No. 16. A Boiled Fowl

The boiled fowl of plate 6 is represented as garnished with branches of parsley, which is an error, as they would be appropriate to it only if it were cold, and it is seldom served so, being considered insipid. Small tufts of cauliflower would have been in better keeping with it, as the bird is supposed to be dished for the dinner-table. Unless it be for large family parties, fowls are seldom carved there entirely into joints; but when it is wished to divide them so, the fork should be fixed firmly in the centre of the breast, and the leg, being first disengaged from the skin, may be taken off with the wing in the line a b; or, the wing being previously removed, by carving it down the line to b, and there separating it from the neck-bone, the leg may be released from the skin, and easily taken off, by cutting round it from a to c, and then turning it with the fork, back from the body, when the joint will readily be perceived.