Boiling fowl

Poule (à bouillir)

What it is

A boiling fowl is a hen retired from laying, eighteen months old or more, and the connective tissue that makes her too tough to roast is exactly the collagen that sets a broth to jelly. The line about a chicken in every peasant's pot on Sundays was put into Henri IV's mouth by a biographer fifty years after the king died; whatever he actually said, the bird meant was a spent layer like this one, never a young roaster.

In the kitchen

Three hours at a bare shiver, never a boil — a rolling pot emulsifies the fat into the liquid and clouds the stock past saving. The meat is spent by then and belongs in a salad or a hachis; the broth was the object.

Goes with

Leek Carrot Celery Onion Clove Bay leaf Black pepper Thyme

Same species

Egg white powder (albumin) Chicken tail (bonjiri) Bresse chicken Capon Chicken Rooster

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