The flesh will then be a shapeless mass. With a needle and thread mend or sew up any holes that may be found in the skin.
Take up a handful of the seasoning, squeeze it hard and proceed to stuff the turkey with it, beginning at the wings, next to the body, and then the thighs.
If you stuff it properly, it will again assume its natural shape. Stuff it very hard. When all the stuffing is in, sew up the breast, and skewer the turkey into its proper form, so that it will look as if it had not been boned.
Tie it round with tape and bake it three hours or more. Make a gravy of the giblets chopped, and enrich it with some wine and an egg.
If the turkey is to be eaten cold, drop spoonfuls of red currant jelly all over it, and in the dish round it.
A large fowl may be boned and stuffed in the same manner.
COLLARED PORK.
A leg of fresh pork, not large. Two table-spoonfuls of powdered sage. Two table-spoonfuls of sweet marjoram, \ powdered. One table-spoonful of sweet basil, / A quarter of an ounce of mace, \ Half an ounce of cloves, } powdered. Two nutmegs, / A bunch of pot-herbs, chopped small. A sixpenny loaf of stale bread, grated. Half a pound of butter, cut into the bread. Two eggs. A table-spoonful of salt. A table-spoonful of black pepper.
Grate the bread, and having softened the crust in water, mix it with the crumbs. Prepare all the other ingredients, and mix them well with the grated bread and egg,
Take the bone out of a leg of pork, and rub the meat well on both sides with salt. Spread the seasoning thick all over the meat. Then roll it up very tightly and tie it round with tape.
Put it into a deep dish with a little water, and bake it two hours. If eaten hot, put an egg and some wine into the gravy. When cold, cut it down into round slices.
SPICED OYSTERS.
Two hundred large fresh oysters. Four table-spoonfuls of strong vinegar. A nutmeg, grated. Three dozen of cloves, whole. Eight blades of mace, whole. Two tea-spoonfuls of salt if the oysters are fresh. Two tea-spoonfuls of whole allspice. As much cayenne pepper as will lie on the point of a knife.
Put the oysters, with their liquor, into a large earthen pitcher. Add to them the vinegar and all the other ingredients. Stir all well together. Set them in the stove, or over a slow fire, keeping them covered. Take them off the fire several times, and stir them to the bottom. As soon as they boil completely they are sufficiently done; if they boil too long they will be hard.
Pour them directly out of the pitcher into a pan, and set them away to cool. They must not be eaten till quite cold, or indeed till next day.
If you wish to keep them a week, put a smaller quantity of spice, or they will taste too much of it by setting so long. Let them be well covered.
Oysters in the shell may be kept all winter by laying them in a heap in the cellar, with the concave side upwards to hold in the liquor. Sprinkle them every day with strong salt and water, and then with Indian meal. Cover them with matting or an old carpet.
STEWED OYSTERS.
Open the oysters and strain the liquor. Put to the liquor some grated stale bread, and a little pepper and nutmeg, adding a glass of white wine. Boil the liquor with these ingredients, and then pour it scalding hot over the dish of raw oysters. This will cook them sufficiently.
Have ready some slices of buttered toast with the crust cut off. When the oysters are done, dip the toast in the liquor, and lay the pieces round the sides and in the bottom of a deep dish. Pour the oysters and liquor upon the toast, and send them to table hot.
OYSTER SOUP
Three pints of large fresh oysters. Two table-spoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour. A bunch of sweet herbs. A saucer full of chopped celery. A quart of rich milk. Pepper to your taste.
Take the liquor of three pints of oysters. Strain it, and set it on the fire. Put into it, pepper to your taste,