Modern cookery, in all its branches

With two pounds of the lean of young tender pork, mix one pound of fat, a quarter of a pound of truffles, minced very small, an ounce and a half of salt, a seasoning of cayenne, or quite half an ounce of white pepper, a nutmeg, a teaspoonful of freshly pounded mace, and a dessertspoonful or more of savoury herbs dried and reduced to powder. Test a morsel of the mixture ; heighten any of the seasonings to the taste ; and put the meat into delicately clean skins : if it be for immediate use, and the addition is liked, moisten it, before it is .dressed, with one or two glassesful of Madeira. The substitution of a clove of garlic for the truffles, will convert these into Saucisses V Ail , or garlic sausages. [ciiap. xiv. CHAPTER XIV. Poultry. TO CHOOSE POULTRY. Young, plump, well-fed, but not over-fatted poultry is the best The skin of fowls and turkeys should be clear, white, and finely grained, the breasts broad and full-fleshed, the legs smooth, the toes pliable and easily broken when bent back ; the birds should also be heavy in proportion to their size. This applies equally to geese and ducks, of which the breasts likewise should be very plump, and the feet yellow and flexible : when these are red and hard, the bills of the same colour, and the skin full of hairs, and extremely coarse, the birds are old. White-legged, fowls and chickens should be chosen for boiling, because their appearance is the most delicate when dressed ; but the dark-legged ones often prove more juicy and of better flavour when roasted, and their colour then is immaterial. Every precaution should be taken to prevent poultry from becoming ever so slightly tainted before it is cooked, but unless the weather be exceedingly sultry, it should not lie quite freshly killed • 2G5 pigeons only are the better for being so, and are thought to lose their flavour by hanging even a day or two. Turkeys, as we have stated in our receipts for them, are very tough and poor eating if not sufficiently long kept. A goose, also, in winter, should hang some days before it is dressed, and fowls, likewise, will be improved by it. All kinds of poultry should be thoroughly cooked, though without being overdone, for nothing in general can more effectually destroy the appetite than the taste and appearance of their flesh when brought to table half roasted or boiled TO BONE A FOWL OR TURKEY WITHOUT OPENING IT. After the fowl has been drawn and singed, wipe it inside and out with a clean cloth, but do not wash it. Take off* the head, cut through the skin all round the first joint of the legs, and pull them from the fowl, to draw out the large tendons. Raise the flesh first from the lower part of the back-bone, and a little also from the end of the breast-bone, if necessary ; work the knife gradually to the socket of the thigh ; with the point of the knife detach the joint from it, take the end of the bone firmly in the fingers, and cut the flesh clean from it down to the next joint, round which pass the point ol the knife carefully, and when the skin is loosened from it in every part, cut round the next bone, keeping the edge of the knife close tc it, until the whole of the leg is done.