Page:The Boston cooking-school cook book (1910).djvu/295

 lying in the hollow near end of backbone, must also be removed. By introducing first two fingers under skin close to neck, the windpipe may be easily found and withdrawn; also the crop, which will he found adhering to skin close to breast. Draw down neck skin, and cut off neck close to body, leaving skin long enough to fasten under the back. Remove oil bag, and wash bird by allowing cold water to run through it, not allowing bird to soak in cold water. Wipe inside and outside, looking carefully to see that everything has been withdrawn. If there is disagreeable odor, suggesting that fowl may have been kept too long, clean at once, wash inside and out with soda water, and sprinkle inside with charcoal and place some under wings.

Poultry dressed at market seldom have tendons removed unless so ordered. It is always desirable to have them withdrawn, as they become hard and bony during cooking. It is the practice of market-men to cut a gash through the skin, to easier reach crop and windpipe. This gash must be sewed before stuffing, and causes the bird to look less attractive when cooked.

To Cut up a Fowl. Singe, draw out pinfeathers, cut off head, remove tendons and oil bag. Cut through skin between leg and body close to body, bend back leg (thus breaking ligaments), cut through flesh, and separate at joint. Separate the upper part of leg, second joint, from lower part of leg, drumstick, as leg is separated from body. Remove wing by cutting through skin and flesh around upper wing joint which lies next to body, then disjoint from body. Cut off tip of wing and separate wing at middle joint. Remove leg and wing from other side. Separate breast from back by cutting through skin, beginning two inches below breastbone and passing knife between terminus of small ribs on either side and extending cut to collar-bone. Before removing entrails, gizzard, heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, crop, and wind-pipe, observe their position, that the anatomy of the bird may be understood. The back is sometimes divided by cutting through the middle crosswise. The wishbone, with adjoining meat, is frequently removed, and the breast meat may be separated in two parts by cutting through flesh close to