Boiled Fowls

Ingredients

• 1 whole fowl (white-legged poultry preferred)
• water

Instructions

1. Select white-legged poultry for boiling.
2. Truss the fowl firmly and neatly, with the legs drawn into the body and the wings twisted over the back.
3. Bring water to the proper temperature: less than half a gallon of cold water added to an equal quantity of boiling water, or use hot but not boiling water.
4. Place the trussed fowl into the hot water and allow it to come to a gentle simmer.
5. Boil very gently throughout cooking, removing scum with great care as it gathers on the surface of the water.
6. For a full-sized fowl, simmer for about three-quarters of an hour; for young chickens, simmer for twenty to twenty-five minutes.
7. When cooked, dress the fowl and serve with parsley and butter, béchamel, English white sauce, oyster, celery, or white-mushroom sauce.
8. Optionally, dish the fowl with small tufts of boiled cauliflower placed round it, or with young vegetable marrow scarcely larger than an egg, pared and halved after cooking, serving white sauce with either garnish.
9. If using the livers, simmer them separately for four or five minutes, then press to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon.
10. Mix the liver paste very gradually with the sauce, ensuring the sauce does not boil after the livers are added.