Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Pluck and draw the birds. Wash quickly in cold water, and wipe dry. Into the body of each put one onion, cut into four parts. Now truss the birds. Dredge with salt and pepper; then rub the breast and legs thickly with soft butter, and put a light layer on the sides and back. Dredge thickly with flour. Place on their backs in a shallow pan, and cook for twenty minutes in a hot oven, if liked rare, 'or for thirty, if liked rather well done. Serve with bread sauce and fried crumbs. Grouse, quail, and partridges are roasted in the same manner. Partridges are cooked for forty minutes, and quail for only ten. Roast Partridge. For six persons cook two partridges. Pluck and draw them, and wash them very quickly in cold water. Halve an onion, and put a piece into the body of each bird. Truss the partridges, and lard the breasts. Dredge with salt, and rub soft butter over the legs and breast; then dredge the entire birds thickly with flour. Place in a pan, breasts up, and set in a very hot oven. Roast for forty minutes, basting three times with butter, water, or stock, salt, pepper, and flour. Use half a dozen table-spoonfuls of hot water and three of butter, in basting. Serve the birds hot, with bread sauce. - Roast Woodcock on Toast. Pick, singe, and draw the birds ; then skin the heads, and remove the eyes. Cut off the feet or not, as suits your fancy. Fasten the legs against the sides of the birds by turning the heads backward on one side, and using the long bills as skewers, as illustrated. Lard the breasts with very fine strips of salt pork. Dredge lightly with salt and pepper, and after rubbing thickly with soft butter, dredge with flour. Lay the birds on their backs in a flat pan, [illustration: Woodcock Ready for Roasting] and cook for fifteen minutes in a very hot oven. Serve immediately on toast made of stale bread, cut into slices large enough to hold a single bird, and nicely browned. When the birds are drawn, save the liver, blood, and lungs, and after chopping very fine, season with salt, pepper, and butter, — two table-spoonfuls of butter for each bird. Spread this mixture upon the toast, and place the latter in the oven for the last four minutes that the woodcocks are cooking. After the birds have been disposed on the toast, garnish with water-cresses and quarters of lemons. The dish should be eaten without delay, or it will deteriorate. These birds frequently are cooked undrawn, only the crop being removed. Broiled Grouse. Split the birds down the back. Lay a folded towel on the breast, and strike hard with the vegetable-masher. This will flatten the breastbone. Now wipe clean, and then dredge with plenty of salt and a little pepper. Rub soft butter over the bird, and dredge thickly with flour. Broil over a clear fire for fifteen minutes. Serve on a hot dish, with salt, pepper, and butter. In the time given, the meat will be cooked rare ; if liked better done, broil for twenty minutes. Ptarmigan may be broiled in the same way. . Broiled Partridge. Prepare and serve the same as grouse, save that partridge, being white meat, should be broiled for twentyfive minutes. Small Birds in Crumbs.