COOKING OTHER KINDS OF GAME. 475 



destroy, or rather disguise, their original flavor. If roasted and 

 basted, or rather stewed, with a rich dressing of butter, spice, and 

 Port or Madeira wine, their flavor is much improved ; when served 

 up, they may have a few drops of lemon-juice squeezed over them, 

 to make the sauce more piquante. An old sea-gull, mud-hen, or 

 any other tough fen-bird, may be made quite tolerable by such a 

 process of cookery. 



If, however, you should at any time be placed in a strait for 

 something to eat, we would advise Hawker's receipt for a " good 

 mess," which may be made out of any thing in the way of a fowl, 

 whether a tough old dunghill-cock, a cackling hen, a screaming 

 gull, or a fishy dipper, as follows : 



" Have a fowl skinned and quartered ; 

 Put it over the fire in a quart of cold water ; 

 Boil it full two hours. 



Then add two ounces (or a handful) of pearl barley, (rice will answer ;) 

 Three blades of mace ; about two dozen peppercorns , and 

 Salt to your taste : 

 Then let all boil together for one more hour." 



An onion, or any other kind of vegetable or strong herb, may be 

 added ad libitum. 



