The pheasants, the mallard duck, the bobwhite quail, the deer, are on the game counters for those who stalk game the easy way without the aching feet and the weary muscles. E. Joseph's in Washington Market is the favorite loitering spot for men who feel the urge to shoulder a gun and be off through the deep woods alert for fox squirrels to bury under crust in a pot pie.
There is no imported game this year in the E. Joseph lockers—no grouse came from Scotland's fields, blooming of heather, no ptarmigan from the north countries of Europe but there is domestic ptarmigan, this estate-grown. Pheasant are there, averaging five to seven pounds for a brace priced at $12.50. Mallard ducks, estate-raised, average six pounds a brace, $8.50 the price. The bobwhite quail of dappled gray vest, of white striped face, brown of body and wings, runs $7.50 two birds, each averaging three-fourths of a pound.
Gentle little Carolina doves, eight ounces each, are considered the great delicacy. Deer is there and so are Ed Butters' farm-grown buffalo—steaks, roasts, chops, tongues, liver, and the prize cut of them all—the hump for a roast.
Game orders are taken to ship by express in dry ice (no extra charge for the ice) and to any state in the Union. One assortment is a brace and a half of pheasants, two cocks and one hen, priced at $18.50.
It is good to see the green pistachio again. The Vendome, 415 Madison Avenue, has these nuts, coming from Sicily. The nuts are freshly salted at the shop to sell at $3.25 for a pound.
Turn back to yesterday. Visit the shop of Scotchman John Buchanan, the fruit and delicacy merchant in Grand Central Terminal. Explore for the treasure tucked under counters, laid away on jumbled shelves. Here is a stock of old-fashioned tidbits, the hobby of the shop owner. Some think him clean daft the way he searches the markets for such old-time nonsense as the fat white peppermints and pink wintergreens like those grandma kept in her sewing basket. In the Buchanan shop are velvet molasses candies and Down East maple cuts. Remember these old-timers? There's the slippery elm, once chewed by the great spitball pitchers and every small boy who could curve a baseball. The bark is tied up in neat little bundles, 15 cents for three-fifths of an ounce. It's good for the throat; we learn singers and public speakers are the chief buyers. Today ball players chew gum or maybe tobacco.
Something else you'll find at Buchanan's is the gum of the spruce, the very gum Robert Frost describes as “lumps of scented stuff like uncut jewels, dull and rough.” It comes to market golden brown but turns pink between the teeth. A bag of five small pieces costs 5 cents, or $1 for a box of twenty bags.
Figs are here from the Smyrna area packed by Cresca, Hygeia brand, back for the first time since the war. These are the pick-of-the-crop figs, sun-dried, unsulphured. That white crystal-like deposit is the beneficent natural sugar of the tree-ripened fruit. B. Altman's, Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, offer this delicacy, the one-pound package 76 cents.
Victoria 1877 thick sauce is being revived and has returned to the local markets where it was a popular seller a quarter of a century ago. The sauce is packed under the old-time label showing a picture of Queen Victoria and her maids-in-waiting. This sauce, long proclaimed by both the professional and the amateur gourmets as one of the world's finest, is made in careful duplication of the original.
The label informs that the sauce contains tomatoes, soy vegetable extractions, prunes, vinegar, water, salt, onions, garlic, and spices. No doubt it does, but we think the base is that seasoning called Pique with prunes and tomatoes added in pureed form. Use the stuff just as it pours from the bottle with cold cuts, chops, or roast beef; with poultry or fish. It's sharply tanged and of rich brown color—a morning, noon, and night sauce. How in the morning? Try a dash on the salt pork or the fried scrapple. Don't laugh. Pennsylvanians like ketchup on a fried egg and scrapple combination. So why not the thick sauce?
To bag an English Yorkshire duck took us on a hunting expedition to the T. Greatorex market, 220 Harrison Avenue, Harrison, New Jersey, home of the English pork shortage. But the ducks are on hand, these made of pork butts and shoulder finely ground with the liver and seasoned with salt, pepper, allspice, and sage. Finely ground bread crumbs serve as the binder. The mix is rolled into balls and these lined up in rows, one close to the other, forty-eight to a baking pan, then into the oven. After the cooking a bone stock broth is poured over and the jelly let set. The “ducks” are 5 cents each and a versatile food. Serve them hot, or slice for the cold plate. Another day the meat may be chopped and combined with boiled potato and onion to make a quick hash. It's fine blended with mayonnaise for sandwich filling, or used as an appetizer spread for the cocktail cracker.
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