Part 112 (1/2)

OBSTRUCTION OF THE CROP.--Obstruction of the crop is occasioned by weakness or greediness. You may know when a bird is so afflicted by his crop being distended almost to bursting.

Mowbray tells of a hen of his in this predicament; when the crop was opened, a quant.i.ty of new beans were discovered in a state of vegetation. The crop should be slit from the _bottom_ to the _top_ with a sharp pair of scissors, the contents taken out, and the slit sewed up again with line white thread.

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

956. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 2 hard-boiled eggs, salt, cayenne, and pounded mace, 1 onion, 1 f.a.ggot of savoury herbs, 6 tablespoonfuls of cream, 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter, two teaspoonfuls of flour, 1/2 teaspoonful of finely-minced lemon-peel, 1 tablespoonful of lemon-juice.

_Mode_.--Cut out from the fowl all the white meat, and mince it finely without any skin or bone; put the bones, skin, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs into a stewpan with an onion, a bunch of savoury herbs, a blade of mace, and nearly a pint of water; let this stew for an hour, then strain the liquor. Chop the eggs small; mix them with the fowl; add salt, cayenne, and pounded mace, put in the gravy and remaining ingredients; let the whole just boil, and serve with sippets of toasted bread.

_Time_.--Rather more than 1 hour.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the fowl, 8d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--Another way to make this is to mince the fowl, and warm it in white sauce or Bechamel. When dressed like this, 3 or 4 poached eggs may be placed on the top: oysters, or chopped mushrooms, or b.a.l.l.s of oyster forcemeat, may be laid round the dish.

THE MOULTING SEASON.--During the moulting season beginning properly at the end of September, the fowls will require a little extra attention. Keep them dry and warm, and feed them liberally on warm and satisfying food. If in any fowl the moult should seem protracted, examine it for broken feather-stumps still beaded in the skin: if you find any, extract them carefully with a pair of tweezers. If a fowl is hearty and strong, six weeks will see him out of his trouble; if he is weakly, or should take cold during the time, he will not thoroughly recover in less than three months. It is seldom or ever that hens will lay during the moult; while the c.o.c.k, during the same period, will give so little of his consideration to the frivolities of love, that you may as well, nay, much better, keep him by himself till he perfectly recovers. A moulting chicken makes but a sorry dish.

HASHED FOWL, Indian Fas.h.i.+on (an Entree).

957.--INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 3 or 4 sliced onions, 1 apple, 2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, pounded mace, pepper and salt to taste, 1 tablespoonful of curry-powder, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 teaspoonful of pounded sugar, 1 pint of gravy.

_Mode_.--Cut the onions into slices, mince the apple, and fry these in the b.u.t.ter; add pounded mace, pepper, salt, curry-powder, vinegar, flour, and sugar in the above proportions; when the onion is brown, put it the gravy, which should be previously made from the bones and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of the fowls, and stew for 3/4 hour; add the fowl cut into nice-sized joints, let it warm through, and when quite tender, serve.

The dish should be garnished with au edging of boiled rice.

_Time_.--1 hour. Average cost, exclusive of the fowl, 8d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

THE SCOUR OR DYSENTERY.--The scour, or dysentery, or diarrhoea, is induced variously. A sudden alteration in diet will cause it, as will a superabundance of green food. The best remedy is a piece of toasted biscuit sopped in ale. If the disease has too tight a hold on the bird to be quelled by this, give six drops of syrup of white poppies and six drops of castor-oil, mixed with a little oatmeal or ground rice. Restrict the bird's diet, for a few days, to dry food,--crushed beans or oats, stale bread-crumbs, &c.

FOWL SCOLLOPS (Cold Meat Cookery).

958. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast or boiled fowl, 1/2 pint of Bechamel, No. 367, or white sauce, No. 537 or 539.

_Mode_.--Strip off the skin from the fowl; cut the meat into thin slices, and warm them in about 1/2 pint, or rather more, of Bechamel, or white sauce. When quite hot, serve, and garnish the dish with rolled ham or bacon toasted.

_Time_.--1 minute to simmer the slices of fowl.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FEATHER LEGGED BANTAM.]

THE FEATHER LEGGED BANTAM.--Since the introduction of the Bantam into Europe, it has ramified into many varieties, none of which are dest.i.tute of elegance, and some, indeed, remarkable for their beauty. All are, or ought to be, of small size, but lively and vigorous, exhibiting in their movements both grace and stateliness. The variety shown in the engraving is remarkable for the _tarsi_, or beams of the legs, being plumed to the toes, with stiff, long feathers, which brush the ground. Owing, possibly, to the little care taken to preserve this variety from admixture, it is now not frequently seen. Another variety is often red, with a black breast and single dentated comb. The _tarsi_ are smooth, and of a dusky blue. When this sort of Bantam is pure, it yields in courage and spirit to none, and is, in fact, a game-fowl in miniature, being as beautiful and graceful as it is spirited. A pure white Bantam, possessing all the qualifications just named, is also bred in the royal aviary at Windsor.

AN INDIAN DISH OF FOWL (an Entree).

959. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 3 or 4 sliced onions, 1 tablespoonful of curry-powder, salt to taste.