, and pour over enough stock to cover them. If you have
no stock, use boiling water. Now put some thin slices of bacon over the tops
of the pigeons; cover them as closely as possible, adding boiling water or
stock when necessary. Let them simmer until they are very tender. Serve
each pigeon on a thin piece of buttered toast, with a border of spinach, or
make little nests of spinach on pieces of toast, putting a pigeon into each
nest.

Roast Pigeons.
Never roast pigeons unless they are young and tender. After they are well
tied in shape, drawing the skin over the back, tie thin slices of bacon over
the breasts, and put a little piece of butter inside each pigeon. File them on a
skewer, and roast them before a brisk fire until thoroughly done, basting
them with butter.
Pigeons Broiled.
Split the pigeons at the back, and flatten them with the cutlet bat; season,
roll them in melted butter and bread-crumbs, and broil them, basting them
with butter. Or, cut out the breasts (fillets), and broil them alone. Serve
them on thin pieces of toast. Make a gravy of the remaining portions of the
pigeons, and pour it over them.
 Prairie-chicken or Grouse.

They are generally split open at the back and broiled, rubbing them with
butter; yet as all but the breast is generally tough, it is better to fillet the
chicken, or cut out the breast. The remainder of the chicken is cut into joints
and parboiled. These pieces are then broiled with the breasts (which, please
remember, are not parboiled) after rubbing butter over them all. As soon as
they are all broiled, sprinkle pepper and salt, and put a little lump of butter,
on top of each piece, which then place for a few moments in the oven to
soak the butter. Serve with currant-jelly. For fine entertainments the breasts
alone are served. Each breast is cut into two pieces, so that one chicken is
sufficient for four persons. If the dish is intended for breakfast, serve each
piece of breast on a small square piece of fried mush (see receipt, page 73).
If for dinner, serve each piece on a square of hot buttered toast, with a little
currant-jelly on top of each piece of chicken. Garnish the plate with any
kind of leaves, or with water-cresses. At a breakfast party I once saw this
dish surrounded with Saratoga potatoes. The white potatoes, dark meat, and
red jelly formed a pretty contrast.
To Choose a Young Prairie-chicken.
Bend the under bill. If it is tender, the chicken is young.
Prairie-chicken or Grouse Roasted.
Epicures think that grouse (in fact, all game) should not be too fresh. Do
not wash them. Do not wash any kind of game or meat. If proper care be
taken in dressing them they will be quite clean, and one could easily wash
out all their blood and flavor. Put plenty of butter inside each chicken: this
is necessary to keep it moist. Roast the grouse half an hour and longer, if
liked thoroughly done; baste them constantly with butter. When nearly
done, sprinkle over a little flour and plenty of butter to froth them. After
having boiled the liver of the grouse, mince and pound it, with a little
butter, pepper, and salt, until it is like a paste; then spread it over hot
buttered toast. Serve the grouse on the toast, surrounded with water-cresses.
Quails Parboiled and Baked.
Tie a thin slice of bacon over the breast of each bird; put the quails into a
baking-dish, with a little boiling water; cover it closely and set it on top of
the range, letting the birds steam ten or fifteen minutes. This plumps them.
Then take off the cover and the pork, and put the birds into the oven,
basting them often with butter. Brown them, and serve with currant-jelly.
Quails Roasted.
Cover the breasts with very thin slices of bacon, or rub them well with
butter; roast them before a good fire, basting them often with butter. Fifteen
minutes will cook them sufficiently, if they are served very hot, although
twenty minutes would be my rule, not being an epicure. Salt and pepper
them. Serve on a hot dish the moment they are cooked. They are very good
with a bread-sauce made as follows:
Bread-sauce, for Game (Mrs. Crane).
First roll a pint of dry bread-crumbs, and pass half of them through a
sieve. Put a small onion into a pint of milk, and when it boils remove the
onion, and thicken the milk with the half-pint of sifted crumbs; take it from
the fire, and stir in a heaping tea-spoonful of butter, a grating of nutmeg,
pepper and salt. Put a little butter into a sauté pan, and when hot throw in
the half-pint of coarser crumbs which remained in the sieve; stir them over
the fire until they assume a light-brown color, taking care that they do not
burn, and stir into them a small pinch of Cayenne pepper. They should be
rather dry. For serving, put a plump roast quail on a plate, pour over a table-
spoonful of the white sauce, and on this place a table-spoonful of the
crumbs. The sauce-boat and plate of crumbs may be passed separately, or
the host may arrange them at table before the birds are passed. This makes a
dish often seen in England.
Cutlets of Quails or of Pigeons.
With a sharp-pointed knife carefully cut the breasts from quails or
pigeons; or, as professional cooks say, fillet them. At the small end of each
breast stick in a bone taken from the leg, and trimmed. The breasts should
now resemble cutlets. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over each one, dip it
in melted butter, and roll it in flour or sifted cracker-crumbs. Put the cutlets
one side until ready to cook, as they should be cooked only just before
sending them to the table. They should then be fried in a sauté pan in hot
butter. They may be served without further trouble in a circle with a centre
of green pease, which makes a most delicate dish for a company dinner
course. However, there is a more elaborate way of finishing them, as
follows: Put the carcasses into some cold water with very small pieces of
pork and onion, sufficient only to produce the slightest flavoring. Simmer
this about an hour; strain, thicken with a little browned roux, and season it
with a little pepper and salt. As soon as the livers are done, take them out,
mash, and moisten them with a little of the sauce. Prepare little thin pieces
of toast, one for each breast; butter, and spread them with the mashed livers.
Turn the cutlets over in this sauce, and use the little of it that remains for
dipping in the pieces of toast. Serve the cutlets on the toast in a circle, with
a centre of pease, French string-beans (haricots verts), potatoes à la
Parisienne, or mushrooms; or cut the pieces of toast into the form of a long
triangle, so that the points may meet in the centre, and place the bones of
the cutlets to meet in the centre also. Put then a row of vegetables on the
outside.

Scollops of Quails, with Truffles (Gouffé).

Remove the fillets or breasts of six quails. Cut each fillet in two, and
trim the parts to a round shape. Cook half a pound of truffles in Madeira,
and cut them into slices. Put the scollops of quails into a sauté pan with
some butter; fry them until they are done, then mix them with the truffles.
Put a nice border on a dish; pile the centre with the scollops and truffles;
pour in some Espagnole or brown sauce, flavored with a little Madeira, and
serve. Truffles can be procured canned.
Espagnole Sauce.
 Melt butter the size of an egg; when hot, add to it two or three table-
spoonfuls of flour. Stir this carefully over a slow fire until it has taken a
clear, light-brown color. Mix in this one half-pint of stock, broth, or gravy;
then put it to the side of the fire to simmer until wanted, skimming it
carefully, and not allowing it to stick to the bottom of the pan. Strain it. Just
before serving it with the quails, add one or two tea-spoonfuls of Madeira.
Quails Broiled.
Split them at the back. Broil, basting them often with butter, over a hot
fire. As soon as the quails are done, add a little more butter, with pepper and
salt, and place them for a moment into the oven to soak the butter. Serve
them on thin slices of buttered toast, with a little currant-jelly on top of each
quail.
Quails Braised.
Quails are sometimes braised in the same manner as pigeons. (See
receipt.)
Snipe and Woodcock Fried.

Dress and wipe them clean. Tie the legs close to the body; skin the heads
and necks, and tie the beaks under the wing; tie, also, a very thin piece of
bacon around the breast of each bird, and fry in boiling lard. It only requires
a few moments—say two minutes—to cook them. Season and serve them
on toast. Some pierce the legs with the beak of the bird, as in the cut.
Snipe and Woodcock Roasted.
The following is the epicure’s manner of cooking them, not mine.
Carefully pluck them, and take the skin off the heads and necks. Truss them
with the head under the wing. Twist the legs at the first joint, pressing the
feet against the thigh. Do not draw them. Now tie a thin slice of bacon
around each; run a small iron skewer through the birds, and tie it to a spit at
both ends. Roast them at a good fire, placing a dripping-pan, with buttered
slices of toast under them, to catch the trail as it falls. Baste the snipe often
with a paste-brush dipped in melted butter. Let them roast twenty minutes;
then salt the birds, and serve them immediately on the pieces of toast.

Reed-birds (Henry Ward Beecher’s Receipt).

Cut sweet-potatoes lengthwise; scoop out in the centre of each a place
that will fit half the bird. Now put in the birds, after seasoning them with
butter, pepper, and salt, tying the two pieces of potato around each of them.
Bake them. Serve them in the potatoes. Or, they can be roasted or fried in
boiling lard like other birds.
Plovers
are cooked in the same way as quails or partridges.
Pheasants
are cooked in the same way as prairie-chickens or grouse.
VENISON.
The Saddle of Venison.
This is, perhaps, the most distinguished venison dish. Make rather deep
incisions, following the grain of the meat from the top, and insert pieces of
pork about one-third of an inch square, and one inch and a half or two
inches long; sprinkle over pepper, salt, and a little flour. Roast or bake the
venison before a hot fire or in a hot oven, about two hours for an eight-
pound roast. Baste often. Serve a currant-jelly sauce in the sauce-boat.
A good accompaniment at table for a roast of venison is a dish of
potatoes à la neige (see page 192), the dark meat and white potatoes
forming a pretty contrast.
 Roast or Baked Haunch of Venison.
Cut off part of the knuckle-bone, round it at the other extremity, sprinkle
over pepper and salt, and cover the whole with a paste of flour and water or
coarse corn-meal; tie firmly a thick paper around. Place it near the fire at
first to harden the paste, basting well the paper to keep it from burning; then
remove it a little farther from the fire. Have a strong, clear fire. It will take
about three hours to roast this joint, at the end of which time remove the
paste. Carême would glaze it. This is, after all, a simple operation. It is a
stock boiled down to a firm jelly, the jelly melted, and spread upon the meat
with a brush. Put some frills of paper around the bone, and serve currant-
jelly with it. If it be baked, the paste should cover it in the same way. It
would also take the same length of time to cook.
The neck of venison makes a good roast also.
To Broil Venison Steaks.
Have the gridiron hot; broil, and put them on a hot dish; rub over them
butter, pepper, salt, and a little melted currant-jelly. Some cooks add a table-
spoonful of Madeira, sherry, or port to the melted currant-jelly.
If one does not wish to serve the jelly, simply garnish the dish with
lemon-slices.
Stewed Venison.
Cut it into steaks; spread over them a thin layer of stuffing made with
bread-crumbs, minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and a little pork chopped
fine; now roll them separately, and tie them each with a cord; stew them in
boiling water or stock. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter mixed (see
roux, page 51), and add one or two spoonfuls of sherry or port wine.
Rabbits Roasted.
Skin and dress the rabbits as soon as possible, and hang them overnight.
Roast them before a moderate fire, basting them with butter and a little
flour when nearly done.
Rabbits Baked.
After they are skinned, dressed, and hung overnight, put them into a
baking-pan; sprinkle over pepper and salt, and put also a thin slice of bacon
on the top of each rabbit. Now pour some boiling water into the bottom of
the pan, and cover it with another pan of equal size, letting the rabbits steam
about fifteen or twenty minutes; then take off the cover, baste them with a
little butter, and let them brown.
Rabbits are much improved by larding.
 VEGETABLES.
To Preserve the Color of Vegetables.
The French cooks very generally use carbonate of ammonia to preserve
the color of vegetables. What would lay on the point of a penknife is mixed
in the water in which the vegetables (such as pease, spinach, string-beans,
and asparagus) are boiled. The ammonia all evaporates in boiling, leaving
no ill effects. They say also that it prevents the odor of boiling cabbage. It
may be obtained at the drug-stores.
Potatoes Boiled.
Choose those of equal size. They look better when thinly peeled before
they are boiled; but it is more economical to boil them before skinning, as
careless cooks generally pare away half of the potato in the operation, and
the best part of the potato is that which lies nearest the skin. Put them into
an iron pot or saucepan in just enough well-salted cold water to cover them.
Let them boil until they are nearly done; then pour off all but about half a
cupful of the water in the bottom of the pot; return the potatoes to the fire,
put on a close cover, and let them steam until quite done; then remove the
lid, sprinkle salt over them, and let them remain a few moments on the fire
to evaporate the water. Remove them carefully, and serve immediately.
They should be dry and flaky.
If one has a cook too heedless to steam the potatoes properly, it should
be remembered that potatoes should never be allowed to soak in the water a
moment after they are done; the water should be immediately poured off,
and the steam evaporated. It is important that potatoes should be done just
at the moment of serving. It requires about thirty-five minutes to boil the
medium-sized.
To Boil Potatoes (Captain Kater to Mrs. Acton).
Pare the potatoes; cover them with cold water; boil them gently until
they are done. Pour off the water, and sprinkle salt over them; then with a
spoon take each potato and lay it into a clean, warm cloth; twist this so as to
press all the moisture from the vegetable, and render it quite round; turn it
carefully into a dish placed before the fire; throw a cloth over; and when all
are done, send them to the table immediately. Potatoes dressed in this way
are mashed without the slightest trouble.
Mashed Potatoes.
Every one thinks she can make so simple a dish as that of mashed
potatoes; but it is the excellence of art to produce good mashed as well as
good boiled potatoes. In fact, I believe there is nothing so difficult in
cookery as to properly boil a potato.
To mash them, then, first boil them properly. Put into a hot crock basin,
which can be placed at the side of the fire, half a cupful or more of cream, a
piece of butter the size of an egg, plenty of salt and pepper, and let them get
hot. One of the secrets of good mashed potatoes is the mixing of the
ingredients all hot. Now add six or seven potatoes the moment they are
done, and mash them without stopping until they are as smooth as possible;
then work them a very few moments with a fork, and serve them
immediately. Do not rub egg over, and bake them; that ruins them. Much
depends upon mashed potatoes being served at table hot, and freshly made.
They are very nice prepared à la neige.
Potatoes à la Neige.
These are mashed potatoes made as in the preceding receipt, pressed
through a colander into a dish in which they are to be served. The potatoes
then resemble rice or vermicelli, and are very light and nice. They make a
pretty dish, and must be served very hot. They make a favorite
accompaniment to venison, and are often served around a rolled rib roast of
beef.
To Bake Potatoes.
The potatoes must be of equal size. Put them into a hot oven and bake
until tender. The excellence of baked potatoes depends upon their being
served immediately when they are just baked enough. A moment
underdone, and they are indigestible and worthless; a moment overdone,
and they have begun to dry. It requires about an hour to bake a large potato.
This is a favorite way of cooking potatoes for lunch or tea.
Potatoes in Cases.