Fattening Plan for Chickens

Ingredients

• rice
• milk
• Indian corn meal
• kitchen grease or sweet oil

Method

1. 1

   Give the birds as much rice and milk boiled to a stiff paste mixed with Indian corn meal as they can eat.

2. 2

   Reduce their run but do not coop them.

3. 3

   In ten days, they should be ready for the table.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The complete Indian housekeeper & cook (1898) by Flora Annie Webster Steel, page 81. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

rice, i lb. bran, and 1 lb. of whole wheat. Housekeeper and Cook 119 Tlie last thing at night, or after dinner, the cook should have orders to put on a big pan, containing the remains of the day’s vegetables, cabbage leaves, cuttings of turnips, ])otato peelings, &c. These should remain on the embers all night, and be warmed up next morning on the fire where the kettle for early tea has been boiled. The mess should be given hot to the sweeper or fowl-man, who will strain away excess of water and mix in the ground barley, grain, and bran. The consistency should be such that it will just crumble in the hand. The fowls should then be let out, and the food given to them while still warm. It must never be thrown on the ground, but be spread in shallow earthen saucers. It is well to have plenty of these, to prevent crowding. After this the fowl-house should be cleaned out, the eggs collected and given in, the door closed again and kept locked. Water must be given in earthen saucers, and it will be found a great preventative of disease if a feAv drops of Douglas’ mixture be mixed with it. A recipe for making this is given at the end. At twelve o’clock the fowls should be again fed Avith boiled rice, in which a fcAv handfuls of soft food — Avhich should have been saved for this purpose from the morning’s meal — should be mixed. If the fowls have a run Avhere grass is not to be had, a little should be gathered and thrown to them. The last thing before I'oosting-time the foAvls should have their Avhole wh'eat mixed with a little of the gram. TAvice a Aveek at least they should get a little animal food ; a liver boiled and minced is best, as it is cheap ; but if the soup meat is given regularly, as it should be, this is not necessary. The great mistake in India is not giving enough varidi/ or enough gree?i food. Diarrhoea is almost always caused by too much Avhole grain, and when it appears the ration of boiled vegetables should be increased. Keeping the key of the foAvl-house door has a very beneficial result in the number of eggs the birds lay. The sweeper will remark it is “dp Id ikbnl se" (“your honour’s mightiness”), but he is a fulsome flatterer. One warning may be given. If you have a clean, thriving set of foAvls, don t make a lazaretto of their run by turning the kluni.suman .s bazaar chickens into it. Put them in (juaraii- tine, and give them a kerosene bath first. The same remark 120 The Complete Indian applies to clucking hens, which arc often fetched in from the bazaar in order to set eggs. The best laying boxes are earthen pans, half filled with clean dry sand. If you intend to raise chickens, get an incubator without delay. It is, to begin with, an amusement; secondl}', an immense saving of bother and expense. Hearsom’s Chamjiion is very successful ; one to hatch twenty-five eggs costs <£4, 7s. 6d., delivered on board ship in London. It is no trouble, and with a little supervision the bearer will look after it perfectly. But even if you do not have an incubator, by all means get a foster- mother. This is a contrivance also of Hearsom’s, Regent Street, London, for I’earing chickens without the aid of a hen. It consists of a chamber warmed by hot water kept at an even temperature by a small kerosene lamp, a glass- protected run for damp weather, and a wire run beyond. One for twenty-five chickens costs £4, 5s. jificked free on docks. In India, where, owing to the climate, very little heat is required, this will be found large enough for fifty chicks if an extra wire run is added. A jiamphlet detailing the method of using is sent with each machine; or, if further information is required, send to the same address for the ‘^Problem Solved,” a brochure costing Is. Endless are the tragedies from which these two admirable inventions, incu- bator and foster-mother, will save you. The sweeper will never come to report, Avith a lurking delight, that the cluck- ing hen which Avith in finite trouble he had produced at i/onr honour’s command, having laid an egg, now manifests no desire to sit longer” \ nor Avill he appear Avith a dismal little tassel of fluH’y dead chicklings in his hands to inform you, still Avith that fiendish undercurrent of joy, that the hen, “having doubt- less taken fright, became unaware of the chicks, and trampled on them, God knows whij ! ” With a foster-mother you are gladdened every day Avilh jAercejAtible groAvth ; and one of the authors can testify that out of about 700 chickens put into the foster-mother, not ten have died before they Avere eaten ! They Avere all killed. The food of young chickens is not such an elaborate affair as the orthodox foAvl-man makes out. They require nothing for tAventy-four hours ; after that a crumbly omelette made from the Avhitc, yolk, and shell of an egg, all beaten up, and I2I Housekeeper and Cook fried Avitli a little drip2dng, then rubbed up with parched wheat and bread crumbs, is the best possible food. After forty-eight hours the little creatures may have free run of the foster-mother, and will eat anything and everything. The stajde, however, should still be parched, or raw, wheat ground to groats, mixed with boiled rice, chojAped onions, and curd made of the skim milk. Ihe remains of the curry minced and mixed with the rice causes flutterings of eagerness; so Avill chojAped cress. In fact, young chicks, being always hungry, should always be in jirocess of being fed ; and as they will eat anything and everything, the chicken fancier will find it a good plan to have all the table scraps set aside after every meal for the foster-mother. Do not, however, give them whole grain, or they will gorge themselves on it, and very probably die of indigestion. It is false economy to stint groAving chickens, the great object being to get them ready for the table as soon as possible. This should be in ten Aveeks at most. The best jdan for fattening is the French country jilan. Give the birds as much rice and milk, boiled to a stiff paste and mixed Avith a little Indian corn meal, as they can jAossibly eat. Do not coop them, but reduce their run. In ten days they should be quite fit for table. If necessary, fatten still more Avith Indian corn meal boiled to a jiaste with kitchen grease or SAveet oil

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.