Domestic chicken

“ After the chickens are cleaned and trussed fold them in a nice white cloth, put them in a large stew-pan and cover them with boiling water; boil them gently, and skim carefully as long as any scum rises; let them simmer slowly as that will make them plump and white, while fast boiling will make them dark and lose flavor. When done lay them on a hot dish, and pour celery, oyster, or egg sauce over them. Serve some also in a boat, as it keeps hot longer than when poured over the fowls. Boiled tongue or ham should be served with boiled chicken. ”

“ The use of chemical preservatives in potted chicken is also reprehensible. In general it may be said that there is no very extensive adulteration of chicken meat. The principal objection to the commerce in preserved chicken meat is the use of old chickens, the unlimited cold storage, the failure to draw at time of slaughter, and exposure in the market in an unsanitary condition and for an indefinite time. Cheaper meats are sometimes substituted for the genuine article in potted chicken. Turkey and pork are said to be used in chicken salad. ”

“ Chicken manure was always highly prized but usually in short supply because preindustrial fowl weren't caged in factories or permanently locked in hen houses and fed scientifically formulated mixes. The chicken breed of that era was usually some type of bantam, half-wild, broody, protective of chicks, and capable of foraging. A typical pre-1900 small-scale chicken management system was to allow the flock free access to hunt their own meals in the barnyard and orchard, luring them into the coop at dusk with a bit of grain where they were protected from predators while sleeping helplessly. ”

“ Very young chicks are used for frying in deep fat; for this purpose they are dipped in a thin batter, or else in flour, and in eggs mixed with milk and afterward in breadcrumbs. These chicks, and also spring chickens, are used for casserole dishes and for cocottes (covered earthen ware containers, in which the fowls are roasted in the oven) .
The liver of fowls is used in different ways; it makes an excellent dish. It is best when sautéed with black butter. Some of the fine French ragouts consist mostly of chicken livers. ”

“ With a few years' experience in chicken raising back of you, it would not be risky to raise them for commercial purposes. The popularity of fancy chickens is just beginning in this country. There is a fine market for eggs for hatching, but as it is extremely important to keep the breeds pure your fancy birds should be kept by themselves practically the year round. Most of the breeds mentioned are quite hardy, and the same care required for ordinary poultry as to housing, food, prevention of disease, cleanliness, and records will insure a good measure of success with fancy fowls. ”

“ Chickens may be canned in the same way as has been described for beef and in that way may be kept for a certain length of time without notable deterioration. The pickling of chicken is not very extensively practiced nor is it cured in the ordinary sense of the word, that is, by the addition of salt, sugar, vinegar, spices, and wood smoke. Chicken may also be put up in the form of potted chicken, which has already been described. Practically the only methods which are in vogue and which can be commended for preserving chicken are sterilizing or canning and cold storage. ”

“ In many cases I admit it to be a necessary evil, but not the less an evil; a hen when cooped has no power of scratching for insects and worms (the best of all possible food) , the chicken are therefore confined strictly to the artificial diet with which they are supplied. Whatever also may be the difference in the temperature of the day or change of weather, she cannot alter her position, or seek shelter from cold, wind, or wet ”

“ Take off the scum as fast as it rises. Take them up and carve them in the usual way. Put part of the water in which they were boiled into a spider or stew-pan. For two chickens rub a piece of butter as large as an egg, and a spoonful of flour together, and stir into the water as it boils up. Add some salt, and a gill of cream, or milk. Lay in the pieces of chicken, cover the pan close, and stew them gently eight or ten minutes. Parsley cut fine is a decided improvement. ”

“ At this point it may as well be confessed that chicken-farming does not grow in favour under continued observation. It pays, of course, but the amount of attention required becomes tiresome. The grown hens are all right, needing food and water only three times a day, and the task of gathering the eggs is only a pastime, but young chickens are a constant source of worry and bother. They must be fed five or six times a day on a varied diet and they require different food at different stages of their growth. ”

“ Domestic animals expect food when they see the person who usually feeds them. We know that all these rather crude expectations of uniformity are liable to be misleading. The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken. ”

“ Beat ten eggs very light, add to them a quart of rich milk, with a quarter of a pound of butter melted, and some pepper and salt; stir in as much flour as will make a thin good batter; take four young chickens, and after cleaning them nicely, cut off the legs, wings, &c. put them all in a sauce pan, with some salt and water, and a bundle of thyme and parsley, boil them till nearly done, then take the chicken from the water and put it in the batter, pour it in a deep dish, and bake it; send nice white gravy in a boat. ”

“ A smart fire is better than a slow one; but they must be tended closely. Slices of bread, buttered, salted, and peppered, put into the stomach (not the crop) are excellent.
Chickens should boil about an hour. If old, they should {54} boil longer. In as little water as will cook them. Chicken-broth made like mutton-broth.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, BROWN.
Singe the chickens; cut them in pieces; pepper, salt, and flour them; fry them in fresh butter, till they are very brown: take the chickens out, and make a good gravy, into which put sweet herbs (marjoram or sage) according to your taste ”

“ In a few hours they are able to run about and follow their parent; they do not require to be fed in the nest like most birds, but pick up the food which their mother shows them; and repose at night huddled up beneath her wings. The chicken during its development in the egg is nourished by the yolk, and the remaining portion of the yolk passes into its body previous to its leaving the shell, being designed for its first nourishment ”

“ Poultry are the better for high feeding from the very shell, and on this account it is advisable to give them the heaviest corn. Even young chickens may be put for feeding as soon as the hen has ceased to regard them. When chickens are wanted for domestic purposes, they should be left at liberty in the farm-yard, and if they have plenty of [175] food they will be soon fit for the table, and rich and juicy in flavour. ”

“ The chicken require neither food nor drink on the day on which they are hatched; in fact, both are injurious, as they interfere with the natural digestion of the yolk, which is absorbed into the bowels at the period of hatching, and constitutes the first food. If grits, oatmeal, &c., are spread before the hen on the twenty-first day, she is induced to leave the nest, and the last hatched chicken, which are not perhaps yet dried, are unable to follow, and being weakly, perish; or unhatched eggs may be left. ”

“ Chicken should never be cooked the same day it is killed. Wash well with cold water, then pour boiling water over it and into the cavity. Rub the latter with salt and pepper, and fill with a dressing made of bread soaked in water and squeezed out, a tablespoonful butter, a little salt, pepper and parsley.
Rub the chicken well with butter. Sprinkle pepper and salt over it and dredge with flour. Lay it into a pan with a slice of pork or bacon and a pint of water. Let it simmer slowly two hours, basting and dredging frequently. Turn the chicken so each part may be equally browned. ”

“ In farm-yards where there are large numbers of poultry, it will be found by far the most desirable plan to keep separately a cock with from four to six of the best hens, and to hatch their eggs alone. By this means the chicken are all certain of coming from the best birds, and a much smaller number of cocks may be kept with the main stock of hens than would otherwise be desirable. ”

“ Procure four very young spring chickens, not trussed, cut off the feet below the joints, break the bone in each leg, then cut an incision in the thigh of the chicken and turn the legs into it, cut the chickens open down the back-bone, and beat them flat, fry five minutes in butter in a sauté-pan, season with a little pepper and salt, egg and bread-crumb them all over, lay them on a gridiron over a moderate fire, and broil a nice light-brown colour ”

“ One unversed in such matters can have no notion of the many and tragic things that can happen to a chicken. It is born out of an egg, lives for a few weeks as a tiny fluffy thing such as you will see pictured on Easter cards, then becomes hideously naked, eats quantities of corn and meal bought by the sweat of your father's brow, gets diseases called pip, cholera, and other names, stands looking with stupid eyes at the sun, becomes sick and dies. ”

“ As soon as the tender age is past, the chickens are put in simple colony houses where, with hopper fed corn, beef scrap and rye on the range, they grow throughout the winter and spring. They are sold from May 1st to July 1st and bring such prices that the cockerels are caponized yet not sold as capons, showing them to be the highest priced chicken flesh in the market save small broilers. Now, the income of roasters is two to five times as much per head as that of broilers. The added expense is only a matter of feed, which bears about the same ratio to weight as with broilers. ”

“ In an article entitled “Changes Taking Place in Chickens in Cold Storage,” in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, for 1907, we read that the fresh chicken is a pale, soft yellow, without any tinge or suggestion of green in the colour of the skin, while there is enough translucency to show through it the delicate pink of the muscles underneath. It can be plainly seen that the pink tint is not of the skin itself. ”

“ But the chickens we hardly recognise as such, they are such poor, scrawny things, with their bodies and feathers all awry; and when Mpuke's mother prepares a chicken stew, the meat is so dry and tasteless that it seems scarcely worth eating. What can be the reason that the African chicken is so much poorer than the American bird? Perhaps it is because it is tormented by such numbers of insects. ”

“ Remove from the chicken every bit of fat and skin. Cut the best portions of the meat into dice with a sharp knife. Chopping is apt to make it ragged and uneven in appearance. Cut the celery in like manner, and set both aside in a cool place, when you have strewed a little salt over the chicken. To the boiling water add the corn-starch, and boil fast until it thickens well. Then stir in the chicken-essence, skimmed from the top of the cold liquor in which the fowls were boiled. ”

“ Brahmas and Cochins are not considered good feeders at the age when they are commonly sold. Chickens in fair flesh at the start make better gains than those that are extremely lean or very fat. But, contrary to what the amateur might assume, the moderately fat chicken will continue to make fair gains, while the very lean chicken seldom returns a profit. ”

“ Select two fine, tender chickens weighing two pounds each; singe them well, draw the entrails, wash thoroughly, and wipe very dry; then cut each chicken into six pieces, and season them with a good pinch of salt and a light pinch of pepper. Place the pieces of chicken in a sautoire with three quarters of an ounce of good butter and half a tablespoonful of sweet oil, and set it on a very hot stove. Chop up one shallot very fine, and one sound, green pepper cut in small, dice-shaped pieces; when the chickens are of a light brown color, add the shallot and pepper, and stir well for one minute ”

“ Deer's horn should be burnt around their coops to keep snakes away, for the very smell of those vermin is fatal to young chickens. They should be allowed to run in the sun and to scratch in a dung heap, which serves to develop them. This rule applies not only to young chickens but also to the entire [Greek: ornithoboskeion] , and should be practised all summer and even in winter on mild and sunny days. A net should be stretched over the chicken yard to keep the fowls themselves from flying out and to protect them from hawks and other birds of prey. ”

“ The full grown chicken is better suited for food when still young. The flesh loses flavor and gains in toughness as the chicken grows older. There is no legal limit fixing the division of chickens into different classes with respect to age and the only criterion is the price and taste of the consumer. ”

“ The signs of a need of assistance are the egg being partly pecked and chipped, and the cluck discontinuing its efforts for five of six hours. Weakness from cold may disable the chicken from commencing the operation of pecking the shell, which must then be artificially performed with a circular fracture, such as is made by the bird itself.
CHICKEN OR FOWL PIE. 929. INGREDIENTS.—2 small fowls or 1 large one, white pepper and salt to taste, 1/2 teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoonful of pounded mace, forcemeat No. 417, a few slices of ham, 3 hard-boiled eggs, 1/2 pint of water, puff crust. ”