Take out the inwards and wash both the inside and outside of the turkey. Prepare a dressing of either boiled potatoes mashed fine or bread soaked in cold water, the water should be squeezed out of the bread, mash it fine, add a small piece of butter or pork chopped fine, put in pepper, salt, and sweet herbs if you like them, an egg mixed with the dressing makes it cut smoother.
Fill the crop and body of the turkey with the dressing, sew it up, tie up the legs and wings rub on a little salt and butter. Roast it from two to three hours according to the size; twenty five minutes for every pound is a good rule. A turkey should be roasted slowly at first and basted frequently, the inwards of a turkey should be boiled till tender, and the liquor they are boiled in, used for the gravy, when you have taken up the inwards, mix a little flour and water smoothly together, and stir it into the skillet, put in a little of the drippings of the turkey, season it with salt and pepper, and sweet herbs if you like. Drawn butter is used for boiled turkey. A turkey for boiling should be dressed like one for roasting, tie it up in a cloth unless you boil rice in the pot with it, if you use rice, put in a tea cup two thirds full, a small piece of pork boiled with the turkey, improves it. If you wish to make a soup of the liquor in which the turkey is boiled, let it stand till the next day and then skim off the fat.
[18.] Goose.
If a goose is tender under the wing, and you can break the skin easily by running the head of a pin across the breast, there is no danger of its being tough. A goose should be dressed in the same manner, and roasted the same length of time, as a turkey.
[19.] Chickens.
Chickens for roasting or boiling, should have a dressing prepared like that for turkies. Half a tea cup full of rice boiled with the chickens, makes them look white, they will be less liable to break if the water is cold when they are put in to boil, a little pork boiled with the chickens improves them, if you do not boil any pork with them, put in a little salt. Chickens for broiling should be split, the inwards taken out, and the chicken washed inside and out, put the bony side down on the gridiron, and broil it very slowly till brown then turn it, when done take it up, salt, and butter it. About forty minutes is required to broil a common sized chicken. For roast chicken, boil the liver and gizzard by themselves and use the water for gravy, cut the inwards in slices, and put them in.
[20.] Fricassee Chickens.
The chickens should be jointed, the inwards taken out, and the chickens washed, put them in a stew pan with the skin side down, on each layer sprinkle salt and pepper; put in three or four slices of pork, just cover them with water, and let them stew slowly till tender. Then take them up, mix a tea spoonful of flour smoothly, with a little water, and stir it into the gravy, add a piece of butter of the size of a hen's egg, put the chickens back into the stew pan, let them stew slowly for four or five minutes. When you have taken up the chickens, put two or three slices of toast into the gravy, and when soaked soft lay it in a platter and lay the chickens on top, and turn the gravy upon it. If you wish to brown the chickens, reserve the pork and fry it by itself, when brown take it up and put in the chickens, (when they are stewed tender,) and let them fry till of a light brown.