288 COOKERY OF THE GROUSE 



years the flavour is such as to baffle more ornamental 

 treatment, while in others there is nothing particular 

 to be done with the fowl. Nevertheless, people will 

 do things with it ; and some of the things they do 

 must be told with the general caution, or at least 

 opinion, that they are vanity. In the first place there 

 is a way of pressing grouse which, since the initial 

 process is to boil or stew the bird to rags, must be 

 specially applicable, and should be chiefly or only 

 applied, to the very oldest specimens. Having inflicted 

 this fiery and watery torment on them you pull the 

 meat off the bones, season it pretty freely, and clothe 

 it with jelly (either with ordinary aspic or by fortifying 

 the liquor in which it was boiled with gelatine), adding 

 eggs, truffles, and anything else you please before 

 letting it get solid in a mould or dish. It stands to 

 reason that this is only a way though not at all a 

 bad way of using birds not otherwise eatable. 



Salmis of grouse stands much higher indeed, it 

 is probably the best of its kind, except that made of 

 wild duck ; and inasmuch as there must always be 

 remnants of roast birds, it is almost a necessary sup- 

 plement to simpler cookery, besides being extremely 

 good of itself. But it is necessary to remember several 

 things about a salmis. The first is, that though the 

 birds are always cooked first, it is indispensable that 



