om you, and very
neatly take off the two sidebones, and the whole will be done. As each
part is taken off, it should be turned neatly on the dish, and care
should be taken that what is left goes properly from table. The breast
and wings are looked upon as the best parts, but the legs are most juicy
in young fowls. After all, more advantage will be gained by observing
those who carve well, and a little practice, than by any written
directions whatever.----A PHEASANT. The bird in the annexed engraving is
as trussed for the spit, with its head under one of its wings. When the
skewers are taken out, and the bird served, the following is the way to
carve it. Fix a fork in the centre of the breast; slice it down in the
line _a_, _b_; take off the leg on one side in the dotted line _b_, _d_;
then cut off the wing on the same side in the line _c_, _d_. Separate
the leg and wing on the other side, and then cut off the slices of
breast you divided before. Be careful how you take off the wings; for if
you should cut too near the neck, as at _g_, you will hit on the
neck-bone, from which the wing must be separated. Cut off the
merrythought in the line _f_, _g_, by passing the knife under it towards
the neck. Cut the other parts as in a fowl. The breast, wings, and
merrythought, are the most esteemed; but the leg has a higher
flavour.----PARTRIDGE. The partridge is here represented as just taken
from the spit; but before it is served up, the skewers must be
withdrawn. It is cut up in the same manner as a fowl. The wings must be
taken off in the line _a_, _b_, and the merrythought in the line _c_,
_d_. The prime parts of a partridge are the wings, breast, and
merrythought; but the bird being small, the two latter are not often
divided. The wing is considered as the best, and the tip of it reckoned
the most delicate morsel of the whole.----PIGEONS. Cut them in half,
either from top to bottom or across. The lower part is generally thought
the best; but the fairest way is to cut from the neck to _a_, rather
than from _c_ to _b_, by _a_, which is the most fashionable. The figure
represents the back of the pigeon; and the direction of the knife is in
the line _c_, _b_, by _a_, if done the last way.

CASKS. New casks are apt to give beer a bad taste, if not well scalded
and seasoned before they are used. Boil therefore two pecks of bran or
malt dust in a copper of water, pour it hot into the cask, stop it
close, and let it stand two days