Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/44

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HAVE mentioned coffee as a preservative, but as it may not be known as such to every one, I will give the method of using it. Dry coffee, used instead of pepper, will preserve game when it has to be carried any distance, or kept some time. I have tried and seen it tried so often in this climate that I can speak confidently. As a rule, when gentlemen go out shooting in hot climates, they carry pepper with them; that is, of course, when they go in a large party, and do not expect to eat the game until next day. This is a very simple way of saving all they shoot, and the trouble is so small that no man will refuse to take it unless he is a particularly lazy, useless member of the sex, and in that case I should imagine the lifting his gun to his shoulder would be too great an effort. When the ducks, water hens, turkeys, etc., are shot, let them be cleaned as soon as possible. The task need not be an unpleasant one at all if each gentleman is provided with a piece of stout wire, and each does all that falls to his own gun. Cut the opening at one side, the left is the most handy, first picking away just a few feathers. That done, introduce the wire which should be bent like a wide hook at the top, and draw down all the loose contents of the body. All that should will come without trouble, and in one pull, the wire being held firmly. Now sprinkle a liberal quantity of dry coffee into the inside, pick a handful of grass, roll it up, and push it in as stuffing. Treated in this manner, I have known ducks keep twenty-four hours in the hottest weather. I cannot tell you what qualities the coffee possesses, but that it is far before pepper, used in this way, I know from my own practical experience. I have also used it successfully on butcher’s meat.

In the matter of cleaning, or what is called drawing, all game and poultry, many people make a mistake when they remove every particle from the inside, and wash out the cavity. It should not be washed according to the opinion of most professional cooks. A professional cook seldom washes a bird when preparing it for table. I took a few lessons from an Indian cook some years ago, and it was from him I learnt how to dress poultry and game without making it an unpleasant task. I had always disliked the work before, as it made my hands both dirty and unpleasant; but he never soiled his hands, using the wire to draw with instead. His wire was made for the purpose, and was rather complicated, but I made one for myself out of a piece of fencing wire which answered just as well. Another thing, he did not wash his birds, saying