COOKERY 277 



smell is so powerful that he is never cooked within 

 doors.' Meg Dods says that ' smoked solans are 

 well known as contributing to the abundance of a 

 Scottish breakfast.' I fancy they were more generally 

 eaten as a whet before dinner, in the Russian or 

 Scandinavian fashion, where northern stomachs of 

 iron preface the indigestible with the more indiges- 

 tible. Could the Solan's digestion have been com- 

 municated to the diners, nothing could have been 

 more apropos. For of all the voracious sea-fowl, the 

 Solan has the most inexhaustible flow of gastric juice ; 

 when not fishing or sleeping it is always stuffing, and 

 if scared on the ledge in the midst of a meal, it throws 

 up what it swallowed last, to recover it if the alarm 

 passes. Cooking and smoking may melt the grease 

 and evaporate the essential oils, but it must always 

 be saturated with the flavour of herring or haddock. 



Roasting a wild goose is much like roasting the 

 tame goose, and both, as I said, may or must be kept 

 almost indefinitely. For several days before roasting 

 it is rubbed with salt and sometimes parboiled. When 

 shot fresh from the corn or the bean fields, the par- 

 boiling may be dispensed with. With both satis- 

 factory stuffing is an essential, but with the wild bird 

 the savour of the stuffing should be stronger. It is 

 to be made of onions, sage, thyme, and chopped 



