POULTRY.
155
a clear low fire; then lift the birds on to a hot dish,
garnish with the truffles and the herbs and keep
hot; meanwhile pour into the pan half a glass of white
wine and a little strained stock (in which you have
boiled the beards of the oysters), let it just boil up,
skim, add the strained juice of a lemon, and strain
over the fowls. This is a somewhat expensive dish,
but is well worth a trial on occasions.
Chapon Truffé.—This, again, is a costly dish, though,
like the preceding, is well worth a trial. The simplest
way is to order the bird, ready stuffed, from one or
other of the excellent French charcutiers to be found
in town, but if this is not convenient, here is the
proper method: Choose a fine tender young capon,
or, failing this, a plump young hen turkey, either
being freshly killed. Now take 1½lb. of fresh
truffles, carefully rejecting any that look or smell
mouldy; well wash and scrub them with a soft
brush until perfectly free from the least trace of
sand or grit, then trim rather more than half the
truffles neatly into even shapes, as large as the
truffles will admit of; meanwhile pound the trim-
mings of these with the rest of the truffles in a
mortar to a smooth paste with an equal weight of fat
bacon (previously rasped finely); season with pepper
and salt, using freshly ground black pepper by
preference, and when this farce is quite smooth mix
in the whole truffles and stuff the bird with it. Let
it hang for five or six days before cooking it, to
ensure the flesh being thoroughly penetrated, or, as
French cooks say, “perfumed,” with the aroma of the
truffles. When to be cooked, truss as for roasting,