The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

onion, 2 or three small carrots, 1 blade of pounded mace, pepper and salt to taste, 1 small bunch of savoury herbs, thickening of butter and flour, 1-1/2 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup. _Mode_.--Cut off the best joints from the fowl, and the remainder make into gravy, by adding to the bones and trimmings a pint of water, an onion sliced and fried of a nice brown, the carrots, mace, seasoning, and herbs. Let these stew gently for 1-1/2 hour, strain the liquor, and thicken with a little flour and butter. Lay in the fowl, thoroughly warm it through, add the ketchup, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. _Time_.--Altogether 1-3/4 hour. _Average cost_, exclusive of the cold fowl, 4d. _Seasonable_ at any time. SKIN-DISEASE IN FOWLS.--Skin-disease is, nine times out of ten, caused by the feathers being swarmed by parasites. Poor feeding will induce this, even if cleanliness be observed; uncleanliness, however liberal the bill of fare, will be taken as an invitation by the little biting pests, and heartily responded to. Mix half a teaspoonful of hydro-oxalic acid with twelve teaspoonfuls of water,--apply to the itching parts with an old shaving-brush. OBSTRUCTION OF THE CROP.--Obstruction of the crop is occasioned by weakness or greediness. You may know when a bird is so afflicted by his crop being distended almost to bursting. Mowbray tells of a hen of his in this predicament; when the crop was opened, a quantity of new beans were discovered in a state of vegetation. The crop should be slit from the _bottom_ to the _top_ with a sharp pair of scissors, the contents taken out, and the slit sewed up again with line white thread. MINCED FOWL--an Entree (Cold Meat Cookery).