To roast RUFFS and REES

The Experienced English Housekeeper · Elizabeth Raffald · 1784

Source: The Experienced English Housekeeper
Time: Cook: 12 min Total: 12 min
Status: success · extracted 12 days ago
Not a recipe: No

Ingredients (5)

For feeding

white bread boiled in milk ↝ Bread, white [Yeast breads]
milk ↝ Milk, NFS [Milk, reduced fat]

For gravy

gravy made the same as for pheasants ↝ Gravy, NFS [Dips, gravies, other sauces]

For serving

bread sauce in a boat ↝ Sauce, NFS [Dips, gravies, other sauces]
crisp crumbs of bread round the edge of the dish ↝ Bread, crumbs, dry, grated, seasoned [Baked Products]

Instructions (9)

Feed the birds with white bread boiled in milk.
They must have separate pots, for two will not eat out of one.
They will be fat in eight or ten days.
When you kill them, slip the skin off the head and neck with the feathers on.
Then pluck and draw them.
When you roast them, put them a good distance from the fire.
If the fire be good, they will take about twelve minutes.
When they are roasted, slip the skin on again with the feathers on.
Send them up with gravy under them, made the same as for pheasants, and bread sauce in a boat, and crisp crumbs of bread round the edge of the dish.

Original Text

To roast RUFFS and REES.
THESE birds I never met with but in Lincolnshire; the best way is to feed them with white bread boiled in milk, they must have separate pots, for two will not eat out of one, they will be fat in eight or ten days; when you kill them, slip the skin off the head and neck with the feathers on, then pluck and draw them; when you roast them, put them a good distance from the fire; if the fire be good, they will take about twelve minutes; when they are roasted, slip the skin on again with the feathers on, send them up with gravy under them, made the same as for pheasants, and bread sauce in a boat, and crisp crumbs of bread round the edge of the dish.

Notes

—