Modern cookery for private families

with them. BOILED FOWLS. [Illustration: Fowl for boiling. ] White-legged poultry should always be selected for boiling as it is of better colour when dressed than any other. Truss the fowls firmly and neatly, with the legs drawn into the bodies, and the wings twisted over the backs; let them be well covered with water, which should be hot, but not boiling when they are put in. A full-sized fowl will require about three quarters of an hour from the time of its beginning to simmer; but young chickens not more than from twenty to twenty-five minutes: they should be _very gently_ boiled, and the scum should be removed with great care as it gathers on the surface of the water. Either of the following sauces may be sent to table with them: parsley and butter, _béchamel_, English white sauce, oyster, celery, or white-mushroom sauce. The fowls are often dished with small tufts of delicately boiled cauliflower placed round them; or with young vegetable marrow scarcely larger than an egg, merely pared and halved after it is dressed: white sauce must be served with both of these. The livers and gizzards are not, at the present day, ever served in the wings of boiled fowls. The livers may be simmered for four or five minutes, then pressed to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon, and mixed very gradually with the sauce, which should not boil after they are added. Full-sized fowl, 3/4 hour: young chickens, 20 to 25 minutes. _Obs._—Rather less than half a gallon of cold added to an equal quantity of boiling water, will bring it to the proper degree of heat for putting in the fowls, or the same directions may be observed for them as those given for a boiled turkey. For richer modes of boiling poultry, see _Blanc_ and _Poêlée_, Chapter IX. TO BROIL A CHICKEN OR FOWL. Either of these, when merely split and broiled, is very dry and unsavoury eating; but will be greatly improved if first boiled gently from five to ten minutes and left to become cold, then divided, dipped