98 MORE POT-POURRI 



with braised meats or boiled salt beef, and can be end- 

 lessly improved and varied by covering it up, after it 

 is di-essed, with chopped hard-boiled eggs, beetroot, 

 cucumbers bottled in vinegar, anchovies, etc., etc. In 

 fact, with these kinds of salads one can give hardly any 

 rule, as imagination and experiments are everything. 

 The ordinary red cabbage makes a very good salad. It 

 must be cut into very fine shreds, then scalded by pour- 

 ing a large kettle of boiling water over it. When cool, 

 but not cold, it should be dressed with oil and vinegar, 

 like ordinary salad, covered up, and allowed to stand for 

 two or three hours. 



Pheasant stuffed with Woodcocks. — The French 

 say : ' To the uninitiated this bird is as a sealed book ; 

 eaten after it has been killed but three days, it is insipid 

 and bad — neither so delicate as a pullet, nor so odor- 

 iferous as quail. Cooked at the right moment, the flesh 

 is tender and the flavour sublime, partaking equally of 

 the qualities of poultry and game. The moment so 

 necessary to be known and seized on is when decompo- 

 sition is about to take place. A trifling odour and a 

 change in the colour of the breast are manifested, and 

 great care must be taken not to pluck the bird till it is 

 to be larded and cooked, as the contact of the air will 

 completely neutralise the aroma, consisting of a subtle 

 oil, to which hydrogen is fatal. The bird being larded, 

 the first thing to do is to stuff it, which is effected in the 

 following manner : Provide two woodcocks, bone and 

 divide them into two portions, the "one being the flesh, 

 and the other trail, brains, and livers. You then take 

 the flesh and make a forcemeat by chopping it up with 

 some beef -marrow cooked by steam, a little rasped 

 bacon, pepper, salt, fine herbs, and so much of the best 

 truflles as will, with the above, quite fill the interior of 

 the .pheasant. You must take. care to secure this force- 



