The flesh of poultry has less red blood and is drier than the flesh of animals. It is not marbled with fat, and as it abounds in phosphates it is valuable food, particularly for invalids. The fibres are not closely connected by tough membranes, and are therefore easily separated and digested.

The best chickens have soft yellow feet, short thick legs, smooth moist skin, plump breast, and the cartilage on the end of the breastbone is soft and pliable.

Pin feathers always indicate a young bird and long hairs an older one. Old fowls have long thin necks and feet, and sharp scales; the end of the breastbone is hard, the flesh has a purplish tinge, and there is usually a lame amount of fat.

To Prepare a Fowl for Cooking.

Pick out the pin feathers, remove the hairs by singeing over a blaze, and wipe with a damp cloth. Cut off the head, slip the skin back from the neck and cut the neck off close to the body, leaving skin enough to fold over on the back. Remove the windpipe, pull the crop away from the skin on the neck and breast and cut it off close to the body.

Never cut the skin on the breast to remove the crop, but take it out from the end of the neck. Cut out the oil bag in the tail. Make an incision near the vent, insert two fingers, loosen the fat from the skin, and separate the membranes lying close to the body. Keep the fingers up close to the breastbone until you can reach in beyond the liver and heart, and loosen on either side down toward the back. This will enable you to avoid breaking the gall bladder which lies on the left side under the liver. When the membranes are all loosened, clasp the fingers round the gizzard and draw everything out. The kidneys and lungs will not come with the others, and must be looked for in the hollows near the backbone and between the ribs. Wipe the chicken inside and outside with a damp cloth.

If the chicken is to be baked or boiled whole fill the skin where the crop was with stuffing, and put some inside the body. Skewer or tie the legs and wings close to the body.

If the chicken is to be broiled split it down the entire length of the backbone, before removing the entrails.

If to be stewed or fricasseed, cut off the legs and wings at the joints. Cut from near the vent through the membrane lying between the end of the breastbone and tail, down to the backbone, on either side. Then remove the entrails. Break off the backbone just below the ribs, cut through the cartilage dividing the ribs, and separate the collar-bone from the breast.

To clean the giblets: Slip off the thin sac round the heart and cut out the veins and arteries. Remove the liver and cut off all that looks green near the gall bladder. Be careful not to break the gall bladder. Trim off the fat and membranes from the gizzard, cut through the thick part, open it and remove the inner lining without breaking it. Cut off all the white gristle and use only the thick fleshy part. The trimmed gizzard, liver, and heart are all that are used. Wash and soak them in cold water, then stew them until tender.