How to make the ordinary Cock-bread.
Some fancy that the common Bakers Bread is as good as any: Others will tell you that there must be some Bean, or Pease Meal put amongst it, and a few Anniseeds, with the Whites of Eggs; and this is the best Cock-bread say they.
Another Receipt for to make Cock-bread.
But there are others will tell you, that you must take of Wheat, Pease, Beans, and Oates, of each a like quantity in Meal, or Flower finely dressed, with the Juice of Liquorish, and a little Sack, or strong Stale-Beer, with Brown Sugar-candy, Anniseeds, Carroway-seeds, mixed together: But if the Season be very hot, you must put White-Wine instead of Sack, and as much common Ale as will make the Flower up into Dough, with the Whites of ten or twenty Eggs, and a Yolk or two amongst them; and this they take to be the best sort of Bread for to Feed Cocks withall.
How to make the best sort of Cock-bread.
But in my opinion there is yet a better sort than any of these, and I make it thus, viz. of the best and finest Wheat-meal, I take three-quarters of a Peck, and one quarter of Oat-meal of the purest sort, and first of all mix these well together; then add the Whites of twenty new laid Eggs, four Yolks, an Ounce of the best extract of Liquorish, and as much of the fine Powder of brown Sugar-candy, a quarter of an Ounce of Anniseeds, and Carroway-seeds grossly bruised, with a Lump of good sweet Butter as big as your fist at least, and a quarter of a Pint or more of the best White-Wine that can be bought for Mony, with three or four spoonfulls of Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers put into it, and a Date or two, with some Candyed Eringo Roots cut very small so that it may be scattered into every part, and let these Ingredients be all well worked together, in some Tub, or Pan fit for that purpose, with your hands, until you are Satisfied that they are thoroughly incorporated.
Then take Wood-sorrel, Ground-Ivy, Featherfew, Dandelion, and Burrage, of each a like quantity, and distill them in a cold Still, and add three or four Spoonfuls of the pure Juice of Lemmons to every Pint of distilled Water; And add as much of this Julip as will serve to make all into a good stiff Past; let this be wrought quick, and made into little flat Loaves, which ought to be a day or two old before you spend them, and then being well rasped, or pared, so that none of the burned or brown outside remain, they may then be cut and given to the Cocks, as aforesaid.
And this I take to be the best and fittest sort of Bread for English Cocks, it being a Food that does greatly strengthen and exhillate them, and at the same time cools, and keeps them Temperate in their Bodies, provided you have regard to the Season; for in Hot Weather, or where the Climate is more than ordinary hot, there must be more of the cooling Ingredients added; and fewer, or a less quantity of those that are hot in Nature.
Of other Food used by some for Game-Cocks.
