These must be killed a couple of days before they are dressed, or they will eat tough: they are managed exactly in the same manner, and sent up with the same sauces as a turkey, only require proportionately less time at the fire: a full grown fowl three quarters, a moderate size one half an hour, and a chicken ten minutes less.

Pork sausages fried are in general a favourite accompaniment, or stuff (hem with turkey stuffing; (see Forcemeats, No. 374, 5, 6, and 7:) put in plenty of it, so as to plump out the fowl, which must be tied closely both at the neck and rump to keep in the stuffing: some cooks put the liver of the fowl into (his forcemeat, others rub it up with the flour and butter, to thicken and give flavour to the gravy, which receives further improvement by stewing the legs of the fowl in it, instead of sending them to table, and the fowl looks much better without them.

Observations

The age in poultry makes all the difference: nothing is tenderer than a chicken, and few things are tougher or harder of digestion than an old cock or hen: the season of perfection in poultry is just before they have quite come to their full growth, and before they have begun to harden.