THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



75 



too greasy ; and it is nice for shortening-. It shonld 

 first be turneil into cold water; wlicn Inudcned, it 

 s!i<iuM 1)P taken oil' and scalded in a skillet. Tliis 

 process leaves it as sweet as lard. 



Ducks do not need to be roasted more than fif- 

 teen or twenty minuttf Butter melted in boiling 

 flour a>id water is proper sauce f jr boiled lamb, 

 mutton, venl, turkies, geese, chickens, and fish. 

 Some people cut up parsley fine, and throw in. 

 Some people like capers put in. Others heat oys- 

 ters through on the trr'.diron, and take them out of 

 shells, and throw '.hem into the butter. 



A good sized turkey should be roasted two hours 

 and a half, or threL- hours ; very slowly at first. 

 If you wish to make plain stuffing, pound a crack- 

 er, or crumble some bread very fine, chop some 

 raw salt pork very fine, sift some sage, (and sum- 

 mer-savory, or sweet marjnrum if you have them 

 in the house, and fancy them) and mould them all 

 together, seasoned with a little pepper. An egg 

 worked in makes the stuft'ing cut better; but it is 

 not worth while, when eggs are dear. About the 

 same length of time is required for boiling and 

 roasting. 



Pigeons may he eitlier roasted, potted, or stew- 

 ed. Potting is the best, and t'.ie least trouble. Af- 

 ter they arc thoroughly picked and cleansed, put a 

 small slice of salt porli and a little ball of stuffing 

 into the body of every pigeon. The stuffing should 

 be made of one egg to one cracker, an equal quan- 

 tity of suet, or butter, seasoned with sweet mar- 

 jorum, or sage, if marjorum cannot be procured. 

 Flour the pigeons well, lay them close together in 

 the bottom of the pot, just cover them with water, 

 throw in abit of butter, and let ihem stew an hour 

 and a quarter, if young ; an hour and three quar- 

 ters, if old. Some people turn off the liquor just 

 before they are done, and lirown the pigeons on 

 the bottom of the pot ; but this is very troublesome, 

 as they are apt to break to pieces. 



Stewed pigeons ere cooked in nearly the same 

 way, with the omis.sion of the stuffing. Being dry 

 meat they require a good deal of butter. 



Pigeons should be stuffed and roasted about fif- 

 teen minutes before a smart fire. Those who like 

 birds just wnrmcd through, would perhaps think 

 less lime necessar}^ It makes them nicer to butter 

 them well just before you take them off the spit, 

 and sprinkle them witli nicely pounded bread, or 

 cracker. All poultry should be basted, and floured 

 a f^'W minutes before it is taken up. 



The age of pigeons can be judged by the color 

 of the legs. When young tlicy are of a pale del- 

 icate brown ; as they grow older the color is deep- 

 er and redder. 



A nice v/ay of serving up cold chicken or pieces 

 of cold fresh meat, is to make them into a meat 

 pie. The gizzards, livers, and necks of poultry 

 parboiled, arc good for the same purpose. If you 

 wisli to bake your meat pie, line a deep earthen or 

 tin pan with paste made of flour, cold water, and 

 lard ; use but little lard, for the fat of the meat 

 will shorten the crust. Lay in your bits of meat, 

 or chicken, with two or three slices of salt pork ; 

 place a fev/ tliin slices of your paste hero and 

 there; drop in an egg, if you have plenty. Fill 

 the pan with flour and water, seasoned with a little 

 pepper and silt; If the meat be very lean, put in 

 a piece of butter, or such sweet gravies as you may 

 happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and 

 put it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook twenty 

 minutes or half an hour, or an hour, according to 

 the size of the pie. Some people think this the 

 nicest way of cooking whole chickens. When 

 thus cooked they should be parboiled before they 

 are jiut into the pan, and the water they are boiled 

 in should be added. They need to be baked fif- 

 teen minutes longer than meat previously cooked. 

 If you wish to make a pot pie instead of a baked 

 pie, you have only to line the bottom of a porridge 

 pot with paste, lay in your meat, season and moist- 

 en it in the same way, cover it with paste, and keep 

 it slowly stewing about tlie same time that the oth- 

 er takes. In both ca.ses it is well to lift the upper 

 crust a little while before you take up the pie, and 

 see whetlier the moistrre has dried away; if so 

 pour in flour and water well mixed. 



Potatoes should be boiled in a separate vessel. 

 If vou have fear that poultry may become musty 

 before yi 1.1 want to cook it, skin an onion and put 



cut it up very fine to be put into the gravy, while 

 the fowl.i are cooking ; in this case, the water they 

 are boiled in should be used to make the gravy. 



Fish. — Cod has white stripes, and a hadduck 

 black stripes ; they may be known apart by this. 

 Hadduck is the best for frying ; and cod is the best 

 for boiling, or for r^ chowder. A thin tail is a sign 

 of a poor fish ; always choose a thick fisli. 



When you are buying mackerel pinch the belly 

 to ascertain whether it is good. It it gives under 

 your finger, like a bladder half filled with wind, 

 the fish is poor ; if it feels hard like butter, the 

 fish is good. It is cheaper to buy one large mack- 

 erel for nine pence, than two for four pence half- 

 penny. 



Fish should not be put in to fry until the fat is 

 boiliuThot; it is very necessary to observe this. 

 It should be dipped in Indian meal before it is put 

 in ; and the skinny side uppermost, when firjt put 

 in, to prevent its breaking. It relishes better to be 

 fried after salt pork, than to be fried in lard alone. 

 People are mistaken, who think fresh fish should 

 be put into cold water, as soon as it is brought in- 

 to the house ; soaking it in water is injurious. If 

 you want to keep it sweet, clean it, wash it, wipe it 

 dry with a clean towel, sprinkle salt inside and out, 

 put it in a covered dish, and keep it on the celliir 

 floor, until you want to cook it. If you live re- 

 mote from the seaport, and cannot get fish while 

 haril and fresh, wet it with an egg beaten, before 

 you meal it, to prevent its breaking. 



Fish irravy is very much improved by taking out 

 some of the fat, after the fish is fried, and putting 

 in a little butter. The fat thus taken out will do 

 to fry fish again ; but it will not do for any kind of 

 shortening. Shake in a little flour into the hot fat, 

 and pour in a little boiling water ; stir it up well as 

 it boils a minute, or so. Some people put in vine- 

 gar ; but this is easily added by those who like it. 



A common sized cod fish should be put in when 

 the water is boiling hot, and boil about twenty min- 

 utes. Hadduck is not as good for boiling as cod ; 

 it takes about the same time to boil. 



A piece of Halibut which weighs four pounds is 

 a large dinner for a family of six of seven. It 

 should boil forty minutes. No fish put in till tlie 

 water boils. Melted butter for sauce. 



Clams should boil about fifteen minutes in their 

 own water ; tio other need be added, except a 

 spoonful to keep the bottom shells from burning. 

 It is easy to tell when they are done, by the shells 

 starting wide open. After they are done they 

 should be taken from the shells, washed thorough- 

 ly in their own water, and put in a stewing pan. 

 The water should then be strained through a cloth, 

 so as to get out all the grit ; the clams should be 

 simmered in it ton or fifteen minutes ; a little 

 thickening of flour and water added ; half a dozen 

 slices of toasted bread, or cracker; and pepper, 

 vinegar, and butter to your taste. Salt is not 

 needed. 



Four pounds of fish are enough to make a chow- 

 der, for four or five people — half dozen slices of 

 salt pork in the bottom of the pot— hang it high, 

 so that the pork m.ay not burn — take it out when 

 done very brown — put in a layer of fish, cut in 

 lengthsvise slices — then a layer formed of crackers, 

 small or sliced onions, and potatoes sliced as thin 

 as a fourpence, mixed with pieces of pork you 

 have fried ; then a layer of fish again, and so on. 

 Six crackers are enough. Strew a little salt and 

 pepper over each layer ; over the wliole pour a 

 bowl full of flour and water, enough to come up 

 even with the surface of what you have in the pot. 

 A liced lemon adds to the flavor. A cup of To- 

 mato catsup is very excellent. Some people put 

 in a cup of beer. A few clams are a pleasant ad- 

 dition. It should be covered so as not to let a par- 

 ticle of steam escape, if possible. Do not open it, 

 except when nearly done, to taste if it be well sea- 

 soned. 



Salt fish should be put in a deep plate, with just 

 water enough to cover it, the night before you in- 

 tend to cook it. It should not be boiled an instant; 

 boiling renders it hard. It should lie in scalding 

 hot water, two or three hours. The less water is 

 used, and the more fish is cooked at once, the bet- 

 ter. Water thickened with flour and wafer while 

 boiling, with sweet butter put in to melt, is the j 

 common sauce. It is more economical to cut sal 



S.ilt fisii mashed with potatoes with good hutter 

 or pork scraps, to moisten it, is nicer the secrind 

 day, than it was the firs'. The fish should be min- 

 ced very fine, while it is v^arin. After it has got 

 cold and dry, it is difllcult to do it nicely. Salt 

 fish needs plenty of vegetables, such as onions, 

 beets, carrots, &c. 



There is no way of preparing saV fish for break- 

 fast, so nicely as to roll it up in little balls, after it 

 is mixed witii mashed potatoes, dip it into ai egg, 

 and fry it brown. 



A female lobster is not considered so good as a 

 male. In the female, the sides of the head, or 

 what looks like cheeks, are much larger, and jut 

 out more than thsse of the male. The mouth of a 

 lob.steris surrounded with what children call 'pur- 

 ses' edged with a little fringe. If you put your 

 hand under these to raise it, and find it spring back 

 hard and firm, it is a sign the lobster is fresh ; if 

 they move flabbily it is not a good omen. — Mrs. 

 Child. 



Fniin llie Genesee r\iinier. 



Bees. 



Mr. Tucker— I have noticsd that tlie manage- 

 ment of liees is a subject which has often called 

 forth remarks from subscribers to your truly valua- 

 ble paper, the Genesee Farmer. It is a very in- 

 teresting subject to very many readers, if not to 

 all. Great improvements in tiip management of 

 the honi-ybee have been made within a few years 

 p,ist,which have benefitted both "tenants and land- 

 lords" — and probably still greater may yet be inado 

 liy apiarian philosophers. — But I have no claim to 

 be ranked among the.=ie. My object now is simply 

 to state a method which a friend of mine pursues 

 to obtain, with the greatest possible ease and con- 

 venience, the choicest and most delicious honey in 

 great abundance. Upon this friend I lately called 

 and partook bountifully of his " milk and his hon- 

 ey" — of the honey first, however, and then of tlie 

 milk. This rich "treat I enjoyed at the house of 

 Mr. Nathan Bancroft, about a mile from our vil- 

 lage. Mr. Bancroft's method may not he new to 

 alf, yet it may be to some of your readers. After 

 spending the greatest part of the evening before a 

 cheerful fire in the midst of a social and agreeable 

 family,— " Come," said Mr. B., "let us walk up 

 into my garret"- and with knife and plate in one 

 hand and candle in the other, he led the way and 

 we followed on until we came to the room from 

 which was brought forth "sweetness." This is a 

 tight plastered dark room, of the bigness of a com- 

 iiKin B ze bed room, in which were placed hives for 

 the "busy bees"— being a safe and comfortable 

 dwelling both for summer and winter for the most 

 industrious and frugal creatures of any in the 

 world. In this room, boards about two feet wide, 

 and four feet long, are placed edgewise upon the 

 floor, a little distance from the outer wall of the 

 house, and upon thtse the hives are set; aboard 

 shelf is then placed between an aperture 'n the 

 hive, near the centre of one side of it, to an aper- 

 ture in t!ie wall, over which the bees travel in com- 

 ino- in and passing out. Their house room is suffi- 

 ciently ventilated, a hole bi-ing made also at the top 

 and at the bottom of the hive. Thus, having free 

 ingress and egress to and from their dwelling in all 

 ne'cessary ways, they need not be disturbed or in- 

 jured by man, nor by animal of any kind. When 

 the cold season comes on, they retire to their inner 

 room (the middle of the liive,) where they have in 

 store a plenty of food for themselves— having left 

 undar the shelf and attached to the under part and 

 sides of the hives, as \vell as at the top of the hives, 

 enough of most beautiful white comb, filled with 

 the purest honey, without bee or spot, to satisfy 

 any reasonable creature. Thirty pounds might 

 have lieen taken from the hive we saw, ^yithout 

 disturbing the bees in the least. With one slice 

 from the inside of the hive, we loaded our plate 

 with the finest of honey in comb, and returned to 

 enjoy the treat. J. D. 



Medina, Jan. 1830. 



in it ; a'litt je pepper sprinkled in is good ; it should ' pork into small bits, and try it till the pork is bro\yn 



be kept hung up, in a dry cool place. 



If poultry is injured, before you are aware of it, 

 wash it very thoroughly in pearlash and water, and 

 sprinkle pepper inside when yon cook it. Some 

 people hang up poultry with a muslin bag of char- 

 coal inside. It is a good plan to singe injured poul- 

 try over lighted charcoal, and to hold a piece of 

 liglited charcoal inside, a few minutes 



and crispy. It should not be done too fast, lest the 

 sweetness be scorched out. 



Salted shad and mackerel should be put into a 

 deep plate and covered with boiling water for about 

 ten minutes after it is thoroughly broiled, before it 

 is buttered. This makes it tender, takes oft' the 

 coat of salt, and prevents the strong oily taste, so 

 apt to be unpleasant in pri|served pjll. The same 



Many people parboil the liver and gizzard, and | rale applies to smokod salmon. 



Spruce Beer. — Take three gallons of water, of 

 blood warmth, 3 half pints of molasses, a table 

 spoon full of essence of spruce, and the like quan- 

 tity of ginger — mix well together, witli a gill of 

 yeast ; let stand over night, and bottle in tiie inor- 

 nino-. It will be in good condition to drink in 

 twenty-four hours. It is a palatable, wholesome 

 beverage. 



Bo's in Horses. — A traveller informs us that the 

 stage drivers on their routes leading from Albany 

 to the western parts of the State of New York, in 

 givintr water to their horses on the road, mix a lit- 

 tle wood ashes with their drink, which they say, 

 efliectually preserves them against the hots. 



