1/4 pint of cream.
_Mode_.--Truss a young fowl as for boiling; fill the inside with oysters
which have been bearded and washed in their own liquor; secure the ends
of the fowl, put it into a jar, and plunge the jar into a saucepan of
boiling water. Keep it boiling for 1-1/2 hour, or rather longer; then
take the gravy that has flowed from the oysters and fowl, of which there
will be a good quantity; stir in the cream and yolks of eggs, add a few
oysters scalded in their liquor; let the sauce get quite _hot_, but do
not allow it to _boil;_ pour some of it over the fowl, and the remainder
send to table in a tureen. A blade of pounded mace added to the sauce,
with the cream and eggs, will be found an improvement.
_Time_.--1-1/2 hour. Average cost, 4s. 6d.
_Sufficient_ for 3 or 4 persons.
_Seasonable_ from September to April.
THE FOWL-HOUSE.--In building a fowl-house, take care that it be,
if possible, built against a wall or fence that faces the
_south_, and thus insure its inmates against many cold winds,
driving rains, and sleets they will otherwise suffer. Let the
floor of the house slope half an inch to the foot from back to
front, so as to insure drainage; let it also be close, hard, and
perfectly smooth; so that it may be cleanly swept out. A capital
plan is to mix a few bushels of chalk and dry earth, spread it
over the floor, and pay a paviour's labourer a trifle to hammer
it level with his rammer. The fowl-house should be seven feet
high, and furnished with perches at least two feet apart. The
perches must be level, and not one above the other, or
unpleasant consequences may ensue to the undermost row. The
perches should be ledged (not fixed--just dropped into sockets,
that they may be easily taken out and cleaned) not lower than
five feet from the ground, convenient slips of wood being driven
into the wall, to render the ascent as easy as possible. The
front of the fowl-house should be latticed, taking care that the
interstices be not wide enough even to tempt a chick to crawl
through. Nesting-boxes, containing soft hay, and fitted against
the walls, so as to be easily reached by the perch-ladder,
should be supplied. It will be as well to keep by you a few
portable doors, so that you may hang one before the entrance to
a nesting-box, when the hen goes in to sit. This will prevent
other hens from intruding, a habit to which some are much
addicted.
FRICASSEED FOWL OR CHICKEN (an Entree).