after they are quite ripe, hanging on the vines in the open air. There is a little bird, about the size of the nightingale, called the fig-pecker, from its feeding upon the figs. This is one of the most prized delicacies of the south of France and Italy.—All the above-named birds require to be well cleaned. Then put them on a bird-spit or skewer, and tie that on another spit, or dangle it before the fire. Baste constantly with good butter, and strew sifted bread-crumbs over as they roast. French cooks generally put a thin small slice of bacon over the breast of each bird, bringing it over each wing. Fifteen minutes will roast them. Serve larks on bread-crumbs, and garnish with slices of lemon.—Or: dip the birds into a batter, then roll them in bread-crumbs.
Should, unless a leveret, hang several days, to become tender. Cooks differ as to the proper method of keeping it. Some keep it unpaunched, while others see that it is paunched instantly, wiped clean and dry inside, and then let it hang as many as eight days. If really an old hare, it should be made into soup at once, for it will never be tender enough to roast. The heart and liver should be taken out as soon as possible, washed, scraped, parboiled, and kept for the stuffing. Most cooks maintain the practice of soaking hares for two hours in water, but more are rendered dry and tasteless by this method than would be so naturally. A slit should be cut in the neck, to let the blood out, and the hare be washed in several different waters. Prepare a rich and relishing stuffing, as follows: the grated crumb of a penny loaf, a ¼ lb. beef suet, or 3 oz. of marrow, a small quantity of parsley and eschalot, a tea-spoonful of grated lemon-peel, the same of nutmeg, salt, pepper, and the liver chopped, mix all together with the yolk of an egg; and an anchovy, if approved; put it inside the hare, and sew it up. For basting, most cooks use milk and water till within twenty minutes, or thereabouts, of the hare being done, and then baste with butter. But a cook of ours, first basted it with milk and water, for about ten minutes, to draw away the blood, then with ale, and for the last half hour with fresh dripping, until about five minutes before the hare was taken up, when she basted with butter to give
