POULTRY.
The term Poultry, includes all the domesticated birds reared for the
table--fowls, capons, turkeys, geese, ducks, and guinea fowl. Those
who live in the country and intend to rear fowls for the consumption
of their families, should have a poultry-yard, called by the French,
a _basse cour_. It should be well sheltered, with a warm aspect,
and sufficiently inclined to be always dry. It should also be supplied
with sand or ashes, and there should be also a supply of running water,
of which poultry are fond. A green patch of earth should be next to
the poultry-yard, to allow the fowls free exercise. Poultry are the
better for high feeding from the very shell, and on this account it
is advisable to give them the heaviest corn. Even young chickens may
be put for feeding as soon as the hen has ceased to regard them. When
chickens are wanted for domestic purposes, they should be left at
liberty in the farm-yard, and if they have plenty of food they will
be soon fit for the table, and rich and juicy in flavour. Nowhere do
you get these young and juicy chickens better than at the country inns
in Ireland and Scotland. As soon as fowls are sufficiently fat, they
should be killed, or they will lose flesh and become unhealthy. Turkeys
are more delicate to rear in their infancy than fowls, but they become
hardy as they grow older. When well-grown, turkeys supply themselves
in their ramblings, so that they require no food but at leaving their
homes in the morning, and returning at night. After six months, turkeys
may be crammed, as is practised with fowls; but they require a much
longer period to render them fully fat for the table. Guinea fowls are
in the season greatly prized at London dinner tables. The same food
appropriated to the young of gallinaceous fowls and turkeys, is good
for guinea chicks.
The white duck being the largest of the domesticated kind, is the best
for the poulterer, though it is not usually considered so delicate in
flavour as the dark coloured. The grand object of preparing poultry
of all kinds as speedily as possible for the table, is effected
by supplying them with dry, soft, and green food, by keeping them
thoroughly clean, and by affording them water and exercise ground.
Of the wholesomeness of poultry, as an article of diet, Lémery thus
speaks in his “Traité des Aliments:”--
“Their flesh is pectoral, easily digested, produces good juice, is very
nourishing, increases the spirits, moistens and cools, and is very
proper for macerated persons, that are recovering from sickness. Avicen
pretends, it makes the understanding more quick and lively, and that it
clears the voice.
“It agrees at all times, with any age and constitution: in the meantime
it is better for nice persons, and such as lead an idle life, than for
those who are strong, robust, and used to a violent exercise or hard
labour, seeing these last require more solid food, and that does not so
easily waste.”
“Some persons,” he goes on to say, “formerly were of opinion, that the
eating of hens, chickens, and capons, caused the gout; and perhaps
there were two things that gave occasion for this popular error. First,
these animals are subject to the same disease, and consequently may
impart it to those who feed upon them; but it would follow from hence,
that we must contract all the diseases of every animal we eat of, which
we find otherwise by experience. Secondly, they were inclined to this
opinion, from a consideration that those who lead an idle life, fare
high, and feed upon juicy and nice food, such as chickens and capons,
are more afflicted with the gout than others; but it is not because
these people live usually upon capons and chickens, that they are
subject to this distemper, but rather by reason of the idle life they
lead, and the excess they go to in all sorts of pleasures. In short,
if it were true that the eating of these fowls brought the gout upon
us, we should see nothing else but gouty persons everywhere; for we may
say, that there is now-a-days no food more common than poultry.”
Of capons, this famous doctor thus speaks:--
“Their flesh is very nourishing, it produces good juice, is
restorative, recovers decayed strength, good for the phthisic and
consumptions, easy of digestion; and they often make broth of it, in
order to fortify and recover strength. The flesh of a capon is in
virtue and taste much like unto that of a chicken; in the mean time,
that of a capon is more nourishing, pleasant and properer for people
used to fatigue than the other; and the reason is, because this same
flesh contains juices that are more concocted, digested, and fuller of
oily balsamic particles.”
When poultry is brought into the kitchen for use, it should be kept
as cool as possible. The best position in which to place it is with
the breast downwards, on a shelf or marble slab. The crop and the gut
of the rump should be taken out. Choose fowls with a thin transparent
skin, white and delicate. Pigeons full fledged, are heating and hard to
digest. The younger they are in general the better, and in Italy, where
pigeons are much used, they are always eaten young.
In choosing turkeys, select the brown Norfolk; but if you can find any
of the red American breed, the flavour is still finer.
I have said in another chapter that the finest fowl in the world is the
_poularde du Mans_, in the department of La Sarthe. Here is a true
description of the manner in which that fine flavour which they possess
is given to the bird:--
“It is to the feeding on barley, and to that only, that the fine
flavour of the _poularde du Mans_ and of _La Fleche_ is to be
traced. This is one of the joys and delights of a gourmand, and if you
have a little farm, or even a trifle of a garden, you can fatten your
own fowl. With a little care and time, you will have fowls and capons
of an exquisite flavour. Feed them with ground barley, mixed with
bran and milk, for some days, and then put them in a cage in a dark,
dry spot. Give them as much farinaceous barley and milk as they can
swallow. But mind, above and before all things, to separate the little
cocks from the hens. This is indispensable, and must be rigorously
observed. In a fortnight or three weeks your fowls will have acquired a
fine and delicate obesity. ‘Beware,’ said Brillat de Savarin, ‘of the
turkey poults of the neighbourhood of Paris. They have a bitterness
which revolts a delicate palate, for they are fed on stale crusts,
horse-chestnuts, and sour vegetables.’”
The ordinary barn-door fowl, for which so many of us are compelled to
pay 5_s._ 6_d._ in the month of May, at the West-end poulterers, is
thus remorselessly treated by a French gourmand, Berchoux, in his poem
“La Gastronomie,”--
“Proscrivez sans pitié ces poulets domestiques,
Nourris en votre cour et constamment étiques,
Toujours mal engraissés par des soins ignorants;
Ne connaissez que ceux de la Bresse ou du Mans.”
A fowl or chicken should be kept some time before it is cooked. If
cooked immediately on being killed, as is frequently the case at
country inns in Ireland and Scotland, even a young fowl is tough.
Horace’s method of rendering a fowl tender is well remembered by every
Etonian:--
“Si vespertinus subitò te oppresserit hospes,
Ne gallina malùm responset dura palato,
Doctus eris vivam musto mersare Falerno:
Hoc teneram faciet.”
“Poultry,” says M. Brillat Savarin, “is to the kitchen that which
canvas is to the painter, or Fortunatus’ wishing cap to the charlatan.
Poultry may be served boiled, roasted, fried, hot or cold, whole or in
parts, with or without sauce, boned or unboned, devilled, grilled, or
farced, and always with equal success.” To my thinking, the best fowls
in France are those “du Mans,” in the department of La Sarthe; but M.
Brillat Savarin holds those of Caux in Normandy, and de la Bresse,
to be equally good. The _poularde_ of Montalbanois en Quercy is
excellent.
For ages roast poultry has been a favourite dish in England.
Shakespeare, who knew every thing, from heaven-born philosophy down
to humblest household affairs, puts into the mouth of Justice Shallow
directions for a dinner, which might be eaten with relish now-a-days.
“Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens (the true criterion
of goodness), a joint of mutton, and any pretty, little tiny
kickshaws.” A capon in his day was as much relished as now, and the
cost, according to the papers found in the pocket of Falstaff, was, a
capon 2_s._ 2_d._, sauce 4_d._, sack, two gallons, 5_s._ 8_d._, bread,
a halfpenny.
Our roasting of poultry, though not so excellent as our roasting of
beef and mutton, is yet very good, and unless a host be sure of his
cook, he had better order for his guest a roast capon, a roast fowl,
or a roast or boiled turkey. The turkey, either roast or boiled is
excellent, and the same remark applies to fowl. If served boiled,
nothing is better than good celery sauce, either with fowl or turkey.
There are scores of ways of serving a _poularde_ in France. There is
the _poularde rôtie_, the _poularde au gros sel_, the _poularde à la
bourgeoise_, the _poularde à la Montmorency_, _à la Marseillaise_, _à
la Tartare_, _au suprême_, invented by Beauvilliers, and _à la Grimod
de la Reynière_.
There are also various _entrées_ of fowl and chicken, such as _poulets
à la reine_, _à la regence_, _à la Montmorency_, _à l’ivoire_; and
various _fricassées_, as, _à la chevalière_, _à la Saint Lambert_,
_à la financière_, _à la Bourguinonne_, _à la Villeroi_, and _tutti
quanti_; but it is necessary to say, that to produce these _entrées_,
or the _filets de poulet à la royale_, or _cotellettes de cuisses de
poulets à la perigueux_, or _à suprême de volaille_, one must have an
accomplished cook.
The sooner we multiply schools of cookery for _entrées_ and
_entremets_, the better. There are a couple or three existing already,
I believe: one in Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square; one in Charles
Street, Middlesex Hospital; and one in Berners Street, Oxford Street.
But there ought to be twenty times as many. Nothing is so difficult to
obtain as a good cook, and yet higher wages are paid to male and female
cooks than to any other class of servants.
There is an immense consumption of turkeys at Paris, at Christmas time,
and a much larger consumption in London. In the days of stages, the
Norfolk coaches were stowed with turkeys from the middle of December to
Twelfth-day; and in our day the goods traffic on the Norfolk Railway is
more than trebled during Christmas. In the “Physiologie du Goût,” of
Brillat Savarin, under the head “Influence financière du Dindon,” is
the following remark:--
“I have some reason to think, that from the commencement of November to
the end of February, 300 truffled turkeys are daily consumed in Paris,
making a total of 36,000 turkeys. Calculate the value of these.”
The English have yet to learn the general use of the truffle with the
turkey. A rich bourgeois of Paris will go to the expense of from 60
to 75 francs for a first-rate turkey for his _rôti_, and will
afterwards disburse from 70 to 100 francs in truffles to season the
bird. We have no idea of this expenditure in England, nor do our higher
and better classes use or consume truffles as they ought to be used.
Chaptal, who was one of Napoleon’s Ministers of the Interior in France,
published a work, “Sur l’Industrie Française,” in 1819. In it he speaks
of the enormous quantities of fowls in France:--
“In order to have an idea (says the Comte de Chaptal) of the enormous
quantity of fowls of all species which exists in France, it will
suffice to observe, that there are annually sold at the markets of
Toulouse 120,000 geese, which are fattened in the neighbourhood; and
M. Lavoisier has estimated the number of eggs consumed at Paris, on
an average of several years, at 78,000,000, and the number of fowls
at 39,000,000. Supposing the price of each to be a franc, including
the cocks, this would give a capital of 41,600,000 francs. If to this
be added the value of hens and cocks, of turkeys, geese, ducks, and
pigeons renewed almost every year, the amount may be augmented by
10,000,000; so that the capital for fowls of all species amounts to
51,600,000 francs.”
Some exquisites and Muscadins of the second Empire maintain that there
is nothing “si Chaussée d’Antin,” nothing “si lourdement bourgeois” as
a _dinde aux truffes_, as a _plat de rôt_. Let these coxcombs rail on.
The _dinde aux truffes_, as a Christmas Parisian dish, will survive
them and the false gods of their idolatry. Of the turkey, Nonius says,
“Egre giè alunt et bonum succum corpori suppeditant.”[17]
Some writers, such as Athenæus, Ælian, and Aristotle, would have us
believe that turkeys were known to the ancients under the name of
Meleagrides, but this is a mistake. It is a nice question when turkeys
first appeared in France, and who first introduced them. La Mare, in
his “Traité de la Police,” would have it that it was Jaques Cœur, the
treasurer of Charles VII.; but this is also an error. According to
Champier, who wrote his treatise “De Re Cibariâ,” in 1560, they were
only introduced into France a few years before he wrote. Here are his
words:--“Venere in Gallias, annos abhinc paucos, aves quædam externæ,
quas gallinas indicas appellant: credo quoniam ex Insulis Indiæ nuper
à Lusitanis Hispanisque palefactæ, primum invectæ fuerunt in urbem
nostrum.”
In the French poets of the thirteenth century, and in authors still
more ancient, there is frequent mention of capons. Madame de Sevigné
speaks of the “poulardes de Cân,” and of the “bonnes poulardes de
Rennes.”
In Regnard’s “Comedy du Bal,” A.D. 1696, the author speaks in praise
of “les poulardes de Caux.” Long--nearly a century--antecedent to
this, our own Shakespeare, had used the word “capon” again and again;
and again Le Grand d’Aussy contends that the Gauls learned the art
of fattening and cramming fowls from the Romans. Crammed fowls were
from early times more esteemed in France than any others. Among the
officers of the Royal household in France in early times, was a crammer
of fowls. An ordonnance of St. Louis dated in 1261, more than six
centuries ago, gives to this officer the name of _poulailler_.
Our neighbours on the other side of the Straits of Dover are not
only very fond of fowls and capons, but of much smaller birds. They
eat thrushes, blackbirds, and robin red-breasts. Dr. Roques, in his
“Fragments sur les Plantes usuelles,” thus speaks of this liking for
smaller birds:--
“The taste for blackbirds and thrushes has passed from the ancients
to the moderns. These birds are much esteemed in Germany, and in
our southern provinces. The blackbirds of Corsica and Provence
are renowned, above all renowned as they feed on myrtle and
juniper-berries. Cardinal Fesch, archbishop of Lyons, had a supply
every year from Corsica. One dined at the house of his eminence partly
because of his agreeable manners, partly for the noble and gracious
reception he gave you, but, also, for his blackbirds, which were of
exquisite flavour. More than one Lyonnese gourmand impatiently waited
for the archiepiscopal clock to strike six. Then it was that these
delicate little birds appeared upon the table, their delicious perfume
charming all the guests. Their appearance, their seductive _tournure_,
were also admired. Their backs were garnished with a small bouquet
of fried sage, in some sort imitating the tail with which they were
furnished when they poured forth their notes from the elm and hawthorn.
‘But what,’ the reader will exclaim, ‘you do not speak of the fine
oil in which these beautiful birds were baked, nor of the agreeable
_rôtis_, whose bitterness strengthened your stomach, while it perfumed
your mouth?’ You are right, judicious reader.”
Although the poulterers in London truss all the different animals which
they send home, yet, as it often happens, that untrussed game and
poultry are sent to private families from the country, it is necessary
that the art of trussing should be known by every cook.
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