with a clean cloth, but do not wash it. Take off the head, cut through
the skin all round the first joint of the legs, and pull them from the
fowl, to draw out the large tendons. Raise the flesh first from the
lower part of the backbone, and a little also from the end of the
breastbone, if necessary; work the knife gradually to the socket of the
thigh; with the point of the knife detach the joint from it, take the
end of the bone firmly in the fingers, and cut the flesh clean from it
down to the next joint, round which pass the point of the knife
carefully, and when the skin is loosened from it in every part, cut
round the next bone, keeping; the edge of the knife close to it, until
the whole of the leg is done. Remove the bones of the other leg in the
same manner; then detach the flesh from the back--and breast-bone
sufficiently to enable you to reach the upper joints of the wings;
proceed with these as with the legs, but be especially careful not to
pierce the skin of the second joint: it is usual to leave the pinions
unboned, in order to give more easily its natural form to the fowl when
it is dressed. The merrythought and neck-bones may now easily be cut
away, the back-and side-bones taken out without being divided, and the
breastbone separated carefully from the flesh (which, as the work
progresses, must be turned back from the bones upon the fowl, until it
is completely inside out). After the one remaining bone is removed, draw
the wings and legs back to their proper form, and turn the fowl right
side outwards.