Edmond About - "The Man With The Broken Ear"

Paul W. Fairman - "Ten From Infinity"

Edith Wharton - "Crucial Instances"

J. Wardle - "General Gordon"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

E >> Eliza Leslie >> Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches





BAKED CHICKEN PIE.

Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with a thick paste.
Having cut up your chickens, and seasoned them to your taste, with
salt, pepper, mace and nutmeg, put them in, and lay on the top
several pieces of butter rolled in flour. Fill up the dish about
two-thirds with cold water. Then lay on the top crust, notching it
handsomely. Cut a slit in the top, and stick into it an ornament
of paste made in the form of a tulip. Bake it in a moderate oven.

It will be much improved by the addition of a quarter of a hundred
oysters; or by interspersing the pieces of chicken with slices of
cold boiled ham.

You may add also some yolks of eggs boiled hard.

A duck pie may be made in the same manner. A rabbit pie also.


A POT PIE.

Take a pair of large fine fowls. Cut them up, wash the pieces, and
season them with pepper and salt. Make a good paste in the
proportion of a pound and a half of minced suet to three pounds of
flour. Let there be plenty of paste, as it is always much liked by
the eaters of pot pie. Roll out the paste not very thin, and cut
most of it into long squares. Butter the sides of a pot, and line
them with paste nearly to the top. Lay slices of cold ham at the
bottom of the pot, and then the pieces of fowl, interspersed all
through with squares of paste, and potatoes pared and quartered.
Lay a lid of paste all over the top, leaving a hole in the middle.
Pour in about a quart of water, cover the pot, and boil it slowly
but steadily for two hours. Half an hour before you take it up,
put in through the hole in the centre of the crust, some bits of
butter rolled in flour, to thicken the gravy. When done put the
pie on a large dish, and pour the gravy over it.

You may intersperse it all through with cold ham.

A pot pie may be made of ducks, rabbits, squirrels, or venison.
Also of beef-steaks.


CHICKEN CURRY.

Take a pair of fine fowls, and having cut them in pieces, lay them
in salt and water till the seasoning is ready. Take two table-spoonfuls
of powdered ginger, one table-spoonful of fresh
turmeric, a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper; some mace, a few
cloves, some cardamom seeds, and a little cayenne pepper with a
small portion of salt. These last articles according to your
taste. Put all into a mortar, and add to them eight large onions,
chopped or cut small. Mix and beat all together, till the onions,
spices, &c. form a paste.

Put the chickens into a pan with sufficient butter rolled in
flour, and fry them till they are brown, but not till quite done.
While this is proceeding, set over the fire a sauce-pan three
parts full of water, or sufficient to cover the chickens when they
are ready. As soon as the water boils, throw in the curry-paste.
When the paste has all dissolved, and is thoroughly mixed with the
water, put in the pieces of chicken to boil, or rather to simmer.
When the chicken is quite done, put it into a large dish, and eat
it with boiled rice. The rice may either be laid round on the same
dish, or served up separately.

This is a genuine East India receipt for curry.

Lamb, veal, or rabbits may be curried in the same manner.


_To boil Rice for the Curry._

Pick the rice carefully, to clear it from husks and motes. Then
soak it in cold water for a quarter of an hour, or more. When you
are ready to boil it, pour off the water in which it has soaked.
Have ready a pot or sauce-pan of boiling water, into which you
have put a little salt. Allow two quarts of water to a pound of
rice. Sprinkle the rice gradually into the water. Boil it hard for
twenty minutes, then take it off the fire, and pour off all the
water that remains. Set the pot in the chimney corner with the lid
off, while dinner is dishing, that it may have time to dry. You
may toss it up lightly with two forks, to separate the grains
while it is drying, but do not stir it with a spoon.


A PILAU.

Take a large fine fowl, and cover the breast with slices of fat
bacon or ham, secured by skewers. Put it into a stew-pan with two
sliced onions. Season it to your taste with white pepper and mace.
Have ready a pint of rice that has been well picked, washed, and
soaked. Cover the fowl with it. Put in as much water as will well
cover the whole. Stew it about half an hour, or till the fowl and
rice are thoroughly done; keeping the stew-pan closely covered.
Dish it all together, either with the rice covering the fowl, or
laid round it in little heaps.

You may make a pilau of beef or mutton with a larger quantity of
rice; which must not be put in at first, or it will be done too
much, the meat requiring a longer time to stew.


CHICKEN SALAD.

The fowls for this purpose should be young and fine. You may
either boil or roast them. They must be quite cold. Having removed
all the skin and fat, and disjointed the fowls cut the meat from
the bones into very small pieces, not exceeding an inch. Wash and
split two large fine heads of celery, and cut the white part into
pieces also about an inch long; and having mixed the chicken and
celery together, put them into a deep china dish, cover it and set
it away.

It is best not to prepare the dressing till just before the salad
is to be eaten, that it may be as fresh as possible. Have ready
the yolks of eight hard-boiled eggs. Put them into a flat dish,
and mash them to a paste with the back of a wooden spoon. Add to
the egg a small tea-spoonful of fine salt, the same quantity of
cayenne pepper, half a jill of made mustard, a jill or a wine-glass
and a half of vinegar, and rather more than two wine-glasses
of sweet oil. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly; stirring them
a long time till they are quite smooth.

The dressing should not be put on till a few minutes before the
salad is sent in; as by lying in it the chicken and celery will
become tough and hard. After you pour it on, mix the whole well
together with a silver fork.

Chicken salad should be accompanied with plates of bread and
butter, and a plate of crackers. It is a supper dish, and is
brought in with terrapin, oysters, &c.

Cold turkey is excellent prepared as above.

An inferior salad may be made with cold fillet of veal, instead of
chickens.

Cold boiled lobster is very fine cut up and drest in this manner,
only substituting for celery, lettuce cut up and mixed with the
lobster.


TO ROAST A PAIR OF DUCKS.

After the ducks are drawn, wipe out the inside with a clean cloth,
and prepare your stuffing. Mince very fine some green sage leaves,
and twice their quantity of onion, (which should first be
parboiled,) and add a little butter, and a seasoning of pepper and
salt. Mix the whole very well, and fill the crops and bodies of
the ducks with it, leaving a little space for the stuffing to
swell. Reserve the livers, gizzards, and hearts to put in the
gravy. Tie the bodies of the ducks firmly round with strings,
(which should be wetted or buttered to keep them from burning,)
and put them on the spit before a clear brisk fire. Baste them
first with a little salt and water, and then with their own gravy,
dredging them lightly with flour at the last. They will be done in
about an hour. After boiling the livers, gizzards and hearts, chop
them, and put them into the gravy; having first skimmed it, and
thickened it with a little browned flour.

Send to table with the ducks a small tureen of onion-sauce with
chopped sage leaves in it. Accompany them also with stewed
cranberries and green peas.

Canvas-back ducks are roasted in the same manner, omitting the
stuffing. They will generally be done enough in three quarters of
an hour. Send currant jelly to table with them, and have heaters
to place under the plates. Add to the gravy a little cayenne, and
a large wine-glass of claret or port.

Other wild ducks and teal may be roasted in about half an hour.
Before cooking soak them all night in salt and water, to draw out
whatever fishy or sedgy taste they may happen to have, and which
may otherwise render them uneatable. Then early in the morning put
them in fresh water (without salt,) changing it several times
before you spit them.

You may serve up with wild ducks, &c. orange-sauce, which is made
by boiling in a little water two large sweet oranges cut into
slices, having first removed the rind. When the pulp is all
dissolved, strain and press it through a sieve, and add to it the
juice of two more oranges, and a little sugar. Send it to table
either warm or cold.


STEWED DUCK.

Half roast a large duck. Cut it up, and put it into a stew-pan
with a pint of beef-gravy, or dripping of roast-beef. Have ready
two boiled onions, half a handful of sage leaves, and two leaves
of mint, all chopped very fine and seasoned with pepper and salt.
Lay these ingredients over the duck. Stew it slowly for a quarter
of an hour. Then put in a quart of young green peas. Cover it
closely, and simmer it half an hour longer, till the peas are
quite soft. Then add a piece of butter rolled in flour; quicken
the fire, and give it one boil. Serve up all together.

A cold duck that has been under-done may be stewed in this manner.


TO HASH A DUCK.

Cut up the duck and season it with pepper and mixed spices. Have
ready some thin slices of cold ham or bacon. Place a layer of them
in a stew-pan; then put in the duck and cover it with ham. Add
just water enough to moisten it, and pour over all a large glass
of red wine. Cover the pan closely and let it stew for an hour.

Have ready a quart or more of green peas, boiled tender drained,
and mixed with butter and pepper. Lay them round the hashed duck.

If you hash a cold duck in this manner, a quarter of an hour will
be sufficient for stewing it; it having been cooked already.


TO ROAST A GOOSE.

Having drawn and singed the goose, wipe out the inside with a
cloth, and sprinkle in some pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of
four good sized onions minced fine, and half their quantity of
green sage leaves minced also, a large tea-cupful of grated bread-crumbs,
a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and the beaten
yolks of two eggs, with a little pepper and salt. Mix the whole
together, and incorporate them well. Put the stuffing into the
goose, and press it in hard; but do not entirely fill up the
cavity, as the mixture will swell in cooking. Tie the goose
securely round with a greased or wetted string; and paper the
breast to prevent it from scorching. Fasten the goose on the spit
at both ends. The fire must be brisk and well kept up. It will
require from two hours to two and a half to roast. Baste it at
first with a little salt and water, and then with its own gravy.
Take off the paper when the goose is about half done, and dredge
it with a little flour towards the last. Having parboiled the
liver and heart, chop them and put them into the gravy, which must
be skimmed well and thickened with a little browned flour.

Send apple-sauce to table with the goose; also mashed potatoes.

A goose may be stuffed entirely with potatoes, boiled and mashed
with milk, butter, pepper and salt.

You may make a gravy of the giblets, that is the neck, pinions,
liver, heart and gizzard, stewed in a little water, thickened with
butter rolled in flour, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Add a
glass of red wine. Before you send it to table, take out all but
the liver and heart; mince them and leave them in the gravy. This
gravy is by many preferred to that which comes from the goose in
roasting. It is well to have both.

If a goose is old it is useless to cook it, as when hard and tough
it cannot be eaten.


A GOOSE PIE.

Cut a fine large young goose into eight pieces, and season it with
pepper. Reserve the giblets for gravy. Take a smoked tongue that
has been all night in soak, parboil it, peel it, and cut it into
thick slices, omitting the root, which you must divide into small
pieces, and put into a sauce-pan with the giblets and sufficient
water to stew them slowly.

Make a nice paste, allowing a pound and a half of butter to three
pounds of flour. Roll it out thick, and line with it the bottom
and sides of a deep dish. Fill it with the pieces of goose, and
the slices of tongue. Skim the gravy you have drawn from the
giblets, thicken it with a little browned flour, and pour it into
the pie dish. Then put on the lid or upper crust. Notch and
ornament it handsomely with leaves and flowers of paste. Bake the
pie about three hours in a brisk oven.

In making a large goose pie you may add a fowl, or a pair of
pigeons, or partridges,--all cut up.

A duck pie may be made in the same manner.

Small pies are sometimes made of goose giblets only.


A CHRISTMAS GOOSE PIE.

These pies are always made with a standing crust. Put into a
sauce-pan one pound of butter cut up, and a pint and a half of
water; stir it while it is melting, and let it come to a boil.
Then skim off whatever milk or impurity may rise to the top. Have
ready four pounds of flour sifted into a pan. Make a hole in the
middle of it, and pour in the melted butter while hot. Mix it with
a spoon to a stiff paste, (adding the beaten yolks of three or
four eggs,) and then knead it very well with your hands, on the
paste-board, keeping it dredged with flour till it ceases to be
sticky. Then set it away to cool.

Split a large goose, and a fowl down the back, loosen the flesh
all over with a sharp knife, and take out all the bones. Parboil a
smoked tongue; peel it and cut off the root. Mix together a
powdered nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, a tea-spoonful
of pepper, and a tea-spoonful of salt, and season with
them the fowl and the goose.

Roll out the paste near an inch thick, and divide it into three
pieces. Cut out two of them of an oval form for the top and
bottom; and the other into a long straight piece for the sides or
walls of the pie. Brush the paste all over with beaten white of
egg, and set on the bottom the piece that is to form the wall,
pinching the edges together, and cementing them with white of egg.
The bottom piece must be large enough to turn up a little round
the lower edge of the wall piece, to which it must be firmly
joined all round. When you have the crust properly fixed, so as to
be baked standing alone without a dish, put in first the goose,
then the fowl, and then the tongue. Fill up what space is left
with pieces of the flesh of pigeons, or of partridges, quails, or
any game that is convenient. There must be no bones in the pie.
You may add also some bits of ham, or some force-meat balls.
Lastly, cover the other ingredients with half a pound of butter,
and pat on the top crust, which, of course, must be also of an
oval form to correspond with the bottom. The lid must be placed
not quite on the top edge of the wall, but an inch and a half
below it. Close it very well, and ornament the sides and top with
festoons and leaves cut out of paste. Notch the edges handsomely,
and put a paste flower in the centre. Glaze the whole with beaten
yolk of egg, and bind the pie all round with a double fold of
white paper. Set it in a regular oven, and bake it four hours.

This is one way of making the celebrated goose pies that it is
customary in England to send as presents at Christmas. They are
eaten at luncheon, and if the weather is cold, and they are kept
carefully covered up from the air, they will be good for two or
three weeks; the standing crust assisting to preserve them.


TO ROAST A TURKEY.

Make a force-meat of grated bread-crumbs, minced suet, sweet
marjoram, grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and beaten yolk
of egg. You may add some grated cold ham. Light some writing
paper, and singe the hairs from the skin of the turkey. Reserve
the neck, liver, and gizzard for the gravy. Stuff the craw of the
turkey with the force-meat, of which there should be enough made
to form into balls for frying, laying them round the turkey when
it is dished. Dredge it with flour, and roast it before a clear
brisk fire, basting it with cold lard. Towards the last, set the
turkey nearer to the fire, dredge it again very lightly with
flour, and baste it with butter. It will require, according to its
size, from two to three hours roasting.

Make the gravy of the giblets cut in pieces, seasoned, and stewed
for two hours in a very little water; thicken it with a spoonful
of browned flour, and stir into it the gravy from the dripping-pan,
having first skimmed off the fat.

A turkey should be accompanied by ham or tongue. Serve up with it
mushroom-sauce. Have stewed cranberries on the table to eat with
it. Do not help any one to the legs, or drum-sticks as they are
called.

Turkeys are sometimes stuffed entirely with sausage-meat. Small
cakes of this meat should then be fried, and laid round it.

To bone a turkey, you must begin with a very sharp knife at the
top of the wings, and scrape the flesh loose from the bone without
dividing or cutting it to pieces. If done carefully and
dexterously, the whole mass of flesh may be separated from the
bone, so that you can take hold of the head and draw out the
entire skeleton at once. A large quantity of force-meat having
been prepared, stuff it hard into the turkey, restoring it by
doing so to its natural form, filling out the body, breast, wings
and legs, so as to resemble their original shape when the bones
were in. Roast or bake it; pouring a glass of port wine into the
gravy. A boned turkey is frequently served up cold, covered with
lumps of currant jelly; slices of which are laid round the dish.

Any sort of poultry or game may be boned and stuffed in the same
manner,

A cold turkey that has not been boned is sometimes sent to table
larded all over the breast with slips of fat bacon, drawn through
the flesh with a larding needle, and arranged in regular form.


TO BOIL A TURKEY.

Take twenty-five large fine oysters, and chop them. Mix with them
half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, half a handful of chopped
parsley, a quarter of a pound of butter, two table-spoonfuls, of
cream or rich milk, and the beaten yolks of three eggs. When it is
thoroughly mixed, stuff the craw of the turkey with it, and sew up
the skin. Then dredge it with flour, put it into a large pot or
kettle, and cover it well with cold water. Place it over the fire,
and let it boil slowly for half an hour, taking off the scum as it
rises. Then remove the pot from over the fire, and set it on hot
coals to stew slowly for two hours, or two hours and a half,
according to its size, Just before you send it to table, place it
again over the fire to get well heated. When you boil a turkey,
skewer the liver and gizzard to the sides, under the wings.

Send it to table with oyster-sauce in a small tureen.

In making the stuffing, you may substitute for the grated bread,
chestnuts boiled, peeled, and minced or mashed. Serve up chestnut-sauce,
made by peeling some boiled chestnuts and putting them
whole into melted butter,

Some persons, to make them white, boil their turkeys tied up in a
large cloth sprinkled with flour.

With a turkey, there should be on the table a ham, or a smoked
tongue.


TO ROAST PIGEONS.

Draw and pick four pigeons immediately after they are killed, and
let them be cooked soon, as they do not keep well. Wash the inside
very clean, and wipe it dry. Stuff them with a mixture of parsley
parboiled and chopped, grated bread-crumbs, and butter; seasoned
with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Dredge them with flour, and roast
them before a good fire, basting them with butter. They will be
done in about twenty-five or thirty minutes. Serve them up with
parsley-sauce. Lay the pigeons on the dish in a row.

If asparagus is in season, it will be much better than parsley
both for the stuffing and sauce. It must first be boiled. Chop the
green heads for the stuffing, and cut them in two for the melted
butter. Have cranberry-sauce on the table.

Pigeons may be split and broiled, like chickens; also stewed or
fricasseed.

They are very good stewed with slices of cold ham and green peas,
serving up all in the same dish.


PIGEON PIE.

Take four pigeons, and pick and clean them very nicely, Season
them with pepper and salt, and put inside of every one a large
piece of butter and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Have ready a
good paste, allowing a pound of butter to two pounds of sifted
flour. Roll it out rather thick, and line with it the bottom and
sides of a large deep dish. Put in the pigeons, and lay on the top
some bits of butter rolled in flour. Pour in nearly enough of
water to fill the dish. Cover the pie with a lid of paste rolled
out thick, and nicely notched, and ornamented with paste leaves
and flowers.

You may make a similar pie of pheasants, partridges, or grouse.


TO ROAST PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, QUAILS, OR GROUSE.

Pick and draw the birds immediately after they are brought in.
Before you roast them, fill the inside with pieces of a fine ripe
orange, leaving out the rind and seeds. Or stuff them with grated
cold ham, mixed with bread-crumbs, butter, and a little yolk of
egg. Lard them with small slips of the fat of bacon drawn through
the flesh with a larding needle, Roast them before a clear fire.

Make a fine rich gravy of the trimmings of meat or poultry, stewed
in a little water, and thickened with a spoonful of browned flour.
Strain it, and set it on the fire again, having added half a pint
of claret, and the juice of two large oranges. Simmer it for a few
minutes, pour some of it into the dish with the game, and serve
the remainder in a boat.

If you stuff them with force-meat, you may, instead of larding,
brush them all over with beaten yolk of egg, and then cover them,
with bread-crumbs grated finely and sifted.


ANOTHER WAY TO ROAST PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, &c.

Chop some fine raw oysters, omitting the hard part; mix them with
salt, and nutmeg, and add some beaten yolk of egg to bind the
other ingredients. Cut some very thin slices of cold ham or bacon,
and cover the birds with them; then wrap them closely in sheets of
white paper well buttered, put them on the spit, and roast them
before a clear fire.

Send them to table with oyster-sauce in a boat.

Pies may be made of any of these birds in the same manner as a
pigeon pie.


TO ROAST SNIPES, WOODCOCKS, OR PLOVERS.

Pick them immediately; but it is the fashion to cook these birds
without drawing. Cut some slices of bread, allowing a slice to
each bird, and (having pared off the crust) toast them nicely, and
lay them in the bottom of the dripping-pan to catch the trail, as
it is called. Dredge the birds with flour, and put them on a small
spit before a clear brisk fire. Baste them with lard, or fresh
butter. They will be done in twenty or thirty minutes. Serve them
up laid on the toast, and garnished with sliced orange, or with
orange jelly.

Have brown gravy in a boat.


TO ROAST REED-BIRDS, OR ORTOLANS.

Put into every bird, an oyster, or a little butter mixed with some
finely sifted bread-crumbs. Dredge them with flour. Run a small
skewer through them, and tie them on the spit. Baste them with
lard or with fresh butter. They will be done in about ten minutes.

A very nice way of cooking these birds is, (having greased them
all over with lard or with fresh butter, and wrapped them in vine
leaves secured closely with a string,) to lay them in a heated
iron pan, and bury them in ashes hot enough to roast or bake them.
Remove the vine leaves before you send the birds to table.

Reed birds are very fine made into little dumplings with a thin
crust of flour and butter, and boiled about twenty minutes. Each
must be tied in a separate cloth.


LARDING.

To lard meat or poultry is to introduce into the surface of the
flesh, slips of the fat only of bacon, by means of a larding-pin
or larding-needle, it being called by both names. It is a steel
instrument about a foot long, sharp at one end, and cleft at the
other into four divisions, which are near two inches in length,
and resemble tweezers. It can be obtained at the hardware stores.

Cut the bacon into slips about two inches in length, half an inch
in breadth, and half an inch in thickness. If intended for
poultry, the slips of bacon should not be thicker than a straw.
Put them, one at a time, into the cleft or split end of the
larding-needle. Give each slip a slight twist, and press it down
hard into the needle with your fingers. Then push the needle
through the flesh, (avoiding the places where the bones are,) and
when you draw it out it will have left behind it the slip of bacon
sticking in the surface. Take care to have all the slips of the
same size, and arranged in regular rows at equal distances. Every
slip should stand up about an inch. If any are wrong, take them
out and do them over again. To lard handsomely and neatly requires
practice and dexterity.

Fowls and game are generally larded on the breast only. If cold,
they can be done with the fat of cold boiled ham. Larding may be
made to look very tastefully on any thing that is not to be cooked
afterwards.


FORCE-MEAT BALLS.

To a pound of the lean of a leg of veal, allow a pound of beef
suet. Mince them together very fine. Then season it to your taste
with pepper, salt, mace, nutmeg, and chopped sage or sweet
marjoram. Then chop a half-pint of oysters, and beat six eggs very
well. Mix the whole together, and pound it to a paste in a marble
mortar. If you do not want it immediately, put it away in a stone
pot, strew a little flour on the top, and cover it closely.

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