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Fowl

THE Capon (a cock-chicken fed for the table), "being fat, and not old, is generally for all bodies, and in all respects for wholesomeness of meat, the best of all fowls, for it is easily digested, and acceptable to the stomacke, and maketh much good, firme, and temperate nourishment, almost altogether free from excrement"; thus quoth Dr. Tobias Venner (1620). "Poultry," declares Brillat Savarin, "is to the sick man who has been floating over an uncertain, and uneasy sea, like the first odour, or sight of land, to the storm-beaten, exhausted mariner." Nevertheless, this same experienced gastronome regards the pullet as being no more to a cook than his canvas is to the painter, which is, of course, to say that a chicken is only a mere vehicle for exploiting the cook's learning, and skill. What is termed by the chef a "Spread Eagle," or "Poulet a la Crapoline," is a young, plump chicken split down the back, and flattened, its breastbone being removed, and the bird being seasoned, oiled (or buttered), and grilled, or baked. The breast of a boiled chicken is among the most digestible forms of animal food, but the leg muscles are often tough, and stringy. Moreover, very fat poultry should be avoided by the dyspeptic, as such fat is particularly apt to become rancid in the stomach.

Chicken broth, if poured on sippets of bread laid at the bottom of the dish in which boiled fowl, or partridge, is served, makes a capital sauce therewith, when the invalid is well enough to be allowed solid food. Some cooks add the feet when making the broth, but these members contribute a peculiar, and not always acceptable flavour. Again, those persons to whom cost is an object, may make a very good broth of fowls' heads, ends of pinions, and feet alone, these being obtained cheap from any poulterer. Fowls' liver soup ("Potage à la Camerani") was at one time prepared according to a secret method known only to Grimod de la Reyniere, and his compeers. Thus the fable arose that its concoction in 1806 cost three louis d'or for each person who partook of it at dinner. To standard broth, just before it is done, are added fowls' livers, one for each person, finely minced, whilst the tureen should contain some ready-boiled macaroni, and Parmesan cheese. According to certain French enthusiasts "a single spoonful of this liver soup will lap the palate in Elysium; and while one drop thereof remains on the tongue, each other sense continues eclipsed by a voluptuous thrilling of the lingual nerves." Verily it might be quoted of the said boastful "cordon bleu," in the words of Ingoldsby:- "He seemed by his talk, And the airs he assumed, to be 'cock of the walk." " The right wing of a fowl, having the liver tucked into it, is preferred. by epicures. "Mr. Pumblechook" (Dickens, in Great Expectations) "helped me to the liver-wing, and to the best slice of tongue." Lord Tennyson declared that the only advantage he got from being Poet Laureate, was that he invariably had given him the liver-wing of a chicken at luncheon. Venetia Anastasia, the wife of Sir Kenelm Digby (1650), was remarkable for her extraordinary beauty; and he was so proud of her that to preserve her health he kept her supplied with the flesh of capons fed on vipers. In order to retain her lovely complexion he was continually inventing new cosmetics for her use; and it is suspected that this too great love for her was the cause of her death, for one morning she was found dead in her bed, at the early age of thirty-three.

An English officer in India not long ago set before his guests at dinner with great success, and satisfaction all round, a turkey stuffed with the strong-flavoured gum-asafœtida, known to druggists as having a powerful odour, and a persistent taste of garlic (with anti-spasmodic medicinal effects). It is the concrete juice from the roots of several large umbelliferous plants belonging to the genus Ferula, having a bitter, acrid taste, whilst consisting of resin, gum, and an essential oil which contains phosphorus, and sulphur. In Persia, and Afghanistan, this sap is collected also as a culinary condiment to be employed by the Indian cook, but in such infinitesimal quantities as to suggest rather than to convey the actual flavour. With curry, and rice, it is found to be delicious when skilfully combined. A Royal Academician who was noted among his friends for making an exquisite salad, always passed asafœtida over the bowl. John Evelyn makes reference to this "fœtid asa" as highly prized at classic Delphi : "Nor are some of our modern skilful cooks ignorant of how to condite it, with the applause of those who are unaware of the secret." Pureira tells of a noted gourmet, who assured him that "the finest relish which a beefsteak can possess may be communicated to it by rubbing the gridiron on which the steak is to be cooked with asafœtida." The gum in moderate quantity acts on all parts of the body as a wholesome stimulant, enlivening the spirits, and at the same time improving the vision; it quickens the appetite, and invigorates the digestion, particularly in persons of a cold, languid temperament.

The late Archbishop Magee was once asked, or rather volunteered the reply, that "the two things which tired him most in his clerical administrative consecrations, were the hymn, 'The Church's One Foundation,' and cold chicken for lunch afterwards." As compared with lean beef, which contains eighty-six grains of proteid food in an ounce, the flesh of the common fowl contains eighty grains.

In cases of wasting, bloodlessness, and great prostration of strength, the fresh blood of animals, such as fowls, mixed with warm wine, or milk, punch, warm lemonade, or coffee, and taken immediately, or before its coagulation ensues, proves highly useful. It relieves extreme weakness (as in a case of flooding), restores the bodily warmth, and circulation, acting better, and more promptly, it is said, than transfusion of human blood from vein to vein. The fresh blood of two or three chickens should be given thus in twenty-four hours, according to the authoritative advice of a leading medical text-book. But in refutation of this advice, Dr. R. Hutchison now enters his protest as follows: "Blood is a dilute fluid in animals, and man, having in every 100 parts from 78 to 82 of water. It is not of itself the food of the tissues to which it is circulated in the body, but merely the vehicle by means of which nourishment is carried from the intestines to the places where it is required in the body. One might as well expect a spoon to be of nutritive value because it conveys food from the plate to the mouth." Two French experimenters found that fresh blood when administered to dogs, even in the liberal allowance of two pounds daily, did not suffice to maintain the life of the animals for more than a month. Blood, in fact, from a chemical point of view, is not so much thicker than water after all; in its solids there is plenty of proteid (primary food), but the other nutritive constituents needed to sustain life, as fat, and sugar, starch, and glucose, are only in quite an inappreciable amount. Furthermore, the red colouring matter (hæmoglobin) which makes up the larger part of the proteid, is a substance which is very far from being completely absorbed. Thus it happens that though blood may be used dietetically without much harm, yet at the same time it will be without much benefit, as given in black puddings, and similar culinary preparations; this being true also of the use of animal blood for the sick as a source of iron.

Importance should be attached to the proper and wholesome feeding of fowls which are served for the invalid. They are affected healthfully, or otherwise, as to their quality of flesh, by the care exercised in feeding them, and the character of the fodder which is supplied to them. Recently a French experimentalist kept some domestic fowls in cages, exclusively on hashed meat (previously stripped of sinew, and fat), with as much water as they liked to drink. At first this diet seemed to suit well enough; but after some time (in from three to five months) the fowls began to show positive signs of gout; their legs became weak, and their gait uncertain; their joints were seen to be manifestly swollen, whilst on some days the birds remained lying down, and would not take any food. Attacks of this nature became more and more frequent, and finally the fowls grew thin, and died. Deposits of urates were found around the joints, as well as in the sheaths of the tendons; likewise some in the kidneys. A doctor in Paris ascertained that the administration to a hen of any medicament results in a similarly doctored egg, and he recommends the faculty of physicians to make a practical use of this discovery. It has naturally elicited scornfully humorous comment :- "In dealing with the modern egg Please pause e'er you begin it.

Inspect it carefully, I beg, There's something nauseous in it.

Be wary, scrutinize it well, Lest nasty drugs be present.

There's castor oil within the shell, Or things still more unpleasant."

It is noteworthy that the giblets of poultry exercise certain solvent properties on other foods, particularly by the gizzard, which in fowls secretes their gastric juice, whilst its lining membrane will coagulate milk, just as rennet does from the calf. Giblets as a combination include the gizzard, head, neck, heart, joints, and pinions of poultry, principally of geese, turkeys, and ducks. From the dried, and powdered lining of the fowl's gizzard, is prepared "ingluvin," a pepsin of specific use against the sickness of pregnant women, especially if taken shortly before food.

Various culinary methods of preparing poultry for the sick are detailed in Kitchen Physic, which it would be tedious to repeat. As a specially suitable dish for the convalescent before proceeding to red meat, boiled fowl, and chicken mould, are to be commended. For the former, put the chicken to boil for one and a quarter hours with just enough cold water to cover it; season with salt, and four or five sliced onions (unless forbidden), a bunch of herbs, and about a dozen peppercorns; simmer gently until tender; then make use of the liquor, boiling it down to the required quantity, with the onions in it for flavouring. For chicken mould, take a large chicken, one quart of cold water, pepper, and salt; skin the chicken, and put it into a saucepan with the water, and boil it the usual time; take it out, and cut pieces from the breast, and legs; put back the bones, etc., into the saucepan, and boil till the water is reduced to a pint; strain it, and add to the liquor the pieces of chicken cut off, minced finely, and pepper and salt to taste; let it stand until cold, and jellied, then turn it out. 66 "When The "Poule d'Inde," or fowl of India, cock, or hen, is our Turkey (Meleagris), the bubbly jock of Scotland, which originally came from America, having been first found wild there, and nowhere else. Turkeys do not hail from Turkey any more than Turkey corn, which also came first from America. In Paris this fowl has become known as a dindon, or "poulet d'Inde," though quite on an equal misconception of its origin. young," said Robert Lovell (1661), "it recovereth strength, nourisheth plentifully, kindleth lust, and agreeth with every temper, and complexion, except too hot, and troubled with rheumes, and gouts." "The flesh," wrote Dr. Salmon (1695), " is most excellent food, and of great nourishment; you may concoct broth, ale, or jelly of it against consumptions, for it restoreth strength plentifully, and agrees with all dispositions." Young Turkeys will not fatten unless they have free access to pebbles, many of which are found in their gizzards. This lordly fowl began to appear as a Christmas dish about 1585. Turkeys, hops, and carp" were introduced into England during the reign of Henry the Eighth. After the middle ages Turkeys were practically extinct in Europe; they were imported again in 1432 by a French trader who was master of the Mint, and director of Artillery in the service of Charles the Seventh of France. The story is told of a gourmand who, when recovering from an illness, was allowed by his doctor, in writing, as a simple dinner, "Une cuisse de poulet." But scarcely had the doctor taken his departure when the patient caught up the prescribed menu-card, and, cleverly imitating the physician's hand, added "d'Inde" after poulet. This order being duly carried out by the cook, the patient regaled himself on a big meal, and a laugh at the doctor's expense. The Turkey Cock goes by the popular names Gobble Cock, and Gobbler. Said Sam Weller (Pickwick) when getting into some trouble, “I'm pretty tough! that's vun consolation, as the wery old Turkey remarked ven the farmer said he wos afeer'd he should have to kill him for the London market." Alexis Soyer, the noted London chef, at the time of the Crimean War, invented a hundred-guinea dish, for producing which a hundred Turkeys had to be slaughtered, each of which furnished only the two dark pieces of solid flesh from the hips, called by the French "le sot l'y laisse.” Meleager, after whom the Turkey is named, was a king of Macedonia.