Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/84

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Turkey or Fowl, for Boiling.—For boiling, turkeys and fowls should, according to the newest fashion, both be trussed in the same way. There is nothing peculiar in this way, excepting as to the legs, which are to be trussed within the apron. To do this, the cook must first cut off the feet, and then, putting her fingers into the inside of the fowl, separate the skin of the leg from the flesh, all the way to the extreme joint. The leg, being drawn back, will thus remain, as it were, in a bag, within the apron; and, if this be properly done, there need be no other break in the skin than what has been occasioned at the joint by cutting the feet. If it be a turkey, or a large fowl, the form may be better preserved, by putting a skewer through the legs as well as through the wings (see Fig. 15). But with small fowls there needs no skewer for the legs. All skewers used in trussing should be taken out before the dish comes to table. To carve fowls, turkeys, &c., see Fig. 15. Begin by taking off the wings, cutting from a to b, c to d. Next the legs, putting your knife in at f f. Then, if it be a large bird, you will help slices from the breast (e e). But with the smaller birds, as chickens, partridges, &c., a considerable portion of the breast should come off with the wing, and then there is not enough left to spare any thing more from the breast-bone. The merry-thought, situated at the point of the breast-bone, is taken off by cutting straight across at h h. In helping, recollect that the liver-wing is