Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/46

42 into a muslin bag. If badly shot, it should be laid in vinegar and water for a short time, after being well washed. This is particularly necessary when the shot has broken the intestines. Some inexperienced cooks or housekeepers imagine a bird is useless if the flesh has turned green in places, but this is a mistake, as there need not be the least taste of taint if the parts are washed well with vinegar and water. A good stuffing for wild goose is mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, and herbs, well seasoned, and stuff the breast as well as the body.

Stewed Wallaby.—Take the hindquarters of a young wallaby, cut into small pieces, with about half a pound of lean ham. While still on the board pepper and salt well, and dredge a little flour over it. Cut up an onion and fry it in the bottom of the stew pan, pour off the butter or fat, and put in the meat, with just sufficient water or stock to prevent burning. Put it over a slow fire, and keep stirring the meat about till all is hot, then pour in more water or stock, and let it stew gently for two or three hours. Thicken with a lump of butter rolled in flour, and just before serving add a glass of colonial wine.

Bandicoot.

Ingredients: Bandicoot, vinegar and water, sweet potatoes, onions.

Mode: A bandicoot is a very disagreeable animal to clean, therefore it should be done as soon after killing as possible, and then the flesh can be left in strong vinegar and water for a few hours before dressing. Sweet potatoes and onion make a good stuffing for bandicoot, which is good either boiled or baked.

The Flying Fox.

Ingredients: Flying fox, bread crumbs, and herbs.

Mode: Flying fox is excellent eating during the fruit season; when that is over, they are not good, taking a peculiar flavour from some flower or leaf they fall back upon when there is no fruit. Many people are prejudiced against the flying fox on account of its extremely powerful and unpleasant smell; but once the bat-like wings are got rid of, that goes, and when the flying fox is properly skinned and cleaned, the flesh is clean and white, looking somewhat like a fowl that has been skinned. Judgment is required in choosing them to get those that are young and plump. They can be stuffed with bread crumbs and herbs or mashed potatoes, and either roasted or boiled. A young flying fox, split like a Spatch cock and grilled, is a capital breakfast dish.

Baking Poultry.—Poultry needs very careful baking. Most cooks overdo it, which is almost as great a fault as under-cooking. When your fowl is picked, drawn, and well washed, dry it thoroughly with a clean cloth. Cut off the head and legs, throw them into scalding water to get the outer skin off the latter and the beak. By-and-bye they will come in for gravy for your dish. Have your stuffing prepared; fill the breast. This is a vexed question with many cooks, as most of them insist upon merely stuffing the body of the fowl, whereas if the breast is filled, it improves the appearance of the dish greatly. There is one matter I would mention: in drawing a fowl the crop or craw should be taken out whole, and without splitting down the skin from the neck. It is quite simply done. You want to separate the skin from the bag that holds the food. Get the latter into your hand, and then draw it out while pressing the skin back. By this means you will have the whole crop intact, and a nice cavity left wherein to put your stuffing. When this is filled, draw the skin well back over the neck bone, and tie or sew it. Now fill in a little stuffing into the body of the fowl. Many cooks open a fowl at the vent. This is a great mistake also, and quite spoils its appearance, unless you are very expert at trussing. It should be opened on the left side, right in the groin. Then when trussed it does not show, as the leg is brought close to the body, and so hides the cut. When the fowl is