St. Landry democrat., 1879-12-27
The Fowl.
HOW TO CARVE THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY

HOW TO CARVE THE CHRISTMAS TURKEY.
IN. Quad, in Chicago Lclgcr
1t makes no difference whether you
buy turkey, goose, duck or cIlicken-the
result will he the same. In other words,
these remarks will be so shaped as to ap-
ply to all manner of fowl haying wings.
1t is better to buy the fowl and pay
for it, but this advice is not intended to
prejudice any one from obtaining
their chickens in the usual manner.
Having secured the fowl and baked or
roasted it, ib becomes the duty of the
head of the family TO prepare it for eat
ing. Some people use forty penny nails
to spike tltf chickep down to a plank,
aud then "tb the cthving with buck
saw, but there are other and more con-
venient ways. Place the fowl on the
kitchen table. Attach chain to either
leg, and make fast to the legs Of the ta-
bic, or to eye bolts driven into the wall.
a third chain should pass from the neck
of the fowl to the opposite end OF the ia
hle. The victim is then ln that condition
commonly known us "where he can't
chains they should not be less than an
1t is now the Question of how you want
the fowl carved. If company is expec-
ted to dinner it should be carved in
way to leave the fowl to the family and
the bones to the company. It it is for
the family alone the wisll-bone should
be given to the baby, while the head of
the family should take the neck and be
thankful that he has been spared to live
another year. A fowl carves up like
clock work, if one only knows where to
begin. As every man has his weak
point, so hath fowl, and th0re is no use
spending over half an hour looking for
at when the balance ct dinner is waiting.
Some men spit on shelr hands before
picking up the carving tools. They
might as well spit on the fowl. If carved
with knife but little preparation is
needed. The carver should remove coat
and vest and secure firm grasp for his
feet, and muscle and faith should do the
rest. There are caryers who seem to
imagine that if they can get under IL
fowls wing the question is as good as
sottled-for the fowl. Such carVers
have not Studded anatomy, either hui
man or animal. You might as well eX-
pect to stop womans tongue by break
ing one of her fingers. Nearly all the
fowls have about sixty different bones in
their makeup, and you have doubtless
seen many which appeared to be all bone.
These sixty bones are the brick work, as
it were, for the remainder of the fowl to-
be erected on, and nature makes no mis-
takes. If you strike the right bone in
carving, the whole brick work gives way
i'll a heap and the carving is only the
work of five minutes. 1t you don't you
and blast the man who sold it to you as
long as the table can stand up uuder it.
The man who takes an ak to dissect
well-cooked fowl is resorting to brute
force needlessly, and instances have
been known where the Ak from u fond
fathers grasp and killed q SON just re-
turned from Yale College, a polished
boxer and oarsman. 1t the fowl has
been fed on hoop-iron, buck shot and
army overcoats, a hatchet will still an
swer all purposes. A man who will pull
up his sleeves and deliberately stab a
baked goose to the heart deserve the
contempt of every human being who
doesn't go fishing on Sunday, and he
will receive it, too,
The fowl should be approached kindly
and without any outward evidence OF
trepdati0n, but a resort to undo vio-
lence is to be discharged and frowned
down by all lovers Of fair play. The
vulnerable point of rhinoceros is Hn-
der the fore leg, but it does not neees-
sarily follow that the chicken should be |
there. On the contrary, the
experienced carver will avoid that To-
cality altogether and begin just below
the breast bone. Anguish sometimes
fills the breast of II human being, bat it
is the stuHing that fills the breasts Of
fowls, and if rightly prepared it will not
obstruct the free use or The knife any
more than so much saw dust would.
Having thrust the knife iG below the
breast bone, seize the left leg in your
left hand, give pull and sort OF ,agi-
tated yank at the same moment, and the
star board bulwarks of the fowl ought
to fall over right in a body, leaving. the
carver to simply divide up the sections
in convenient pieces. This ought to
happen. If it does not, the saw and
hatchet can be used, or the fowl can be
blown up with small cut effective car
ridges OF giant powder. The family
which prefers oysters to fowl for Christ
mas dinner is not only level headed,
,ut will need no cover and have no
'easons why darkness should settle
lown over table upside down, and a
:amily flight going on in every room in
he hnuSp l