Virginia Cookery-book

festive occasions, where a large company is to be served, great one-year-old gobblers, weighing from twelve up to even twenty pounds, are yet in demand. After Christmas hen-turkeys, if fat, are in all cases preferable. If you must cook a large turkey-gobbler, parboil it gently for about an hour, to remove the strong flavor of the fat before proceeding regularly to stuff and roast. For stufling, prepare bread in quantity proportioned to the size of the fowl. A twelve-pound turkey will require a quart loaf to stuff it properly; a small hen, only half as much. Break up the bread between your hands, mixing well with it a table-spoonful of butter and seasoning of black pepper, salt, and either a head of celery chopped up or a teaspoonful of bruised celery -seed; make the stufling hold together with a little hot water, or the yolk of an eg^ and water; stuff the craw as full as possible; upon a spit, within a tin-kitchen, set it down at a good distance from the fire, which should be clear and brisk; dust the turkey well with flour, and baste it with cold butter and a little lard several times. When done, serve it up with its own gravy, which must, however, be put into a separate dish, or rather gravy-boat. For roasting a turkey in an oven or range the time to be allowed is twenty minutes for each pound, with one twenty minutes extra. The fire must be strong and steady throughout the process. The turkey should be nicely cleaned and stuffed ; then put into a baking-pan, supported on transverse strips of wood or iron, so as to keep the fowl out of the drippings. No water need be added if the bird be moderately fat. Baste repeatedly; that is to say, put little bits of butter over the breast and legs from time to time, and, dipping up some of the drippings from the pan, pour it over, so that the whole fowl shall be moistened with them. The seasoning of th<i stuff- ing and gravy may be altered, for variety's sake, from celery and pepper to oysters and pepper, or oysters, celery and pepper, onion and sage, or savory and thyme, etc. Gravy for Roast Turkey. There is great art in the preparation of gravies, a greasy, oily gravy spoiling the best-cooked fowl or joint. Remove the turkey from the pan; skim off every particle of oil, and leave just as much of the drippings as you think will be sufficient to fill your gravy-boat ; add to them a little boiling water, and stir in smoothly a tablespoonful of browned flour, made previously into a paste with the smallest quantity of cold water ; let the gravy come to a boil as you stir it constantly, and it will be ready to serve. If you choose, you can chop the liver and gizzard into rather small pieces and add them to the gravy, instead of sending them in whole upon the same dish as the turkey. Deviled Turkey. In old Virginia life the carver was always the gentleman of the house, until the oldest son took his place, both for the sake of his own education in what was esteemed a gentlemanly accomplishment, and to relieve his parent of an onerous duty. In many families it was the invariable custom, when a roast turkey was served, to cut off the legs, or one leg, when the fowl was first carved, and send it into the kitchen with the gizzard and liver to be deviled, and brought in as an entremet later on in the meal. The deviling consisted in merely gashing the said parts of the fowl deeply, strewing them thickly with black pepper and butter, slightly with salt, and then broiling, sending in to table hot, when each person who wished it was helped to a small piece. To Boil a Turkey, with Oyster Sauce. (Mra. Maria Randolph.)