The illustrated book of poultry : With practical scheduals for judging, constructed from actual analysis of the best modern decisions / by Lewis Wright.
- Lewis Wright
- Date:
- [1873]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The illustrated book of poultry : With practical scheduals for judging, constructed from actual analysis of the best modern decisions / by Lewis Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![right hand, turning the thumb downwards at the same time, separates the vertebrae, but it takes a rather strong arm to do it. Countrymen, and many others, attain the same object by taking the head in the right hand and swinging the fowl round by it; one swing properly done will dislocate the spine. Another method is to strike a sharp blow on the back of the neck with a stick; but any of these methods may cause much needless suffering in un.skilful hands. It is true there is no “ instantaneous ” method of killing a fowl, the tenacity of life being very great; but the actual operation should be only momentary, and we strongly advise all inexperienced amateurs to make sure of the matter by laying the neck on a block, and chopping off the head at a blow. What we have said as to the tenacity of life may be illustrated by saying that even after this capital operation the bird, if left to itself, will struggle violently all over the yard ; but this can, perhaps, hardly be called life in the true sense, and we may hope there is little or no conscious pain. The fowl should of course be first bandaged to prevent struggling, and, indeed, this ought to be done in all cases where the knife is employed, afterwards hanging up by the feet to bleed freely. When the head is cut off, the skin should afterwards be drawn neatly over the stump, and tied. Poultiy should be plucked or picked whilst still warm, when the feathers will be removed with much less difficulty. Fowls arc generally picked quite clean, but it looks better in the case of chickens to leave a few feathers about the tail. They will cat best if nothing further is done to them ; but it improves the appearance greatly for market to plunge the carcase, immediately after plucking, into a vessel of boiling water for a few moments, which will “plump” it a great deal, and make the skin look bright and clean. After scalding, turkeys and fowls should be hung by the legs, and waterfowl by the neck. For sending to market wholesale they should not be drawn, as they will keep much better without, and this is the proper business of the retailer; but in selling for consumption the birds should be properly prepared for table. It may not be out of place to remark that if after drawing the cavity be filled with charcoal broken in small pieces, the fowl may be kept sweet a considerable time. Aged birds should, if possible, be hung for ten days or a fortnight before cooking, which may generally be done with the help of the charcoal just mentioned. If they are then half boiled, and the cooking finished by the fire, they will be found much more tender than if the roasting process alone be employed, and, indeed, if not over the age we have stipulated for, will be very good eating. Fowls over the two years and a half will hardly be worth eating at all. Passing from age to youth again, it may not come amiss to many amateurs to say a word as to the disposal of very young chickens. Where the space is very limited, and is all wanted for birds of first-rate quality, it is often impossible to keep the chickens till large enough for roasting; they must be killed as soon as their comparative worthlessness from an exhibitor’s point of view can be determined. We have ourselves, when badly off for space, been thus obliged to kill to waste, where we should now make a chicken pudding. We cannot better describe this well-known Sussex dish than in the words of a correspondent of the Jour)ial of Horticulture. “ Take some,” he says, “according to the size of the pudding, of the least promising of your chickens, put them away to fast during six or seven hours, kill them [very young chickens should always be decapi- tated], have them picked quite clean, hang them in a cool larder for a day and night, and then proceed to cut them up, but do it properly. We have heard the cut of a coat criticised by its being said it looked as though it was chopped out with a spade, and we have seen chickens cut up as though the operation had been performed with a hatchet. First take out the crop, then take out all the inside ; cut off the feet, and put them in nearly boiling water (all the skin will then easily peel off), put them., the neck, the gizzard (having first taken out the inside), the liver,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28117207_0102.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
