Boiled Fowls
Take a fine plump pair of young (but full-grown) fowls, and prepare them for boiling. Those with white or light yellow legs are considered the best. Make a nice forcemeat stuffing, and fill their bodies with it, and fasten the livers and gizzards under the pinions. For boiled poultry they are not wanted in the gravy. Having trussed the fowls, and picked and singed them carefully, put them into a large pot containing equal quantities of boiling water and cold water. This will make it lukewarm. Let them boil steadily for an hour after the simmering has commenced, carefully removing the scum.
Serve them up with egg sauce, celery sauce, parsley sauce, or oyster sauce—or, with cauliflower or broccoli sauce.
For boiled fowls, you may make a nice stuffing of fresh oysters, cut in small pieces, but not minced. Omit the gristle. Mix them with an equal portion of hard-boiled eggs chopped, but not minced fine. Add plenty of grated bread-crumbs, and season with powdered mace. Mix in, also, some bits of fresh butter. Where onions are liked, you may substitute for the oysters some onions boiled and minced.
Fowls boil very nicely in a bain marie, or double kettle, with the water outside. They require a longer time, but are excellent when done. To quicken the boiling of a double kettle, put a handful of salt in the outside water.
Small chickens, of course, require a shorter time to cook.