The Delmonico Cook Book. Alessandro Filippini
of these are: canvas-back, mallard, teal, red-head, widgeon, wood, brant, cygnet or young swan, goose when young and fat.
English pheasants, English hares, and Scotch grouse are to be found in the New York markets in excellent condition during the winter months.
The wild mongrel goose, which appears in our markets about Christmas-time, is, like the canvas-back duck, considered as one of the greatest luxuries, and exclusively American.
The far-famed canvas-back duck is also an exclusively North American species. Closely resembling in appearance and habits the red-head of America and the pochard of Europe, it is still quite distinct from and superior to both these species in the excellence of its flesh. It is found throughout North America, from the Arctic Ocean to Central America, on the interior waters and on both shores. Chesapeake Bay is the most noted ground for canvas-back ducks in the country, but they are especially abundant in Southern California. They breed on the ponds, rivers, and lakes, from Oregon to the more extreme northern portions of the continent. The canvas-back is without doubt the most sought after and widely known of all our ducks, and in localities where it can obtain the root of the Vallisneria spiralis (called by some tape-grass, and by others, incorrectly, wild celery), the food to which it owes the peculiarly delicate flavor for which it is so famous. As a highly prized delicacy, it stands without a rival. When, however, it is obliged to content itself with a diet chiefly of animal food, or is not properly handled in the kitchen, it becomes merely a very ordinary table bird. The Vallisneria is not found on the Pacific Coast, but in many parts of the interior, and especially in the Chesapeake Bay. The canvas-back being an excellent and strong diver, brings from the bottom the Vallisneria by the roots; these it bites off and swallows, while the red-head, black-head, and other ducks feed on the refuse grass, or occasionally a root snatched from the canvas-back. At times the water is covered with grass thus pulled up. By the middle of December the canvas-back becomes so fat as to have been known to burst open in the breast in falling on the water. In New Orleans it is called “canard cheval.” The canvas-back is covered somewhat like the red-head, but there is no reason for the confusion which exists in the minds of so many people regarding the two species. A careful comparison of the following descriptions of the two birds will indicate well-marked differences by which they may always be distinguished. The cook of a Buffalo gentleman, when asked if she knew the difference between a red-head and a canvas-back replied, “To be sure! one has the head of a fool!” (meaning the canvas-back).
CANVAS-BACK.
Feathers of the head short and smooth. Male with head and neck of deep chestnut color, the former sometimes quite blackish. Fore parts of body, wings and tail, black, under parts white; back and sides whitish, waved with black, but the white predominates, and the black lines are faint and much broken up. Female everywhere duller in color than the male.
Bill entirely greenish-black, longer than head, nearly as long as middle toe (without claw), narrow, high at base, and nostrils medium.
Iris red.
The weight of a pair of good fat canvas-back ducks with feathers on will average six pounds.
RED-HEAD.
Feathers of the head rather long, giving it a puffy appearance.
Male with head and neck chestnut red. Fore parts of body, wings and tail, black, under parts white; back and sides whitish, waved with black, the dark waved lines unbroken. Female everywhere duller in color than the male.
Bill dull blue, with a black belt across the end, shorter than the head, shorter than the middle toe (without claw), broad, depressed; nostrils within its basal half. Always to be distinguished from other ducks by shape of the bill.
Iris yellow.
The weight of a pair of good fat red-head ducks with feathers on will average five pounds.
The red-head duck is found in greater or less numbers throughout North America, on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, breeding in high northern latitudes, and frequenting in winter the southern portions of the continent as far as Mexico. The red-head is not common on the coasts of New England. During the winter months it abounds considerably along the south shore of Long Island, and is extremely abundant from this point south, especially at Chesapeake Bay and Currituck. Its flesh is excellent, and when it is enabled to feed on the well-known Vallisneria is almost fully equal in point of flavor to that of the canvas-back. The diet of the red-head is by preference vegetable, but in default of a sufficiency of food of this nature, they will, like other ducks, eat frogs, tadpoles, and various mollusks. In the West they feed largely on corn and wheat, which they glean from the fields, and on wild oats, the seed of the water-lily, and roots and leaves of other aquatic plants.
VARIETIES OF FISH TO BE FOUND IN THE MARKETS DURING THE DIFFERENT MONTHS.
JANUARY.
Live codfish [Gadus morrhua]. Haddock [Melamogramus agle finus]. Cusk [Brosmius brosme]; this belongs to the cod family, and although very little known, is an excellent table fish. Hake [Phycis chuss]; this is another of the codfish family, but inferior to any of the other varieties. Halibut [Hypoglossus vulgaris]. Small chicken halibut [Hypoglossus vulgaris]. Striped bass [Roccus lineatus]. Eels [Arguilla vulgaris]. Lobsters [Homarus Americanus]; very scarce, and in poor condition. Fresh salmon [Oncorhynchus chouicha]; these salmon are caught in the Columbia River, Oregon, all the year round, and are shipped in refrigerator-cars, and received daily in the New York markets. Frozen salmon [Salmo salar]; caught in the Restigouche River in July, and kept in freezers. Turbot [Platysomatichthys hippoglossoides], coming from Newfoundland, are occasionally in market during this month. Frost-fish, sometimes called tom-cods [Microgdus tomcod]. Frozen fresh mackerel [Scomber scombrus]. Frozen Spanish-mackerel [Scomber omarus]. Pompano [Trachynotus carolinus]; a few occasionally in market, coming from Pensacola, Florida. Red-fish, or channel bass [Sciœna ocellata], caught in Florida. Sheep’s-head [Diplodus pobatocephalus], from Florida. Grouper [Epinephelus morio], from Pensacola; a very good fish for boiling, somewhat like the red-snapper, but the meat is of a finer grain. Red-snapper [Lutjanus Blackfordii] has become a staple article in our markets during the winter. They weigh from two pounds upward, as much as twenty pounds each. It is good either boiled or baked, but most epicures prefer it baked. In selecting a fish, care should be taken not to buy one that weighs over eight pounds, as anything larger than that is apt to be tough and lacking in flavor. Shad [Clupea sopidisima], caught in the St. John’s River, in Florida, are to be had nearly every day during this month. Frozen bluefish [Pomatomus saltatrix], preserved by being kept in freezers since the previous fall. Herring [Clupea harengus], from Nova Scotia. Skate, or ray-fish [Plerroplatea maclura]. The demand for this fish increases every year. The American people begin to appreciate its many excellences. Probably the annual dinners of the Ichthyophagous Club, at which this fish is always served, have materially increased the popularity and demand for this fish. Rainbow trout [Salmo irridea]. These fish were first marketed during the winter of 1885 and 1886, and they are one of the notable examples of fish-culture, as the following brief history will show. Six years ago Professor Spencer F. Baird, then Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for the United States, received a lot of eggs of the rainbow trout from California. He presented five hundred of them to the South Side Club, who have one of the most complete fish-cultural establishments in this State. These eggs were hatched and the fish raised in the preserves of the Club, where they increased to such an extent that the Club decided to send their surplus to market, and they have become very popular, and sell readily at one dollar and twenty-five cents per pound. The open season for these trout is from April to September. Salmon-trout, frozen [Salvelinus namaycush]. Whitefish, frozen [Coregonus clupeiformis]. Pickerel [Esox reticulatus], weighing