General Directions for Trussing

Appears in

#99Modern Cookery for Private Families
Modern Cookery for Private Families

By Eliza Acton

Published 1845

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Before a bird is trussed, the skin must be entirely freed from any down which may be on it, and from all the stubble-ends of the feathers;* the hair also must be singed from it with lighted writing paper, care being taken not to smoke nor blacken it in the operation. Directions for cleansing the insides of birds after they are drawn, are given in the receipts for dressing them, Chapters XIV. and XV.

Turkeys, geese, ducks, wild or tame, fowls, and pigeons, should all have the necks taken off close to the bodies, but not the skin of the necks, which should be left sufficiently long to turn down upon the backs for a couple of inches or more, where it must be secured, either with a needle and coarse soft cotton, or by the pinions of the birds when trussed.