INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

The giblets of poultry consist of the head, neck, wings, feet, gizzard, heart, and liver. As meat is the most costly and extravagant of all articles of food, it behooves the housewife to save all left-overs and work them over into other dishes. They make good soup, fricassees, pies, and various entrées, or side dishes. 

The so-called inferior pieces—not inferior because they contain less nourishment, but inferior because the demand for such meat is less—should be used for all dishes that are chopped before cooking.

COOKING GIBLETS
When poultry is stewed, it is not uncommon to cook the giblets with the pieces of chicken. The gizzard* and heart especially require long, slow cooking to make them tender enough to be eaten. But when poultry is broiled, fried, or roasted, some other cookery method must be resorted to, as these processes are too rigid for the preparation of giblets.

Let the giblets be picked clean and washed, the feet skinned, the bill cut off, the head split in two, the pinion* bones broken, the liver and gizzard cut in four, and the neck in two pieces. Put them into a pint of water, with pepper and salt, an onion, and sweet herbs. Cover the saucepan close and stew them on a slow fire till they are quite tender. Take out the onion and herbs and put them into a dish with the liquor,* or sauté them in butter. When cooked in this way, they may be served with the poultry, for many persons find them very palatable.

*gizzard – a type of stomach, found in birds.
*pinion – the outer part of a bird’s wing including the flight feathers.
*liquor or pot liquor – nutritious leftover water of boiled meat; leftover water from boiled greens is called pot liquor.

GIBLET GRAVY
Mince the giblets fine. Brown into two tablespoons of bacon fat, adding two tablespoons of flour. Brown well, then add one quart water. Cook slowly while the fowl is roasting for one and one-half hours. Rub through a sieve, then return to the fire and bring to a boil. It is then ready to serve.

GIBLET SOUP
Scald and clean three or four sets of goose or duck giblets. Stew them slowly with a pound or two of gravy beef, scrag-end* of mutton, the bone of a knuckle of veal, an ox tail, or some shanks of mutton. Add a large bunch of sweet herbs, a teaspoon of white pepper, a teaspoon of salt, and three onions.

Put in five pints of water, cut each of the gizzards into four pieces, and simmer till they become quite tender. Skim the stew carefully, add one-fourth pint of cream, two teaspoons mushroom powder, and an ounce of butter mixed with a dessertspoon* of flour. Let it boil a few minutes, then put it into a tureen. Add a little salt and serve up the soup with the giblets. Instead of cream, it may be seasoned with a tablespoon of ketchup, some cayenne, and two glasses of sherry.

*scrag-end – the inferior end of a neck of mutton, often used in soups and stews.
*dessertspoon – two teaspoons.

RICH GIBLET SOUP
Take four pounds of gravy beef, two pounds of scrag of mutton, and two pounds of scrag of veal. Stew them well down together in a sufficient quantity of water for a strong broth. Let it stand till it is quite cold, then skim the fat clean off. Take two pair of giblets well scalded and cleaned, put them into your broth, and let them simmer till they are stewed tender. Then take out your giblets and run the soup through a fine sieve to catch the small bones. Let the livers be stewed in a saucepan by themselves

Take an ounce of butter and put it into a stew-pan, mixing a proper quantity of flour, making it a fine light brown. Take a small handful of chives, the same of parsley, a very little penny-royal, and a very little sweet marjoram. Chop all these herbs together excessively small. Put your soup over a slow fire, put in your giblets, butter and flour, and small herbs. Then take a pint of Madeira wine, some cayenne pepper, and salt to your palate. Let them all simmer together till the herbs are tender and the soup is finished. Put the livers in when you dish.

FRICASSED TURKEY OR GOOSE GIBLETS
Scald and pick giblets. Put them in a saucepan with a piece of butter, a bunch of parsley, green onions, thyme, bay-leaf, and a few mushrooms. Warm these over the fire, with a sprinkle of flour moistened with stock or water, adding salt and pepper to taste. Reduce to a thick sauce, adding to it the yolks of two eggs, and let simmer without boiling. Serve with a sprinkling of vinegar.

GIBLET STUFFING FOR TURKEY
Put the giblets in a saucepan over the fire with boiling water to cover. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of salt and one-fourth teaspoon of pepper and boil gently until tender. Save the water in which the giblets were boiled to use for gravy. Chop the giblets quite fine, put them in a frying pan over the fire with four ounces of butter, two cups of stale breadcrumbs, and a good seasoning of salt, pepper and any powdered sweet herbs except sage. Stir all these ingredients together until they are of a light brown, add a wine glass of sherry or Madeira wine, and the stuffing is ready for use.

GIBLET SAUCE
Drain the liquid from the pan in which the turkey was roasted. Take six tablespoons of the fat and strain through a fine sieve. Return the strained fat to the dripping pan and place on the fire. Add seven tablespoons of flour, stir to a smooth paste and brown richly, being careful not to burn the mixture. Then pour on slowly while stirring constantly, three cups of stock (in which the neck, pinions and giblets were cooked). Bring it to the boiling point, and season to taste. Chop the giblets very fine, first removing the tough parts of the gizzard. Then reheat them in the sauce, and serve.

MINCED GIBLETS ON TOAST
Cook the giblets for one hour in one pint of water. Put through the food chopper, adding one onion, one hard-boiled egg, and one-fourth cup of canned tomatoes. Season with one-eighth teaspoon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve on toasted strips of bread for luncheon.

GOOSE GIBLET PIE
Clean and skin the giblets very carefully, and stew them with a small quantity of water, onion, black pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs, till nearly done. Let them grow cold and if there are not enough to fill the dish, lay at the bottom two or three slices of veal, beef, or mutton. Add the liquor of the stew and when the pie is baked, pour into it a large teacup of cream. Duck giblets will do, but goose giblets are much to be preferred.

GOOSE GIBLET PIE No. 2
Clean, very nicely, the giblets of two geese or four ducks. Put them into a stew-pan, with a sliced onion, a bunch of tarragon, or sweet-marjoram and sage, half a dozen pepper-corns, and five blades of mace. Add a very little water, cover the pan closely, and let them stew till the giblets are tender. Then take them out, and save all the gravy, having strained it from the seasoning articles. Make a rich paste*, and roll it out into two sheets. With one sheet, cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Put in the giblets, mixing among them a few cold boiled potatoes sliced, the chopped yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, and some bits of butter rolled in flour. Pour the gravy over the giblets, &c. Cover the pie with the other sheet of paste, and notch the edges. Bake it brown, and send it to table hot.

*paste – crust or dough, like for pies.

Image from Deposit Photos

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• Vintage Cooking From the 1800s – Poultry
  

  Do you enjoy reading old-fashioned cookbooks? Learn how people used and cooked poultry in the days before gas and electricity were available in homes. Food was precious back then and nothing was wasted. It was a source of pride to cook delicious food for the family and knowing how to budget time and money.

  “Vintage Cooking in the 1800s – Poultry” provides information, advice, and recipes gathered from various cookbooks published in the 1800s. It will give you a sense of history and an appreciation of what cooking was like in olden times.

  Some How-to Sections:

  • How to Select and Dress Poultry
  • How to Keep Poultry Fresh.
  • How to Boil, Stew, Bake, Roast, and Fry poultry.
  • How to Cook Giblets, Make Dressings, Sauces, Gravies, Pies, and Soups.
  • How to Make Dishes from Chicken, Duck, Goose and Turkey.

  Available from these online Retailers:

  Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Scribd, 24 Symbols,  Playster, Angues & Robertson, Mondadori Store, and more

  Also available in Regular Print and Large Print on Amazon.

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Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal

Much more than a cookbook, Odd Bits delves into the rich geographical, historical, and religious roles of nose-to-tail cooking.

In a world of costly prime cuts—stately crown roasts, plump pork chops, and regal racks of lamb—it’s easy to forget about (and steer clear of) the more economical, but less lovable parts of the beast—bellies, brains, cheeks, combs, gizzards, hearts, hocks, kidneys, lungs, marrow, necks, shanks, spleens, tongues, trotters, and, oh yes, testicles.

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