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 Fashion (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.
_Mode_.--Divide the fowl into joints; slice and fry the onions in a little b.u.t.ter, taking care not to burn them; sprinkle over the fowl a little curry-powder and salt; fry these nicely, pile them high in the centre of the dish, cover with the onion, and serve with a cut lemon on a plate. Care must be taken that the onions are not greasy: they should be quite dry, but not burnt.
_Time_.--5 minutes to fry the onions, 10 minutes to fry the fowl.
_Average cost_, exclusive of the fowl, 4d.
_Seasonable_ during the winter month.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SPECKLED HAMBURGS.]
THE SPECKLED HAMBURG.--Of the speckled, or spangled Hamburg which is a favourite breed with many persons, there are two varieties,--the golden-speckled and the silver-speckled. The general colour of the former is golden, or orange-yellow, each feather having a glossy dark brown or black tip, particularly remarkable on the hackles of the c.o.c.k and the wing-coverts, and also on the darker feathers of the breast. The female is yellow, or orange-brown, the feathers in like manner being margined with black. The silver-speckled variety is distinguished by the ground-colour of the plumage being of a silver-white, with perhaps a tinge of straw-yellow, every leather being margined with a semi-lunar mark of glossy black. Both of these varieties are extremely beautiful, the hens laying freely. First-rate birds command a high price.
FOWL SAUTE WITH PEAS (an Entree).
960. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowl, 2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt, and pounded mace to taste, 1 dessertspoonful of flour, 1/2 pint of weak stock, 1 pint of green peas, 1 teaspoonful of pounded sugar.
_Mode_.--Cut the fowl into nice pieces; put the b.u.t.ter into a stew-pan; sautez or fry the fowl a nice brown colour, previously sprinkling it with pepper, salt, and pounded mace. Dredge in the flour, shake the ingredients well round, then add the stock and peas, and stew till the latter are tender, which will be in about 20 minutes; put in the pounded sugar, and serve, placing the chicken round, and the peas in the middle of the dish. When liked, mushrooms may be subst.i.tuted for the peas.
_Time_.--Altogether 40 minutes.
_Average cost_, exclusive of the fowl, 7d.
_Seasonable_ from June to August.
BOUDIN A LA REINE (an Entree).
(M. Ude"s Recipe.)
961. INGREDIENTS.--The remains of cold roast fowls, 1 pint of Bechamel No. 367, salt and cayenne to taste, egg and bread crumbs.
_Mode_.--Take the b.r.e.a.s.t.s and nice white meat from the fowls; cut it into small dice of an equal size, and throw them into some good Bechamel, made by recipe No. 367; season with salt and cayenne, and put the mixture into a dish to cool. When this preparation is quite cold, cut it into 2 equal parts, which should be made into _boudins_ of a long shape, the size of the dish they are intended to be served on; roll them in flour, egg and bread-crumb them, and be careful that the ends are well covered with the crumbs, otherwise they would break in the frying-pan; fry them a nice colour, put them before the fire to drain the greasy moisture from them, and serve with the remainder of the Bechamel poured round: this should be thinned with a little stock.
_Time_.--10 minutes to fry the boudins.
_Average cost_, exclusive of the fowl, 1s. 3d.
_Sufficient_ for 1 entree.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SEBRIGHT BANTAMS.]
SIR JOHN SEBRIGHT"S BANTAMS.--Above all Bantams is placed, the celebrated and beautiful breed called Sir John Sebright"s Silver Bantams. This breed, which Sir John brought to perfection after years of careful trials, is very small, with un-feathered legs, and a rose comb and short hackles. The plumage is gold or silver, spangled, every feather being of a golden orange, or of a silver white, with a glossy jet-black margin; the c.o.c.ks have the tail folded like that of a hen, with the sickle feathers shortened straight, or nearly so, and broader than usual. The term _hen-c.o.c.ks_ is, in consequence, often applied to them; but although the sickle feathers are thus modified, no bird possesses higher courage, or a more gallant carriage. The att.i.tude of the c.o.c.k is, indeed, singularly proud; and he is often seen to bear himself so haughtily, that his head, thrown back as if in disdain, nearly touches the two upper feathers--sickles they can scarcely be called--of his tail.
Half-bred birds of this kind are not uncommon, but birds of the pure breed are not to be obtained without trouble and expense; indeed, some time ago, it was almost impossible to procure either a fowl or an egg. "The finest," says the writer whom we have consulted as to this breed, "we have ever seen, were in Sir John"s poultry-yard, adjacent to Turnham-Green Common, in the byroad leading to Acton."
FOWL A LA MAYONNAISE.
962. INGREDIENTS.--A cold roast fowl, Mayonnaise sauce No. 468, 4 or 5 young lettuces, 4 hard-boiled eggs, a few water-cresses, endive.
_Mode_.--Cut the fowl into neat joints, lay them in a deep dish, piling them high in the centre, sauce the fowl with Mayonnaise made by recipe No. 468, and garnish the dish with young lettuces cut in halves, water-cresses, endive, and hard-boiled eggs: these may be sliced in rings, or laid on the dish whole, cutting off at the bottom a piece of the white, to make the egg stand. All kinds of cold meat and solid fish may be dressed a la Mayonnaise, and make excellent luncheon or supper dishes. The sauce should not be poured over the fowls until the moment of serving. Should a very large Mayonnaise be required, use 2 fowls instead of 1, with an equal proportion of the remaining ingredients.