Poultry

It has become much more difficult to get a good chicken or duck than any other bird, and this is in a sense a paradox, since chickens in particular are cheaper and more plentiful than they have ever been. Quality, however, has been lost in quantity, and battery-reared birds have neither the same flavour nor the same consistency as those which have run about. It is interesting that in the sixteenth century chickens were fattened in closed sheds, being fed with a com mash made with milk and raisins which were sometimes soaked in brandy: a candle was kept burning all night to keep them awake and pecking. However, these birds had run free until they were due to be fattened (which took about three weeks), and it seems likely that the Elizabethans preferred them with more actual soft fat than we do today. A good frozen free-range bird is much better than a fresh battery-reared bird, and a fresh free-range bird is better than either. In general, apart from small spring chickens (poussins), the bigger the bird, as long as it is young enough to roast, the better its flesh is likely to be. Boiling fowls are generally good if given long slow cooking. It is the 1½ to 2½ lb. roasting chicken or duckling that is so often dry and disappointing with flesh that falls naturally into strings however carefully you cook it.