Fowl Roasts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bird
Salt large birds inside and truss them.
Cover the birds with slices of bacon.
Cook the birds before a concentrated, moderately fierce fire.
About ten minutes before unhooking them, remove the bacon so the breasts can colour.
Test that the bird is cooked by holding it over a plate; the juice that runs out should be white.
Set the cooked bird on a very hot dish and serve it instantly.
Serve the fowl with grilled sausages or slices of bacon, and send bread sauce separately with the gravy.
Empty the pullet through a small hole on the side of the belly, keeping the skin of the neck whole.
Remove the collar bone at the top of the breast.
Detach the skin from the whole breast.
Make the truffle stuffing
Brush and wash the truffles well.
Carefully peel the truffles.
Select one of the largest truffles and cut it into slices; set these aside.
Quarter the other truffles, each piece weighing about three oz.
Pound the truffle peel with very fresh pork fat and rub the whole through a sieve.
Take about one-half lb. of this fat and melt it with a bay leaf.
When the fat is quite liquid, add the quartered truffles seasoned with salt and pepper, and simmer for about ten minutes.
Take the mixture off the fire and leave it to cool almost entirely under cover.
Mix the cooled truffle mixture with what remains of the truffled fat.
Stuff the pullet with this preparation.
Truss and roast
Slip thin slices of bacon between the bird’s skin and the breast flesh.
Place the reserved slice of truffle on the bacon slices.
Sew up all the openings with very thin string.
Wrap the pullet in one or two sheets of buttered paper.
Spit the pullet and roast it before a concentrated fire kept at an even heat.
About one-quarter of an hour before serving, remove the paper and the bacon so the breast can colour.
Set the pullet on a hot dish and send the gravy, kept rather fat, separately.
Roast a fine fowl for about one and one-quarter to one and one-half hours.
The directions for the pullet also apply to other fowl, allowing for differences in size.
Other birds
Truss the chicken and soak its breast for five minutes in boiling water.
Lard the chicken with thin strips of bacon and anchovy fillets.
Fill the chicken with smooth, truffled sausage-meat and roast it on the spit.
When the bird is cooked, baste it with burning melted bacon fat using a paper horn, so the fat frizzles the skin.
Serve a Rémoulade sauce separately.
Cook the chicks “à la casserole” if possible.
Before trussing the young turkey, clear its legs of tendons by making two incisions on the inside of the legs, above and below the last joint.
Fasten each tendon to a braiding needle and gently turn the needle to roll the tendons round it.
Cover the young turkey with slices of bacon and roast it like the pullet.
Stuff the turkey with Sage and Onions (No. 1944) or serve it with Veal Stuffing (No. 1945), poached in steam in a special mould and sliced around the bird.
Serve boiled or grilled bacon or grilled sausages with the turkey if desired.
Serve bread sauce or cranberry sauce in addition to the gravy.
Proceed as for truffled pullet, increasing the truffles, fat and roasting time for the larger size.
Roast the gosling once it has just reached full growth.
Stuff the gosling with Sage and Onions (No. 1944).
Serve the gosling with Apple Sauce (No. 112).
Do not let this roast stand waiting; serve it very hot.
Stuff the duckling with Sage and Onions before roasting.
Serve the duckling with Apple Sauce, or with melted red-currant jelly or Cranberry Sauce.
See the recipes for this bird (Nos. 1761 and 1762).
Roast guinea fowl only when quite young, treating it like pheasant.
Select young pigeons fresh from the nest and very plump.
Roast the pigeons before a very fierce fire and only just until done.
Keep the pigeon skin crisp.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Bacon (in the method)
- Covers the breast as fat, protecting it from drying and then browning once removed.
- Truffles (in the method)
- Provide a strong earthy aroma that perfumes the fat and the bird.
- Pork fat (in the method)
- Carries the truffle flavour and keeps the stuffing moist during roasting.
The step that matters
Remove the bacon before the end of roasting. The bacon shields the breast from direct heat. Removing it about ten minutes before the bird is done lets the skin brown and crisp, without overcooking the meat beneath.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More roast fowl recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.