The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

stock or good broth, 40 cardamum-seeds, 1/2 oz. of coriander-seed, 1/4 oz. of cloves, 1/4 oz. of allspice, 1/4 oz. of mace, 1/4 oz. of cinnamon, 1/2 oz. of peppercorns, 4 onions, 6 thin slices of bacon, 2 hard-boiled eggs. _Mode_.--Well wash 1 lb. of the best Patna rice, put it into a frying-pan with the butter, which keep moving over a slow fire until the rice is lightly browned. Truss the fowl as for boiling, put it into a stewpan with the stock or broth; pound the spices and seeds thoroughly in a mortar, tie them in a piece of muslin, and put them in with the fowl. Let it boil slowly until it is nearly done; then add the rice, which should stew until quite tender and almost dry; cut the onions into slices, sprinkle them with flour, and fry, without breaking them, of a nice brown colour. Have ready the slices of bacon curled and grilled, and the eggs boiled hard. Lay the fowl in the form of a pyramid upon a dish, smother with the rice, garnish with the bacon, fried onions, and the hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters, and serve very hot. Before taking the rice out, remove the spices. _Time_.--1/2 hour to stew the fowl without the rice; 1/2 hour with it. _Average cost_, 4s. 3d. _Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time. [Illustration: SULTANS.] THE SERAI TA-OOK, OR FOWLS OF THE SULTAN.--This fowl is the size of our English Polands, and is the latest species introduced to England. They have a white and flowing plumage, a full-sized, compact Poland tuft on the head, are muffed, have a full flowing tail, short legs well feathered, and five toes upon each foot. Their comb consists merely of two little points, and their wattles are very small: their colour is that of a pure white. In January, 1854, they arrived in this country from Constantinople; and they take their name from _sarai_, the Turkish word for sultan's palace, and _ta-ook_, the Turkish for fowl. They are thus called the "fowls of the sultan," a name which has the twofold advantage of being the nearest to be found to that by which they have been known in their own country, and of designating the country whence they come. Their habits are described as being generally brisk and happy-tempered, but not so easily kept in as Cochin-Chinas. They are excellent layers; but they are non-sitters and small eaters: their eggs are large and white. Brahmas or Cochins will clear the crop of a grass-run long before they will, and, with scattered food, they soon satisfy themselves and walk away. POULET AUX CRESSONS.