Carving and Serving | Page 8

chicken
with the bones chopped at all sorts of angles, and with splinters of bone
in the meat. All bones will separate easily at the joint when the cord or
tendon and gristly portion connecting them have been cut.
After the chicken has been singed and wiped, and the crop removed
from the end of the neck, place it in front of you with the breast up and
the neck at the left. With a small sharp knife make an incision in the
thin skin between the inside of the legs and the body. Cut through the
skin only, down toward the right side of the leg, and then on the left.
Bend the leg over toward you, and you will see where the flesh joins
the body and also where the joint is, for the bone will move in the joint.
Cut through the flesh close to the body, first on the right of the joint
and then on the left, and as you bend the leg over, cut the cord and
gristle in the joint, and this will free the leg from the body. Find the
joint in the leg and divide it neatly. Work the wing until you see where
the joint is, then cut through the flesh on the shoulder, bend the wing up
and cut down through the gristle and cord. Make a straight clean cut,
leaving no jagged edges. Divide the wing in the joint, and then remove
the leg and wing from the opposite side, and divide in the same way.
Make an incision in the skin near the vent, cut through the membrane
lying between the breast and the tail down to the backbone on each side,
remove the entrails, and break off the backbone just below the ribs.
Separate the side-bones from the back by cutting close to the backbone
from one end to the other on each side. This is a little difficult to do;
and in your first experiment it would be better not to divide it until after
boiling it, as it separates more easily after the connecting gristle has
been softened by cooking. Take off the neck close to the back by
cutting through the flesh and twisting or wringing it until the bone is

disjointed.
Cut off the wish-bone in a slanting direction from the front of the
breast-bone down to the shoulder on each side. Cut through the
cartilage between the end of the collar-bone and the breast. Cut
between the end of the shoulder-blade and the back down toward the
wing-joint, turn the blade over toward the neck, and cut through the
joint.
This joint in the wing, collar-bone, and shoulder-blade is the hardest to
separate. Remove the breast from the back by cutting through the
cartilage connecting the ribs; this can be seen from the inside. The
breast should be left whole and the bone removed after stewing; but if
the chicken is to be fried you may remove the bone first.
It is not necessary in boiling a chicken to divide it so minutely, for the
wings and legs can be disjointed, and the side-bones and breast
separated from the back more easily after cooking; but it is valuable
practice, and if one learns to do it neatly it will help in carving a boiled
fowl or roast turkey.
In arranging a fricasseed chicken on the platter, put the neck and ribs at
the left end of the dish and the backbone at the right end. Put the breast
over the ribs, arrange the wings on each side of the breast, the second
joints next to the side-bones, and cross the ends of the drumsticks over
the tail.
BOILED FOWL OR TURKEY.
Fowls or turkeys for boiling should be trussed with the ends of the legs
drawn into the body through a slit in the skin, and kept in place with a
small skewer. Turn the tip of the wing over on the back. Cut off the
neck, not the skin, close to the body, and after putting in the stuffing,
fasten the skin of the neck to the back. Put strips of cloth round it, or
pin it in a cloth, to keep it white and preserve the shape.
In carving, place it on the platter with the head at the left. Put the fork
in firmly across the breast-bone. With the point of the knife cut through

the skin near the tail, and lift the legs out from the inside. Then cut
through the skin between the legs and body, bend the leg over, and cut
across through the joint. Cut from the top of the shoulder down toward
the body until the wing-joint is exposed, then cut through this,
separating the wing from the body. Remove the leg and wing from