Carving and Serving

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Printed rules for carving are usually accompanied with cuts showing the position of the joint or fowl on the platter, and having lines indicating the method of cutting. But this will not be attempted in this man ual, as such illustrations seldom prove helpful: for the actual thing before us bears faint resemblance to the pictures, which give us only the surface, with no hint of what may be inside. It is comparatively a slight matter to carve a solid mass of lean meat. It is the bones, tough gristle, and tendons, that interfere with the easy progress of the knife. To expect any one to carve well without any conception of the internal structure of what may be placed before him is as absurd as to expect one to amputate a limb successfully who has no knowledge of human anatomy.