This is a difficult dish to attempt by any but skillful hands.  Carve across in slices, and serve with tomato sauce.

ROAST GOOSE.

The goose should not be more than eight months old, and the fatter the more tender and juicy the meat.  Stuff with the following mixture:  Three pints of bread crumbs, six ounces of butter, or part butter and part salt pork, one teaspoonful each of sage, black pepper and salt, one chopped onion.  Do not stuff very full, and stitch openings firmly together to keep flavor in and fat out.  Place in a baking pan with a little water, and baste frequently with salt and water (some add vinegar); turn often so that the sides and back may be nicely browned.  Bake two hours or more; when done take from the pan, pour off the fat, and to the brown gravy left add the chopped giblets which have previously been stewed until tender, together with the water they were boiled in; thicken with a little flour and butter rubbed together, bring to a boil and serve, English style.

ROAST CHICKEN.

Pick and draw them, wash out well in two or three waters, adding a little soda to the last but one to sweeten it, if there is doubt as to its being fresh.  Dry it well with a clean cloth, and fill the crop and body with a stuffing the same as “Dressing for Fowls.”  Lay it in a dripping-pan; put a pint of hot water and a piece of butter in the dripping-pan, add to it a small tablespoonful of salt, and a small teaspoonful of pepper; baste frequently, and let it roast quickly, without scorching; when nearly done, put a piece of butter the size of a large egg to the water in the pan; when it melts, baste with it, dredge a little flour over, baste again, and let it finish; half an hour will roast a full grown chicken, if the fire is right.  When done, take it up.

Having stewed the necks, gizzards, livers and hearts in a very little water, strain it and mix it hot with the gravy that has dripped from the fowls, and which must be first skimmed.  Thicken it with a little browned flour, add to it the livers, hearts and gizzards chopped small.  Or, put the giblets in the pan with the chicken and let them roast.  Send the fowls to the table with the gravy in a boat.  Cranberry sauce should accompany them, or any tart sauce.

BOILED CHICKEN.

Clean, wash and stuff, as for roasting.  Baste a floured cloth around each and put into a pot with enough boiling water to cover them well.  The hot water cooks the skin at once and prevents the escape of the juice.  The broth will not be so rich as if the fowls are put on in cold water, but this is a proof that the meat will be more nutritious and better flavored.  Stew very slowly, for the first half hour especially.  Boil an hour or more, guiding yourself by size and toughness.  Serve with egg, bread or oyster sauce. (See SAUCES.)