As Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, are fast approaching, when
the demand for poultry is at its greatest height, and the quality of
it is more curiously considered than at other seasons of the year, in
order to obtain something choice for the festive days, we have thought
a few words upon the fattening and preparation of it for market might
now very appropriately be given, and perhaps interest our readers more
than at another time.
The fowls being in good condition a fortnight to one month previous to
the time they are wanted for killing, shut them up in a roomy, dry,
well-ventilated, and warm building, with either a ground, stone, or
plank floor, as is most convenient. This should be cleaned every day,
and straw several inches thick spread over a part of it, especially
where geese and ducks are shut up, for the purpose of giving them
good beds to sit in. As often as the litter gets soiled, remove it,
and put clean straw in its place. A constant supply of food and water
should now be kept before them, allowing the fowls to eat and drink as
often and as much as they please. Gravel is indispensable for their
health, and charcoal, together with a little lime or ground bones, is
beneficial. Fowls fat better when they can get at their food as often
as they please, and are not so apt to gorge themselves and become
surfeited.
For feed we prefer corn mostly; a little wheat, rye, or barley, is
also very well as a change; oats have rather too much husk about
them. In addition to these, boiled potatoes, sweet apples, pumpkins,
and sugar beet, are excellent food, especially when mixed with a due
proportion of mush or hasty pudding. Where sweet potatoes abound, they
are an excellent substitute for the last. To the above, add daily a
little lean meat, that which is cooked is preferred; and the last
week of their fattening, for a finishing process, rice boiled in milk
and sweetened with molasses, is very excellent. This may be called an
expensive method; but our readers may be assured that the fowls will be
enough better to pay for it. Meat derives much of its taste from the
kind and quality of food that the animals consume; hence gross, fatty
substances, fish, or anything that is disagreeable to the taste should
be avoided in the food given to fowls during the fattening process,
as these invariably impart more or less of their disagreeable flavor
to the flesh of the poultry fed upon them. It is well known that the
celebrated canvass-back duck derives its delicacy of taste from feeding
on the bulbous roots of a peculiar grass growing in the Chesapeake
bay, and that other kinds of ducks are scarcely eatable, in consequence
of their living almost entirely upon fish. These remarks will hold good
to most kinds of birds, both of the water and land, and, indeed, of
all animals; accordingly as their food is good or bad, so will be the
quality of the milk, meat, or eggs.
We recollect when a boy, of having occasionally seen geese and ducks
nailed through the webs of their feet to planks and floors, and hens
and turkeys tied up and so closely confined to stakes, that they could
not exercise. This was done so that they might fat the faster! How
shockingly barbarous, and any one guilty of such a practice in these
days, ought to be indicted, and severely punished for their cruelty and
cupidity. We are totally opposed to the close confinement of beast or
bird. Without exercise, the system can not be in a healthy state; and
the meat of close confined animals is never as good, to say the least
of it, as when they have plenty of fresh air, and are allowed to move
moderately about.
The best method of killing fowls, is to cut their heads off at a single
blow with a sharp axe, and then hang them up and allow them to bleed
freely. By this process they never know what hurts them, or endure pain
for a second. Wringing the necks of poultry is almost as shocking as
nailing their feet to planks for the purpose of fattening them, and
follows in the same barbarous category.
Scalding the fowl previous to picking, injures the feathers, and
makes it troublesome to dry them, and we think the quality of flesh
is somewhat injured by this process, especially if the weather be not
pretty cold at the time. They should be picked as soon as possible
after being killed, and their offal taken from them; be clean rinsed
then in cold water, and hung up to dry, and kept as separate as
possible till sold; packing them together in heaps injures the flesh.
To be hung up and frozen for a few days, or even weeks before eating,
makes the flesh more tender. To keep them the same length of time after
roasting, especially if well stuffed, also adds to their delicacy of
taste and tenderness.
When the bird is brought on to the table, it is perfectly shocking to
see its head, legs, and feet, left upon it, though we know in many
places this is fashionable, and considered highly genteel; but for
our own part we detest such offal, and the sight of them frequently
destroys our appetite for the time being. The process of carving also
at the table is a dead bore. We like the French fashion of cutting up
the bird in the kitchen or at a side table, and having it passed round
on the dish, every one then helping himself to such pieces as he likes
best.