Chickens or fowls should be killed at least one or two days before they are to be dressed.
Turkeys (especially large ones) should not be dressed till they have been killed three or four days at least, in cold weather six or eight, or they will neither look white nor eat tender.[120-*]
Turkeys, and large fowls, should have the strings or sinews of the thighs drawn out.
Truss them with the legs outward, they are much easier carved.
Fowls for boiling should be chosen as white as possible; if their complexion is not so fair as you wish, veil them in [No. 2 of No. 364]; those which have black legs should be roasted. The best use of the liver is to make sauce ([No. 287]).
Poultry must be well washed in warm water; if very dirty from the singeing, &c. rub them with a little white soap; but thoroughly rinse it off, before you put them into the pot.
Make a good and clear fire; set on a clean pot, with pure and clean water, enough to well cover the turkey, &c.; the slower it boils, the whiter and plumper it will be. When there rises any scum, remove it; the common method of some (who are more nice than wise) is to wrap them up in a cloth, to prevent the scum attaching to them; which, if it does, by your neglecting to skim the pot, there is no getting it off afterward, and the poulterer is blamed for the fault of the cook.
If there be water enough, and it is attentively skimmed, the fowl will both look and eat much better this way than when it has been covered up in the cleanest cloth, and the colour and flavour of your poultry will be preserved in the most delicate perfection.
Obs. Turkey deserves to be accompanied by tongue ([No. 15]), or ham ([No. 14]); if these are not come-at-able, don’t forget pickled pork ([No. 11]), or bacon and greens (Nos. [83], [526], and [527]), or pork sausages ([No. 87]), parsley and butter ([No. 261]); don’t pour it over, but send it up in a boat; liver ([No. 287]), egg ([No. 267]), or oyster sauce ([No. 278]). To warm cold turkey, &c. see [No. 533], and following.
To grill the gizzard and rump, [No. 538]. Save a quart of the liquor the turkey was boiled in; this, with the bones and trimmings, &c. will make good gravy for a hash, &c.