Soup of Any Kind of Old Fowl

Ingredients

• 1 old fowl (chicken, duck, or turkey)
• 1 pound bacon
• 1 large onion
• pepper
• salt
• mace
• 1 handful parsley
• 2 quarts water
• 1 small bunch thyme
• 1 large spoonful butter
• 2 spoonfuls flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 pint milk

Instructions

1. The only way in which they are eatable.
2. Put the fowls in a coop and feed them moderately for a fortnight.
3. Kill one and cleanse it; cut off the legs and wings, and separate the breast from the ribs, which, together with the whole back, must be thrown away, being too gross and strong for use.
4. Take the skin and fat from the parts cut off, which are also gross.
5. Wash the pieces nicely, and put them on the fire with about a pound of bacon, a large onion chopped small, some pepper and salt, a few blades of mace, a handful of parsley cut up very fine, and two quarts of water, if it be a common fowl or duck; a turkey will require more water.
6. Boil it gently for three hours.
7. Tie up a small bunch of thyme and let it boil in it half an hour, then take it out.
8. Thicken your soup with a large spoonful of butter rubbed into two of flour, the yelks of two eggs, and half a pint of milk.
9. Be careful not to let it curdle in the soup.