POULTRY selecting a chicken, feel of the breastbone; it ought to be smooth and soft as cartilage and bend easily. A young chicken has soft feet, a smooth skin, and abundance of pin feathers. Long hairs, coarse scales on the feet, and an ossified breast bone are pretty sure signs that it is an old fowl. By the same marks you may choose a tender, young turkey, also ducks. To dress and clean poul try, hold the bird over a flame, either alcohol, gas, or burning paper, and blaze off all the hair and down. Cut off the head and pick out the pin feathers with a fine-pointed knife. With an old fowl or turkey it is worth while to pull the tendons. This operation makes the dark meat so much more tender. Find the portion just behind the leg joint where there are a bunch of tendons, with a fine pointed scissors, cut very carefully the cartilage skin that covers them, and strip it down till you leave exposed the bunch of white sinews. If the bird is fairly tender, they can be pulled by inserting a stout steel skewer, lifting each tendon by itself and twisting it until it snaps. A tur key will frequently require something as strong as a screw-driver. To admit the hand, make an incision through the skin just below the breastbone and remove the gizzard, heart, etc.; be very careful not to break the gall bladder, as even a drop of its con tents would give a bitter flavor to everything it touches. Pull out the lungs—they lie inside the ribs--also the kidneys, crop, and windpipe. Draw the neck skin down and cut the neck off close to the body, leav ing skin enough to cover the open ing. Cut out the oil bag in the tail, then wash the fowl by allow ing cold water to run through it. If the chicken is to be cut up, sever the skin between the leg and body, bend the leg back, and cut through the flesh. Separate the second joint from the drumstick, take off the limbs and cut the breast away from the back, starting just below the breastbone and letting the knife pass between the small ribs on either side through to the collar bone. When
trussing a fowl for roasting or boil ing, draw the legs close to the body and insert a skewer under the middle joint, running it straight through un til it comes out opposite. Cross the drumsticks, tie them with a long string together and fasten to the tail. Put the wings close to the body and keep them in place by a second skewer. Draw the skin of the neck under the back and pin down with a toothpick. Now turn the bird on its breast, take the string attached to the tail and tie to the lower skewer, cross it, draw through the upper skewer, and cut off the ends.
Braised Chicken.
Truss a plump chicken, fry in the fat of salt pork, place on a trivet in a deep pan; into the fat put a carrot cut in squares, onion, bay leaf, and a sprig parsley. Add 2 ta blespoonfuls butter and allow the vegetables to fry delicately brown. Pour this over the chicken. Add 2 cupfuls hot chicken broth, cover, and set in a moderate oven. Baste fre quently, adding water to the stock, if necessary. Lift the chicken to a hot platter, skim off the fat, thicken the gravy and season, then strain over the fowl.
Broiled Chicken.
Sprinkle a chicken, which has been cut up, with salt and pepper, dip into raelted butter, then place in a broiler. Cook twenty minutes over a bright fire, turning the broiler so the pieces may be equally brown. Put on a platter spread with soft butter, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and set in the oven for a few minutes be fore serving.
Grilled Chicken.
Choose small chickens, split down the back, and soak each in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, for an hour or two. Coat with flour, and broil over a clear fire till done. Into LI. saucepan put 1 cupful water and an onion; let cook fifteen minutes, take out the onion, and pour the sauce over thin slices of toast, on which arrange the chickens. Garnish with fried parsley.
Chicken with Dumplings (New Eng land recipe).