DRAWING AND DISMEMBERING POULTRY 359 



crop. By careful working, with thumb and fingers, the 

 two skins are separated, thus loosening the crop from 

 the outer skin. It is then cut free across the food tract 

 at its lower end. Some care is necessary, in order that 

 the juices shall notescape, in a troublesome dribble. (Some 

 are so particular that, when the fowl is to be roasted, 

 they remove the crop by slipping it through under the 

 main skin at the upper part of the neck, without making 

 any slit in the outer skin. For cooking, the fowl is 

 stuffed by reversing this process, thus filling the space 

 left vacant by the missing crop. 



The crop being freed, and the legs split off from the 

 body, the bird is now grasped, in one method, by the 

 skin between the vent and the tail, using the thumb and 

 forefinger of the left hand. The carcass is best held on 

 end, the breast resting on the table. A square is cut 

 about the vent, the slits being made across the raised 

 bits of skin, with care not to cut too deep. If the bird 

 is in good condition, the skin is underlaid with a layer 

 of fat, which prevents cutting the intestine. Careful 

 cutting through this fat lays the abdominal contents 

 partially open. If the opening is not large enough to 

 work through, extended slits, toward the thigh, will give 

 more room. The three long fingers of the right hand, 

 slightly spread, are now carefully but strongly thrust up 

 between the abdominal contents and the breastbone. 

 They will reach beyond the intestinal coil, drop their tips 

 behind it to the back bone, and with a strong, steady 

 pull, draw out all the abdominal contents but the heart, 

 lungs, and kidneys. The knife may be needed to free 

 the membranes at the outer end. The heart and lungs 

 may be removed separately, the last being bedded some- 



