Fowls

Under this title we include all the kinds of tame fowls, from the turkey to the chicken: they are all boiled exactly in the same manner, and according to the same rules, only allowing time, according to the size. For stuffings, etc see No. 374 and 377.

Turkies, and large fowls, should always have the strings or sinews of the thighs drawn out.

Fowls for boiling should be chosen as white as possible: those which have even black-legs had better be roasted.

Make a good and clear fire; set on a clean pot, with plenty of pure and clear water, the more the better; and the slower it boils the whiter and plumper the fowl will be. You may rub a lemon over the breast of your fowl, and put it in. When there rises any scum, the common method of some who are more nice than wise, is to wrap them up in a cloth, to prevent the scum attaching to them; which if it does, by your neglecting to skim your pot, there is no getting it off afterwards, and the poulterer is blamed for the fault of the cook. However, if there be water enough, and it is attentively scummed, the fowl will both look and eat much better this way than when it has been tied up in the cleanest cloth; and both the colour and flavour of your poultry will be preserved in the most charming and delicate perfection.

Rabbits

Truss your rabbits short, put them into plenty of water, and boil them half an hour; if large ones, three quarters; smother them with onion sauce,, and send up liver sauce in a boat.

Tripe

Cut the tripe into pieces about two inches broad and four long; put it into a stewpan of clean boiling water, and let it boil half an hour; then have another clean stewpan with an equal quantity of milk and water; when this boils, take the tripe out of the water, and put it into the milk and water.

Boil (by themselves) some Spanish, or the whitest common onions you can get; when they are tender, drain them in a hair sieve, and put them to the tripe in a tureen or soup-dish: take off the fat if any floats on the surface; but tripe dressed in this way is seldom greasy.

Observations

Rashers of bacon are a very good accompaniment to boiled tripe.