Carving and Serving

by Mary J. Lincoln

CORNED BEEF.

Corned beef should be put while hot into a pan or mould, in layers of fat and lean, with the fibres running the long way of the pan. After pressing it, place it on the platter and slice thinly from one end. This gives uniform slices, cut across the grain, each one having a fair proportion of fat and lean.

CHARTREUSE, OR PRESSED MEAT.

Any moulds of meat, either plain or in jelly or rice, should be cut from one end, or in the middle and toward either end, in uniform slices, the thickness varying with the kind of meat. Be careful not to break them in serving. If only a part of a slice be desired, divide it neatly. Help also to the rice or jelly.

TO CUT UP A CHICKEN FOR A STEW OR FRICASSEE.

Nothing is more unsightly and unappetizing than a portion of chicken with the bones chopped at all sorts of angles, and with splinters of bone in the meat. All bones will separate easily at the joint when the cord or tendon and gristly portion connecting them have been cut.

After the chicken has been singed and wiped, and the crop removed from the end of the neck, place it in front of you with the breast up and the neck at the left. With a small sharp knife make an incision in the thin skin between the inside of the legs and the body. Cut through the skin only, down toward the right side of the leg, and then on the left. Bend the leg over toward you, and you will see where the flesh joins the body and also where the joint is, for the bone will move in the joint. Cut through the flesh close to the body, first on the right of the joint and then on the left, and as you bend the leg over, cut the cord and gristle in the joint, and this will free the leg from the body. Find the joint in the leg and divide it neatly. Work the wing until you see where the joint is, then cut through the flesh on the shoulder, bend the wing up and cut down through the gristle and cord. Make a straight clean cut, leaving no jagged edges. Divide the wing in the joint, and then remove the leg and wing from the opposite side, and divide in the same way. Make an incision in the skin near the vent, cut through the membrane lying between the breast and the tail down to the backbone on each side, remove the entrails, and break off the backbone just below the ribs. Separate the side-bones from the back by cutting close to the backbone from one end to the other on each side. This is a little difficult to do; and in your first experiment it would be better not to divide it until after boiling it, as it separates more easily after the connecting gristle has been softened by cooking. Take off the neck close to the back by cutting through the flesh and twisting or wringing it until the bone is disjointed.

Cut off the wish-bone in a slanting direction from the front of the breast-bone down to the shoulder on each side. Cut through the cartilage between the end of the collar-bone and the breast. Cut between the end of the shoulder-blade and the back down toward the wing-joint, turn the blade over toward the neck, and cut through the joint.

This joint in the wing, collar-bone, and shoulder-blade is the hardest to separate. Remove the breast from the back by cutting through the cartilage connecting the ribs; this can be seen from the inside. The breast should be left whole and the bone removed after stewing; but if the chicken is to be fried you may remove the bone first.

It is not necessary in boiling a chicken to divide it so minutely, for the wings and legs can be disjointed, and the side-bones and breast separated from the back more easily after cooking; but it is valuable practice, and if one learns to do it neatly it will help in carving a boiled fowl or roast turkey.