The excellence of spring chickens depends as much on feeding as on cooking them. If there are conveniences for building a coop, say five feet square, on the ground, where some spring chickens can be kept for a few weeks, feeding them with the scraps from the kitchen, and grain, they will be found plump, the meat white, and the flavor quite different from the thin, poorly fed chickens just from market.
The Southern negro cooks have certainly the best way of cooking spring chickens, and the manner is very simple. Cut them into pieces, dip each piece hastily in water, then sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and roll it in plenty of flour. Have some lard in a _sauté_ pan very hot, in which fry, or rather _sauté_, the chickens, covering them well, and watching that they may not burn. When done, arrange them on a hot dish; pour out the lard from the spider, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; throw in a cupful or more of milk, or, better, cream thickened with a little flour; stir it constantly, seasoning it with pepper and salt; pour it over the chickens. It makes a pleasant change to add chopped parsley to the gravy.
A nice dish is made by serving cauliflowers in the same platter with the dressing poured over both; or with potatoes cut out in little balls, and boiled in very salt water, served in the same way; or they may be surrounded with water-cresses.
Cut them open at the back, spread them out in a baking-pan, sprinkle on plenty of pepper, salt, and a little flour. Baste them well with hot water, which should be in the bottom of the pan, also at different times with a little butter. When done, rub butter over them, as you would beefsteak, and set them in the oven for a moment before serving.
Chickens are roasted and boiled as are turkeys. In winter there is no better way of cooking chickens than to boil them whole, and pour over them a good caper or pickle sauce just before serving. A large tough chicken is very good managed in this manner. Of course, the chicken should be put into _boiling_ water, which should not stop boiling until the chicken is entirely done. With this management it will retain its flavor, yet the water in which it is boiled should always be saved for soup. It is a valuable addition to any kind of soup. The cut represents a chicken in a bed of rice.