In buying poultry select that which has clean, unbroken skin and is as fat as possible. Young chickens have often a darker appearance than old, owing to the fact that there is less fat under the skin or that the skin is thinner. They have few hairs, many pin-feathers, and the end of the breast-bone, toward the tail, is limber and cartilaginous. In old chickens (fowl) this bone is stiff, there are many hairs, few pin-feathers, and the scales on the legs are hard and horny. The wing joint is firm in old chickens, but is sometimes broken by poultry dealers in order to make the purchaser think the poultry younger than it is.

Chickens are frequently kept in cold storage for months, or even years, and they undergo decided changes during these periods. The effect of eating such storage poultry is still under debate; but, while there is uncertainty as to whether they may not be responsible for some obscure intestinal disorders or other disturbances, it is well to know how to tell them from fresh-killed birds. In an article entitled “Changes Taking Place in Chickens in Cold Storage,” in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, for 1907, we read that the fresh chicken is a pale, soft yellow, without any tinge or suggestion of green in the colour of the skin, while there is enough translucency to show through it the delicate pink of the muscles underneath. It can be plainly seen that the pink tint is not of the skin itself. While the skin is perfectly flexible, and is not adherent over any part of the body, it is well filled by the tissues below, so that areas distended by either fluids or gases are wanting. The feather papillÆ are perfectly distinct, and, though of the same tint as the skin, are plainly visible because of their elevation. In those regions where the papillÆ are most numerous, or support heavier feathers, they lend a much brighter yellow hue to the skin. The neck is smooth and well rounded, the comb and gills red, and the eye full.

With storage birds the skin becomes somewhat dried, and finally quite leathery and stretched in appearance; is less translucent than that of the fresh, and the feather papillÆ tend to flatten and disappear. In time the colour of the skin alters in places to browns, reds, purples, or greenish tints.

Care of poultry. Poultry should be drawn as soon as purchased, if it has not been already done; it should be wiped out with a dry cloth, if not to be cooked immediately, and kept in a cold place. Old chickens can be made as tender as young chickens in a cooker, and will have more flavour.

To draw poultry. Cut off the head, turn back the skin of the neck and cut off the neck close to the body. If the crop has food in it, remove it from the neck, otherwise it will come out with the other organs. Cut off the windpipe. Make an opening above the vent with a small sharp knife, cut around the vent, being careful not to cut into the intestine. Put the hand just inside the wall of the body and work it carefully over the whole inner surface of the body, detaching the organs in one mass. When the hand can pass freely all around them, draw them all out together. The lungs and kidneys, imbedded in the bones, will remain behind and must be removed separately. Cut out the little oil bag on the back of the tail. Singe the chicken, and wash it well inside and outside. The heart, liver, and gizzard are the giblets, and are boiled and often used in the gravy.

To cut up a chicken. After it is drawn, a chicken may be cut for stew or fricassee, into thirteen pieces. First remove the neck, then the legs, by cutting the skin, etc., that holds them to the body; then cut on either side down to the joint which lies almost at the back. Bend the leg out from the body and this will break the ligaments that hold it. Separate the two joints of the leg in large chickens. Remove the wings by cutting around the joints and bending them out as the leg was done. Next cut off the wishbone by placing the knife across the breast and cutting close to the end of the breast-bone toward the neck. If desired, remove the meat from the breast in two fillets, beginning to cut at the top and following the bone closely, separating the meat from the breast-bone and sides of the chicken. Next cut from the back to the front, through the ribs. Separate the “side bone” from one side, and break the back in two where the ribs end.

To truss poultry. Stuff the poultry two-thirds full, from the tail opening. It may be skewered into shape, but the quickest and easiest way is to tie it. The slight mark left by the string on the breast may be covered with a garnish of parsley or fine celery leaves. Fold the neck skin under the body, putting the loop end of a doubled piece of string under it; bring the ends of string up and cross them over the breast so as to hold the wings in place; carry the string down over the thighs to the under side of the tail to hold the thighs in place, and bring it up around the tail and the ends of the drumsticks, and tie it securely. This will hold the leg bones down to the tail. If this is not sufficient to hold in the stuffing, close the opening with a skewer, or sew it with heavy thread before trussing the bird. Old chickens, turkeys, and tough ducks or geese can be stuffed, trussed, and cooked for some hours in a cooker, then be removed and browned in an oven.

Stuffing for Poultry

• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¹/₈ teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon powdered thyme or sage
• 1 teaspoon grated onion
• 2 tablespoons water

Stewed Chicken

Draw and cut up a fowl. Put it, with the giblets, in enough boiling salted water (one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water) to cover it. Let it boil for ten minutes and put it into a cooker for ten hours or more. If not quite tender, bring it again to a boil and cook it for from six to eight hours, depending upon its toughness. Skim off as much as possible of the fat from the liquor, pour off some of the liquor and save it to use as soup or stock, and thicken the remainder with two tablespoonfuls of flour for each cup of liquid, mixed to a paste with an equal quantity of water. A beaten egg or two, stirred into the gravy just before serving, improves it. Add pepper and salt to taste, and serve the chicken on a hot platter with the gravy poured around it. The platter may be garnished with boiled rice piled about the chicken.

Chicken Fricassee

Draw a fowl and cut it in pieces, cook it as directed for stewed chicken, dredge the cooked pieces with salt and pepper, roll them in flour and sautÉ them in fat taken from the stewed chicken. When richly browned, place the pieces on a hot platter and pour around them a brown sauce, made with the fat and the stock from the stewed chicken. Chicken fricassee is often served on a platter of hot toast.

Chicken Pie

Prepare and cook the chicken as for stewed chicken; cut the meat from the bones, put it into a baking-dish, cover it with chicken gravy, and put over the top a crust made as directed for meat pie on page 102. Bake this for thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Curried Chicken

Prepare and cook one fowl as for stewed chicken, adding two onions, pared and cut into slices. Add one tablespoonful of curry powder to the flour when thickening the gravy. Or the chicken may be rolled in flour and browned in butter, and the curry powder added before putting it into the cooker. It is served with a border of boiled rice.

Creamed Chicken

Prepare and cook a fowl as directed for stewed chicken. Make White Sauce, using half chicken stock and half cream for the liquid. A little grated onion and one-fourth can of mushrooms may be added.

Braised Chicken

Draw, stuff, truss and roast a young chicken in a hot oven until it is brown; put it into a hot cooker-pail with water about one inch deep in the pan. Cover it quickly, bring it to a boil, and put it into a cooker for two and one-half hours or more. Make a brown sauce of the liquor in the pan. The giblets may be added when the chicken is put into the water, and may be chopped and added to the gravy. Only young, tender chicken can be treated in this way. A tough bird may be trussed and cooked in water to half cover it for ten or twelve hours before it is stuffed and browned. Baste it when in the oven with fat taken from the broth.

Jellied Chicken

Draw, clean, and cut up a fowl of about four or five pounds. Put it into a cooker-pail, add one teaspoonful of salt, two or three slices of onion, and cover the fowl with boiling water. Boil it for ten minutes, then put it in the cooker for ten or twelve hours. Boil it up again and replace it in the cooker for six hours or more. Repeat this if the meat is not found to be tender enough to fall readily from the bones. Remove the meat from the bones; take off the skin and season the meat with salt and pepper. Skim off all possible fat from the liquor and boil it down to about one cupful; strain it, and take off the remaining fat. Decorate the bottom of a mould or bread pan with parsley and slices of hard-cooked egg, pack in the meat and pour over it the stock. Place the meat under a weight, and leave it in a cold place till firm.

Braised Duck

Prepare and cook the duck in the same manner as braised chicken. If the duck is tough it may be cooked for eight or more hours in water in the cooker, then stuffed and browned in the oven, basting it with fat from the broth.

Braised Goose

Prepare it as braised chicken; or, if it is tough, cook it in water in a cooker as old braised chicken, until it is nearly tender. Remove it, stuff it, and brown it in a hot oven, basting it with fat from the broth.

Potted Pigeons

Clean, stuff, and truss six pigeons, place them upright in a cooker-pail and pour over them one quart of water in which celery has been cooked. If the water was not salted for the celery, add one teaspoonful of salt. Cover the pail, boil the birds for five minutes, and put them into a cooker for five or six hours, or till tender. Remove them from the water, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, dredge them with flour, and brown the entire surface in pork fat. Make two cups of Brown Sauce, using butter and stock from the pigeons; heat the birds in this, place each one on a piece of dry toast, and pour the gravy over it. Garnish it with parsley.

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