Part 111 (2/2)

_Sufficient_ for 6 or 7 persons.

_Seasonable_ all the year, but scarce in early spring.

THE DISEASES OF FOWLS, AND HOW TO CURE THEM.--The diseases to which _Gallus domesticus_ is chiefly liable, are roup, pip, scouring, and chip. The first-mentioned is the most common of all, and results from cold. The ordinary symptoms,--swollen eyes, running at the nostrils, and the purple colour of the wattles. Part birds so affected from the healthy ones, as, when the disease is at its height it is as contagious as glanders among horses. Wash out the nostrils with warm water, give daily a peppercorn inclosed in dough; bathe the eyes and nostrils with warm milk and water. If the head is much swollen, bathe with warm brandy and water. When the bird is getting well, put half a spoonful of sulphur in his drinking-water. Some fanciers prescribe for this disease half a spoonful of table salt, dissolved in half a gill of water, in which rue has been steeped; others, pills composed of ground rice and fresh b.u.t.ter: but the remedy first mentioned will be found far the best. As there is a doubt respecting the wholesomeness of the eggs laid by roupy hens, it will be as well to throw them away. The pip is a white h.o.r.n.y skin growing on the tip of the bird's tongue. It should be removed with the point of a penknife, and the place rubbed with salt.

FOWL AND RICE CROQUETTES (an Entree).

953. INGREDIENTS.--1/4 lb. of rice, 1 quart of stock or broth, 3 oz. of b.u.t.ter, minced fowl, egg, and bread crumbs.

_Mode_.--Put the rice into the above proportion of cold stock or broth, and let it boil very gently for 1/2 hour; then add the b.u.t.ter, and simmer it till quite dry and soft When cold, make it into b.a.l.l.s, hollow out the inside, and fill with minced fowl made by recipe No. 956. The mince should be rather thick. Cover over with rice, dip the b.a.l.l.s into egg, sprinkle them with bread crumbs, and fry a nice brown. Dish them, and garnish with fried parsley. Oysters, white sauce, or a little cream, may be stirred into the rice before it cools.

_Time_.--1/2 hour to boil the rice, 10 minutes to fry the croquettes.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the fowl, 8d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

CHIP.--If the birds are allowed to puddle about on wet soil, or to be much out in the rain, they will get ”chip.” Young chicks are especially liable to this complaint. They will sit s.h.i.+vering in out-of-the-way corners, perpetually uttering a dolorous ”chip, chip;” seemingly frozen with cold, though, on handling them, they are found to be in high fever. A wholesale breeder would take no pains to attempt the cure of fowls so afflicted; but they who keep chickens for the pleasure, and not for the profit they yield, will be inclined to recover them if possible.

Give them none but warm food, half a peppercorn rolled in a morsel of dough every night, and a little nitre in their water.

Above all, keep them warm; a corner in the kitchen fender, for a day or two, will do more to effect a cure than the run of a druggist's warehouse.

CROQUETTES OF FOWL (an Entree).

954. INGREDIENTS.--3 or 4 shalots, 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter, 1 teaspoonful of flour, white sauce; pepper, salt, and pounded mace to taste; 1/2 teaspoonful of pounded sugar, the remains of cold roast fowls, the yolks of 2 eggs, egg, and bread crumbs.

_Mode_.--Mince the fowl, carefully removing all skin and bone, and fry the shalots in the b.u.t.ter; add the minced fowl, dredge in the flour, put in the pepper, salt, mace, pounded sugar, and sufficient white sauce to moisten it; stir to it the yolks of 2 well-beaten eggs, and set it by to cool. Then make the mixture up into b.a.l.l.s, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry a nice brown. They may be served on a border of mashed potatoes, with gravy or sauce in the centre.

_Time_.--10 minutes to fry the b.a.l.l.s.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

THE TURN.--What is termed ”turrling” with song-birds, is known, as regard fowls, as the ”turn.” Its origin is the same in both cases,--over-feeing and want of exercise. Without a moment's warning, a fowl so afflicted will totter and fall from its perch, and unless a.s.sistance be at hand, speedily give up the ghost. The veins of the palate should be opened, and a few drops of mixture composed of six parts of sweet nitre and one of ammonia, poured down its throat. I have seen ignorant keepers plunge a bird, stricken with the ”turn,” into cold water; but I never saw it taken out again alive; and for a good reason: the sudden chill has the effect of driving the blood to the head,--of aggravating the disease indeed, instead of relieving it.

HASHED FOWL--an Entree (Cold Meat Cookery).

955. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 1 pint of water, 1 onion, 2 or three small carrots, 1 blade of pounded mace, pepper and salt to taste, 1 small bunch of savoury herbs, thickening of b.u.t.ter and flour, 1-1/2 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup.

_Mode_.--Cut off the best joints from the fowl, and the remainder make into gravy, by adding to the bones and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs a pint of water, an onion sliced and fried of a nice brown, the carrots, mace, seasoning, and herbs. Let these stew gently for 1-1/2 hour, strain the liquor, and thicken with a little flour and b.u.t.ter. Lay in the fowl, thoroughly warm it through, add the ketchup, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread.

_Time_.--Altogether 1-3/4 hour.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the cold fowl, 4d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

SKIN-DISEASE IN FOWLS.--Skin-disease is, nine times out of ten, caused by the feathers being swarmed by parasites. Poor feeding will induce this, even if cleanliness be observed; uncleanliness, however liberal the bill of fare, will be taken as an invitation by the little biting pests, and heartily responded to. Mix half a teaspoonful of hydro-oxalic acid with twelve teaspoonfuls of water,--apply to the itching parts with an old shaving-brush.

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