GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR TRUSSING.
Before a bird is trussed, the skin must be entirely freed from any down which may be on it, and from all the stubble-ends of the feathers;[[3]] the hair also must be singed from it with lighted writing paper, care being taken not to smoke nor blacken it in the operation. Directions for cleansing the insides of birds after they are drawn, are given in the receipts for dressing them, Chapters XIV. and XV. Turkeys, geese, ducks, wild or tame, fowls, and pigeons, should all have the necks taken off close to the bodies, but not the skin of the necks, which should be left sufficiently long to turn down upon the backs for a couple of inches or more, where it must be secured, either with a needle and coarse soft cotton, or by the pinions of the birds when trussed.
[3]. This should be particularly attended to.
For boiling, all poultry or other birds must have the feet drawn off at the first joint of the leg, or as shown in the engraving. (In the latter case, the sinews of the joint must be slightly cut, when the bone may be easily turned back as here.) The skin must then be loosened with the finger entirely from the legs, which must be pushed back into the body, and the small ends tucked quite under the apron, so as to be entirely out of sight.
The wings of chickens, fowls, turkeys, and pigeons, are left on entire, whether for roasting or boiling. From geese, ducks, pheasants, partridges, black game, moor-fowl, woodcocks, snipes, wild-fowl of all kinds, and all small birds, the first two joints are taken off, leaving but one joint on, thus:—
The feet are left on ducks, and those of tame ones are trussed as will be seen at page [278], and upon roast fowls, pheasants, black and moor-game, pigeons, woodcocks, and snipes. The thick coarse skin of the legs of these must be stripped, or rubbed off with a hard cloth after they have been held in boiling water, or over a clear fire for a few minutes. The sharp talons must be pulled out, and the nails clipped. The toes of the pigeons for roasting should be cut off.
Geese, sucking-pigs, hares, and rabbits have the feet taken off at the first joint.
The livers and gizzards are served in the wings of roast turkeys and fowls only.
The heads are still commonly left on pheasants, partridges, and black game and moor-game; but the fashion is declining. Of this we shall speak more particularly in the ensuing chapter.
Poultry and birds in general, except perhaps quite the larger kinds, are more easily trussed into plump handsome form with twine and needles proper to the purpose (for which see page [1]), than with skewers. The manner in which the legs and wings are confined is much the same for all; the principal difference being in the arrangement of the former for boiling, which has already been explained.
There is a present mode of trussing very large fowls for boiling or stewing which to our taste is more novel than attractive. The feet are left on, and after the skin has been loosened from them in every part, the legs are thrust entirely into the body by means of a slight incision made in the skin just above the first joint on the underside, the feet then appear almost as if growing out of the sides of the breast: the effect of this is not pleasing.