None But the Brave Deserves the Fare

By ROBIN McDOUALL

N Christmas morning, those who do not go

to church should go out and shoot snipe for those who do. There is no better breakfast dish. And to save the cook trouble, poach them in water for twelve minutes on the dining-room fire. Have a second saucepan for melted butter. Put them on hot toast and pour butter over them.

Don't eat too much breakfast if there are turkey and plum pudding for luncheon. On the other hand, mattins, unwrapping the presents, trying the tricycle and basting the bird tend to take longer than one thinks. It may be necessary to have a restorer around midday. Egg-nog is a great strengthener. Miss Alice B. Toklas has a ripper in her Cook Book : '2 dozen eggs, 2 quarts cream. 1 quart whipping cream, 4 ozs. rum, 4 ozs. brandy, 11 lbs. sugar, 2 quarts of whisky.' You don't, of course, have to make all that much. You beat the yolks, add the sugar, stir and heat, add the whisky, then the cream. Then add the

beaten whites and lastly the whipped cream. It should be the same temperature as a zabaglione.

1 think turkey a bore. But, with trouble and expenditure, it can be made quite interesting. (Be sure you have the sinews drawn from the legs.) I spent the Christmas before last in Paris. My friend Desmond Ryan invited me to their family luncheon. He goes to the same butcher as Le Grand Velour. They had been in conference for weeks and had devised a stuffing made of 1 lb. minced pork and veal, the chopped liver and heart of the turkey, a chopped slice of bacon, two onions, parsley and thyme, a slice of bread soaked in milk, yolk of egg, salt and black pepper, a glass of Armagnac. Mary made a puree of chestnuts to accompany it.

Some friends of mine in the West Country, with whom I usually spend Christmas, have their turkey boned by the poulterer. A tongue, pre- viously cooked, goes in the middle to support it like a backbone. Chestnut stuffing goes at one end, forcemeat stuffing at the other. Slivers of truffle are slipped under the skin.

Boulestin (Best of Boulestin, p. 187) has a good recipe for turkey with truffles.

If one had an Italian friend who sent one a white truffle for Christmas, one could do a delicious dish which Mrs. Elizabeth David gives in her Italian Food (p. 229), Filetti di Tacchino Bolognese. You cut the turkey breasts into fillets and cook them in butter, put a slice of ham and some truffle on each fillet and Parmesan cheese on that.

We used to believe at school that plum puddings were made on the Sunday Next Before Advent. It was known as Stir-up Sunday because of the collect : 'Stir up, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people. . . .' But, of course, a Christmas pudding should be made much far- ther ahead than that. Or were those the ones for Christmas next year? Nothing much needs to be

said about pluni pudding except don't economise on eggs, brandy or strong ale—on nothing, in fact, except possibly flour. A piece of good advice I see in my own (out-of-print) cookery book : 'It is useless pouring brandy on to the pudding and then trying to light it with a match—you must start the fire in the spoon.' You should pour heated brandy on to and around the pudding, then set some more on fire in a spoon or, better still, a ladle.

For the young who don't stay up to supper there must. I suppose, be tea—though the thought of it makes me retch for my revolver. If Christ- mas cake is not enough, fill the little dears up with treacle scones: 12 lb. flour, 1 teaspoonful

baking powder, 1 oz. butter, 1 oz. brown sugar, 1 tablespoonful black treacle, enough milk to

make a firm dough. Roll and cut into rounds f in. thick. About 15 minutes in a moderate oven. I should like to be able to recommend a drink which, taken at six, will restore the liver and produce an appetite for supper. Alka-Seltzer,

perhaps--or champagne—or vodka, schnapps or Dutch gin, all of which must .be well iced.

Assuming the appetite to be restored, supper must consist of a wide choice from a groaning side- board. In addition to the cold turkey, cold plum

pudding and mince-pies, there must be a tongue and a ham. As a special treat, allow yourself this pcite de faisan—old Mr. Charles James, the librarian at Holkham, gave me the receipt. Cut the breast and thighs from a young pheasant and leave them for twenty-four hours in a marinade of brandy, white wine, madeira, salt, pepper, parsley, tarragon, chives, chervil, basil, very little garlic. Mince the rest of the pheasant and the liver with a pound of pork (lean and fat), well seasoned. Line a terrine with bacon. Put in a layer of the farce, a layer of. the slices of pheasant, a layer of foie Bras (the real thing, I'm afraid), some thin slices of truffle and continue until the terrine is full. Cover with more slices of bacon and then the lid (or a piece of foil) and cook in a bain-marie in the oven for an hour and a half. Serve cold in the terrine.

If you think this unduly extravagant, you can make very good potted hare by jugging a hare and putting the meat through a mill into a terrine. It needs a little moistening with its own gravy. Cover with butter or aspic. No further cooking required. Or potted ham is very good on the side- board for breakfast, luncheon or dinner. Mince the remains of a ham—gammon or boiled flacon will do—with not too much of the fat. Add mustard, powdered mace and nutmeg. Stir In enough melted butter to give it the consistency of potted meat. Put it in a terrine in a baits-inarie in a slow oven for half an hour.

As the days after Christmas drag on and the turkey reappears as soup, cold, fricasseed, curried and the plum pudding cold. fried--how good!---or flambe, we seek new ways of dealing with the Christmas remains. Personally, I usually like the remains of Christmas fare better than the originals. What is better than a poached egg on minced turkey? Well, since I have asked the question, possibly the answer is a Rockampulf. Here is a receipt from Charles Carter's Practical Cook (1730).

Take after roafted, all the brawny, white and flefhy Part of your Fowl; mince it, when taken off, very fmall: Take the beft of the Joints and Bones and cut them in Pieces, and ragouft them in good Gravy; put to them a few Morelles and Mailrooms, and an Artichoke-bottom cut

tu Pieces; tealon with Pepper, Salt, Nutmeg, au Onion, and a Faggot of Sweet-herbs; [hut the fame Difh you Terve it in with Puff-Pafte; ralfe a Border of hot Butter Palle in the Infide three or four Inches high; Fiat put in your Ragout'', and over that lay a row of large Oyfters dipp'd in Eggs, and fealon'd with Pepper, Salt, Nut- meg, Thyme and Partly minc'd, and a little grated Bread; then tots up your minc'd Fowl with good Gravy, thick Butter, and the Ydlk of an Egg, fealon'd with Pepper, Salt and Nutmeg; Put it over the Oyfters, and ftrew over it fome Rafpings of French Bread, to the Thicknefs of a quarter of an Inch; then take thick Butter and beat it up with the Yolk of an Egg or two, and with a Brulk drop it all over in Rings till quite covered; paper your border round, and bake it; and when done, terve it away hot to the Table: Squeeze over an Orange,

Those who survive till the New Year should see it in with Athol! Brose: cover three handfuls of coarse oatmeal with three times the quantity of water and let it stand overnight. Strain. Sweeten with a jar of heather honey, slightly warmed. Add enough cream to thicken. Thin down with whisky. There should be slightly more oatmeal liquor, than whisky. Walk home—or stay the night.