Part 110 (2/2)

FRICa.s.sEED FOWL (Cold Meat Cookery).

946. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 1 strip of lemon-peel, 1 blade of pounded mace, 1 bunch of savoury herbs, 1 onion, popper and salt to taste, 1 pint of water, 1 teaspoonful of flour, 1/4 pint of cream, the yolks of 2 eggs.

_Mode_.--Carve the fowls into nice joints; make gravy of the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and legs, by stewing them with the lemon-peel, mace, herbs, onion, seasoning, and water, until reduced to 1/2 pint; then strain, and put in the fowl. Warm it through, and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour; stir the yolks of the eggs into the cream; add these to the sauce, let it get thoroughly hot, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle.

_Time_.--1 hour to make the gravy, 1/4 hour to warm the fowl.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the cold chicken, 8d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTH AND POWER.--The chief characteristics of health in a fowl are brightness and dryness of eye and nostrils, the comb and wattles firm and ruddy, the feathers elastic and glossy. The most useful c.o.c.k is generally the greatest tyrant, who struts among his hens despotically, with his head erect and his eyes ever watchful. There is likely to be handsomer and stronger chicks in a house where a bold, active--even savage--bird reigns, than where the lord of the hen-house is a weak, meek creature, who bears the abuse and peckings of his wives without a remonstrance. I much prefer dark-coloured c.o.c.k-birds to those of light plumage. A c.o.c.k, to be handsome, should be of middling size; his bill should be short, comb bright-red, wattles large, breast broad, and wings strong. His head should be rather small than otherwise, his legs short and st.u.r.dy, and his spurs well-formed; his feathers should be short and close, and the more frequently and heartily he crows, the better father he is likely to become. The common error of choosing hens _above_ the ordinary stature of their respective varieties should be avoided, as the best breeding-hens are those of medium size.

FRIED FOWLS (Cold Meat Cookery).

I.

947. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowls, vinegar, salt and cayenne to taste, 3 or 4 minced shalots. For the batter,--1/2 lb. of flour, 1/2 pint of hot water, 2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, the whites of 2 eggs.

_Mode_.--Cut the fowl into nice joints; steep them for an hour in a little vinegar, with salt, cayenne, and minced shalots. Make the batter by mixing the flour and water smoothly together; melt in it the b.u.t.ter, and add the whites of egg beaten to a froth; take out the pieces of fowl, dip them in the batter, and fry, in boiling lard, a nice brown.

Pile them high in the dish, and garnish with fried parsley or rolled bacon. When approved, a sauce or gravy may be served with them.

_Time_.--10 minutes to fry the fowl.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the cold fowl, 8d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

CHANTICLEER AND HIS COMPANIONS.--On bringing the male and female birds together for the first time, it will be necessary to watch the former closely, as it is a very common occurrence with him to conceive a sudden and violent dislike for one or more of his wives, and not allow the obnoxious ones to approach within some distance of the others; indeed, I know many cases where the capricious tyrant has set upon the innocent cause of his resentment and killed her outright. In all such cases, the hen objected to should be removed and replaced by another. If the c.o.c.k should, by any accident, get killed, considerable delicacy is required in introducing a new one. The hens may mope, and refuse to a.s.sociate with their new husband, cl.u.s.tering in corners, and making odious comparisons between him and the departed; or the c.o.c.k may have his own peculiar notions as to what a wife should be, and be by no means satisfied with those you have provided him. The plan is, to keep him by himself nearly the whole day, supplying him plentifully with exhilarating food, then to turn him loose among the hens, and to continue this practice, allowing him more of the society of his wives each day, until you suffer him to abide with them altogether.

II.

948. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, vinegar, salt and cayenne to taste, 4 minced shalots, yolk of egg; to every teacupful of bread crumbs allow 1 blade of pounded mace, 5 teaspoonful of minced lemon-peel, 1 saltspoonful of salt, a few grains of cayenne.

_Mode_.--Steep the pieces of fowl as in the preceding recipe, then dip them into the yolk of an egg or clarified b.u.t.ter; sprinkle over bread crumbs with which have been mixed salt, mace, cayenne, and lemon-peel in the above proportion. Fry a light brown, and serve with or without gravy, as may be preferred.

_Time_.--10 minutes to fry the fowl.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the cold fowl, 6d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

VARIOUS MODES OF FATTENING FOWLS.--It would, I think, be a difficult matter to find, among the entire fraternity of fowl-keepers, a dozen whose mode of fattening ”stock” is the same. Some say that the grand f secret is to give them abundance of saccharine food; others say nothing beats heavy corn steeped in milk; while another breeder, celebrated in his day, and the recipient of a gold medal from a learned society, says, ”The best method is as follows:-The chickens are to be taken from the hen the night after they are hatched, and fed with eggs hard-boiled, chopped, and mixed with crumbs of bread, as larks and other small birds are fed, for the first fortnight; after which give them oatmeal and treacle mixed so as to crumble, of which the chickens are very fond, and thrive so fast that, at the end of two months, they will be as large as full-grown fowls.” Others there are who insist that nothing beats oleaginous diet, and cram their birds with ground oats and suet.

But, whatever the course of diet favoured, on one point they seem agreed; and that is, that, while fattening, the fowls _should be kept in the dark_. Supposing the reader to be a dealer--a breeder of gross chicken meat for the market (against which supposition the chances are 10,000 to 1), and beset with as few scruples as generally trouble the huckster, the advice is valuable. ”Laugh and grow fat” is a good maxim enough; but ”Sleep and grow fat” is, as is well known to folks of porcine attributes, a better. The poor birds, immured in their dark dungeons, ignorant that there is life and suns.h.i.+ne abroad, tuck their heads under their wings and make a long night of it; while their digestive organs, having no harder work than to pile up fat, have an easy time enough. But, unless we are mistaken, he who breeds poultry for his own eating, bargains for a more substantial reward than the questionable pleasure of burying his carving-knife in chicken grease. Tender, delicate, and nutritious flesh is the great aim; and these qualities, I can affirm without fear of contradiction, were never attained by a dungeon-fatted chicken: perpetual gloom and darkness is as incompatible with chicken life as it is with human. If you wish to be convinced of the absurdity of endeavouring to thwart nature's laws, plant a tuft of gra.s.s, or a cabbage-plant, in the darkest corner of your coal-cellar. The plant or the tuft may increase in length and breadth, but its colour will be as wan and pale, almost, as would be your own face under the circ.u.mstances.

POULET A LA MARENGO.

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