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Classic
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page 272
the pans be set in water, that no sourness may be conveyed to the fowls, as that
prevents them from fattening. Give them clean water, or the milk of the rice, to
drink; but the less wet the latter is when perfectly soaked, the better. By this
method the flesh will have a clear whiteness which no other food gives; and when
it is considered how far a pound of rice will go, and how much time is saved by
this mode, it will be found to be as cheap as barley-meal, or more so. The pen
should be daily cleaned, and no food given for sixteen hours before poultry be
killed.
To choose Eggs at Market, and preserve them.
Put the large end of the egg to your tongue; if it feels warm it is new. In
new-laid eggs, there is a small division of the skin from the shell, which is
filled with air, and is perceptible to the eye at the end. On looking through
them against the sun or a candle, if fresh, eggs will be pretty clear. If they
shake they are not fresh.
Eggs may be bought cheapest when the hens first begin to lay in the spring,
before they sit; in Lent and at Easter they become dear. They may be preserved
fresh by dipping them in boiling water and instantly taking them out, or by
oiling the shell; either of which ways is to prevent the air passing through it:
or kept on shelves with small holes to receive one in each, and be turned every
other day; or close-packed in a keg, and covered with strong lime-water.
Feathers.
In towns, poultry being usually sold ready picked, the feathers, which may
occasionally come in in small quantities, are neglected; but orders should be
given to put them into a tub free from damp, and as they dry to change them into
paper bags, a few in each; they should hang in a dry kitchen to season; fresh
ones must not be added to those in part dried, or they will occasion a musty
smell, but they should go through the same process. In a few months they will be
fit to add to beds, or to make pillows, without the usual mode of drying them in
a cool
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