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Poultry To Clean And Truss Poultry

The practice of sending poultry to the market undressed is one that demands as earnest opposition from housekeepers as that of the adulteration of food. The meat is rendered unfit for eating; is sometimes infected with poison and the increase in weight makes poultry a very expensive food. All poultry should be dressed as soon as killed. The feathers come out more easily when the fowl is warm, and when stripped off toward the head. If the skin be very tender, pull the feathers out the opposite way. Use a knife to remove the pin feathers. Singe the hairs and down by holding the fowl over a gas jet, or over a roll of lighted paper held over the fire. Cut off the head, and if fowl is to be roasted, slip the skin back from the neck and cut the neck off close to the body, leaving skin enough to fold over on the back. Remove the windpipe; pull the crop away from the skin on the neck and breast, and cut off close to the opening into the body. Be careful not to tear the skin. Always pull the crop out from the end of the neck, rather than through a cut in the skin, which, if made, has to be sewed together. Cut through the skin about two inches below the leg joint; bend the leg at the cut by pressing it over the edge of the table, and break off the bone. Then pull, not cut, out the tendons. If care be taken to cut only through the skin, these cords may be pulled out easily, one at a time, with the fingers. Or take them all out at once by putting the foot of the fowl against the casing of a door, then shut the door tightly and pull out the leg. The tendons will come out with the foot ; but if once cut, they can not be removed. The drumstick of a roast chicken or turkey is greatly improved by removing the tendons, which always become hard and bony in baking. There is a special advantage in cutting the leg below the joint, as the ends of the bones afford more length for tying, and after roasting, this is easily broken off, leaving a clean, unburned joint for the table.