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Boiled Fowl or Turkey
Fowls or turkeys for boiling should be trussed with the ends of the legs drawn into the body through a slit in the skin, and kept in place with a small skewer. Turn the tip of the wing over on the back. Cut off the neck, not the skin, close to the body, and after putting in the stuffing, fasten the skin of the neck to the back. Put strips of cloth round it, or pin it in a cloth, to keep it white and preserve the shape.
In carving, place it on the platter with the head at the left. Put the fork in firmly across the breast-bone. With the point of the knife cut through the skin near the tail, and lift the legs out from the inside. Then cut through the skin between the legs and body, bend the leg over, and cut across through the joint. Cut from the top of the shoulder down toward the body until the wing-joint is exposed, then cut through this, separating the wing from the body. Remove the leg and wing from the other side. Shave off a thin slice on the end of the breast toward each wing-joint, slip the knife under at the top of the breast-bone, and turn back the wish-bone.
Capons and large fowls may be sliced thinly across the breast in the same manner as a roast turkey. But if the fowl be small, draw the knife along the edge of the breast-bone on each side, and lay the meat away from the bone; the fillets will separate easily. Then divide the meat across the grain. Separate the collar-bone from the breast. Slip the knife under the shoulder-blade, turn it over, and separate at the joint. Cut through the cartilage connecting the ribs; this will separate the breast from the back. Now remove the fork from the breast, turn the back over, place the knife midway, and with the fork lift up the tail end, separating the back from the body. Place the fork in the middle of the backbone, cut close to the backbone from one end to the other on each side, freeing the side-bones.
The wing and breast of a boiled fowl are the favorite portions. It is important that the fowl be cooked just right. If underdone, the joints will not separate readily; and if overdone they will fall apart so quickly that carving is impossible. Unless the knife be very sharp, and the work done carefully, the skin of the breast will come off with the leg or wing.
Trussing, cooking and then carving a bird that has been simmered rather than roasted. Two words on this page mean something different now, and the rest of it is still the best short account of taking a bird apart.
- Boiled means barely simmeringA boiling fowl goes into water that shivers and never rolls. The page’s own closing paragraph is the test: underdone and the joints will not come apart, overdone and they fall apart faster than you can carve. A real boil guarantees the second.
- A fowl is an old hen“Fowl” here means a mature bird past laying, firm-fleshed and full of flavour, which is why it is simmered for a long time. A supermarket roasting chicken given the same treatment turns to rags. A boiling fowl is a special order now and worth the telephone call. The page also names the capon.
- Pinned in a clothThe bird is wrapped in strips of cloth, or pinned into one, to keep the skin white and hold its shape. Whiteness was the whole ambition of a boiled fowl. A modern cook has no reason to want it and can leave the cloth off.
- Legs first, from the insideCut the skin near the tail, lift the legs out from inside the bird, cut between leg and body, bend the leg back and cut through the joint. Then the wings, then the breast. Working in that order keeps the carcass steady under the fork while the easy cuts are made.
- Lift the breast off wholeOn a small bird the page says to run the knife down each side of the breast-bone, lay the meat away from the bone until the fillet separates, then cut it across the grain. That is better than slicing on the carcass, and it is what good practice has come back round to.
- The whole skeleton comes apartCollar-bone, shoulder-blade, side-bones, back. The page keeps going long after a modern carver would stop, because every part was going to be served to somebody. The wish-bone is turned back early so the breast can be cut cleanly afterwards.
The page ends by telling the carver which parts are the favourites, and on a boiled fowl those are the wing and the breast. That is not a note about flavour. The person with the knife stood at the head of the table, in full view, and decided who received the wing and who received the back, so a book teaching carving has to teach the ranking as well as the cuts. The skill on offer is part butchery and part the public distribution of the best of a shared thing.