broiled plain, which is the usual way. It seems to be supposed by many
that no chicken is too poor for broiling, and therefore it is often
difficult to get more than two or three small mouthfuls of flesh off
their bones. On the contrary, poor chickens are not worth broiling or
cooking in any way. To have broiled chickens good, choose those that are
fat and fleshy. Having cleaned them well, and washed them, and wiped
them dry, split and divide them into four quarters; flattening the bones
with a steak mallet. They will be much improved by stewing or boiling in
a little water for ten minutes. Then draining them and saving the liquor
for gravy. Boil in this the neck, feet, heart, gizzard and liver. Strain
it after boiling, and save the liver to mash into the gravy. Season the
gravy with grated carrot and minced parsley, or sweet marjoram, and a
little cayenne, adding a small piece of fresh butter dredged in flour.
Have ready plenty of fine bread-crumbs, seasoned with nutmeg, and in
another pan four yolks of eggs well beaten. The quarters of the chickens
having become quite cold, dip each one first into the egg, and then into
the crumbs. Set the gridiron over a clear fire, and broil the chicken
well, first laying down the inside. Having prepared the gravy as above,
give it a short boil, then send it to table in a sauce-boat with the
chickens.
The excellence of chickens broiled in this way amply repays the trouble.
This is a breakfast dish.
Serve up with the broiled chicken a dish of mashed potato cakes, browned
with a salamander or red-hot shovel.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN.--Have ready a pair of fine plump full-grown fowls
nicely prepared for cooking. Strip off all the skin, and carve the fowls
neatly. Reserve all the white meat and best pieces for the fricassee,
putting them in a dish by themselves, and save all the inferior pieces
or black meat to make the gravy. Season with pepper and salt slightly,
and add a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, and four small bits of fresh
butter dredged with flour. Put the black meat, herbs, &c., into a
stew-pan. Pour in a pint and a half of water, and stew it gently,
skimming off every particle of fat. When reduced to less than one half,
strain the gravy. Arrange the pieces of white meat in a very clean
stew-pan, and pour over them the gravy of the inferior parts; add mace,
nutmeg, and a little cayenne. Mix into half a pint of boiling cream, a
large tea-spoonful of arrow-root, and shake the pan briskly round, while
adding the beaten yolks of two fresh eggs, mixed with more cream, (two
table-spoonfuls.) Shake it gently over the fire till it begins to simmer
again, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle in an instant.
Watch it carefully.
This is a fine side-dish for company. There is no better way of
fricasseeing fowls. A fricassee is not a fry, but a stew.
Accompany this fricassee with a dish of asparagus tops, green peas, or
lima beans. Also, mashed potatos.
CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.--Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or
chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the
other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out by
fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin butter
kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or saucepan
of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,)
and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well
done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer.
Occasionally take off the lid to remove the scum, and be sure to put it
on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish
it with more _hot_ water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard.
When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take
from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small
sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and
leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two
table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, two table-spoonfuls of
chopped oysters, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine, half a
grated nutmeg, four blades of mace, and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil
this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish and send them to
table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent
way of cooking chickens. They do well in large _bain marie_.
FOWL AND OYSTERS.--Take a fine fat young fowl, and having trussed it for
boiling, fill the body and craw with oysters, seasoned with a few blades
of mace, tying it round with twine to keep them in. Put the fowl into a
tall strait-sided jar, and cover it closely. Then place the jar in a
kettle of water, set it over the fire, and let it boil at least an hour
and a half after the water has come to a hard boil. When it is done take
out the fowl, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy, of which you
will find a quantity in the jar. Transfer this gravy to a saucepan,
enrich it with the beaten yolks of two eggs mixed with three
table-spoonfuls of cream, and add a large table-spoonful of fresh butter
rolled in flour. If you cannot get cream, you must have a double portion
of butter. Set this sauce over the fire, stirring it well, and when it
comes to a boil, add twenty-five oysters. In five minutes take it off,
put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with the fowl, which cooked in
this manner will be found excellent.
Clams may be substituted for oysters, but they should be removed from
the fowl before it is sent to table. Their flavor being drawn out in the
gravy, the clams themselves will be found tough, tasteless, and not
proper to be eaten.
FRENCH CHICKEN PIE.--Parboil a pair of full-grown, but fat and tender
chickens. Then take the giblets, and put them into a small sauce-pan
with as much of the water in which the chickens were parboiled as will
cover them well, and stew them for gravy; add a bunch of sweet herbs and
a few blades of mace. When the chickens are cold, dissect them as for
carving. Line a deep dish with thick puff paste, and put in the pieces
of chicken. Take a nice thin slice of cold ham, or two slices of smoked
tongue, and pound them one at a time in a marble mortar, pounding also
the livers of the chickens, and the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled
eggs. Make this forcemeat into balls, and intersperse them among the
pieces of chicken. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour, and
then (having removed the giblets) pour on the gravy. Cover the pie with
a lid of puff-paste, rolled out thick; and notch the edges handsomely;
placing a knot or ornament of paste on the centre of the top. Set it
directly into a well-heated oven, and bake it brown. It should be eaten
warm.
This pie will be greatly improved by a pint of mushrooms, cut into
pieces. Also by a small tea-cup of cream.
Any pie of poultry, pigeons, or game may be made in this manner.
CHICKEN GUMBO.--Cut up a young fowl as if for a fricassee. Put into a
stew-pan a large table-spoonful of fresh butter, mixed with a
tea-spoonful of flour, and an onion finely minced. Brown them over the
fire, and then add a quart of water, and the pieces of chicken, with a
large quarter of a peck of ochras, (first sliced thin, and then
chopped,) and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the pan, and let the whole
stew together, till the ochras are entirely dissolved, and the fowl
thoroughly done. If it is a very young chicken, do not put it in at
first; as half an hour will be sufficient to cook it. Serve it up hot in
a deep dish.
You may add to the ochras an equal quantity of tomatos cut small. If you
use tomatos, no water will be necessary, as their juice will supply a
sufficient liquid.
[D]FILET GUMBO.--Cut up a pair of fine plump fowls into pieces, as when
carving. Lay them in a pan of cold water, till all the blood is drawn
out. Put into a pot, two large table-spoonfuls of lard, and set it over
the fire. When the lard has come to a boil, put in the chickens with an
onion finely minced. Dredge them well with flour, and season slightly
with salt and pepper; and, if you like it, a little chopped marjoram.
Pour on it two quarts of boiling water. Cover it, and let it simmer
slowly for three hours. Then stir into it two heaped tea-spoonfuls of
sassafras powder. Afterwards, let it stew five or six minutes longer,
and then send it to table in a deep dish; having a dish of boiled rice
to be eaten with it by those who like rice.
[D] Pronounced Fee_lay_.
This gumbo will be much improved by stewing with it three or four thin
slices of cold boiled ham, in which case omit the salt in the seasoning.
Whenever cold ham is an ingredient in any dish, no other salt is
required.
A dozen fresh oysters and their liquor, added to the stew about half an
hour before it is taken up, will also be an improvement.
If you cannot conveniently obtain sassafras-powder, stir the gumbo
frequently with a stick of sassafras root.
This is a genuine southern receipt. Filet gumbo may be made of any sort
of poultry, or of veal, lamb, venison, or kid.
TOMATO CHICKEN.--Take four small chickens or two large ones, and cut
them up as for carving. Put them into a stew-pan, with one or two large
slices of cold boiled ham cut into little bits; eight or ten large
tomatos; an onion sliced; a bunch of pot-herbs,(cut up;) a small green
pepper, (the seeds and veins first extracted;) half a dozen blades of
mace; a table-spoonful of lard or of fresh butter, rolled in flour; or a
handful of grated bread-crumbs. Add a tumbler or half a pint of water.
Cover the sauce-pan closely with a cloth beneath the lid; set it on hot
coals, or over a moderate fire; and let it stew slowly till the chickens
are thoroughly done, and the tomatos entirely dissolved. Turn it out
into a deep dish.
Rabbits may be stewed in this manner. Also, veal steaks, cut thin and
small.
TURKEY AND CHICKEN PATTIES.--Take the white part of some cold turkey or
chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or
smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks
of some hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced; a very little cayenne; and
some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh
butter. Have ready some puff-paste shells, that have been baked empty in
patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture.
Cold fillet of veal minced, and mixed with chopped ham, and grated yolk
of egg, and seasoned as above will make very good patties.
CHICKEN RICE PUDDING.--Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till
soft and dry, a pint of rice; and while warm, mix with it a large
table-spoonful of fresh butter. Beat four eggs very light; and then mix
them, gradually, with the rice. Spread a coating of the fresh butter,
&c., over the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of
the parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was
boiled--seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh
butter rolled in flour and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with
the remainder of the rice; set the pudding immediately into the oven and
bake it brown.
Cold chicken or turkey, cooked the day before, may be used for this
purpose. The pudding may be improved by the addition of a few very
thin, small slices of cold ham, or smoked tongue.
RICE CROQUETTES.--Boil half a pound of rice till it becomes quite soft
and dry. Then mix with it two table spoonfuls of rich (but not strong)
grated cheese, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and sufficient
fresh butter to moisten it. Mince very fine, six table-spoonfuls of the
white part of cold chicken or turkey, the soft parts of six large
oysters, and a few sprigs of tarragon or parsley; add a grated nutmeg,
and the yellow rind of a lemon. Mix the whole well, moistening it with
cream or white wine. Take of the prepared rice, a portion about the size
of an egg, flatten it, and put into the centre a dessert-spoonful of the
mixture; close the rice round it as you would the paste round a
dumpling-apple. Then form it into the shape of an egg. Brush it over
with some beaten yolk of egg and then dredge it with pounded crackers.
In this way make up the whole into oval balls. Have ready, in a
sauce-pan over the fire, a pound of boiling lard. Into this throw the
croquettes, two at a time, so as to brown them. Let them brown for a few
minutes; then take them out with a perforated skimmer. Drain them from
the lard, and serve them up hot, garnished with curled parsley.
CHICKEN POT-PIE.--Cut up and parboil a pair of large fowls, seasoning
them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. You may add some small slices of
cold ham; in which case use _no salt_, as the ham will make it salt
enough. Or you may put in some pieces of the lean of fresh pork. You may
prepare a suet-paste; but for a chicken pot-pie it is best to make the
paste of butter, which should be fresh, and of the best quality. Allow
to each quart of flour, a small half-pound of butter. There should be
enough for a great deal of paste. Line the sides of the pot, two-thirds
up, with paste. Put in the chickens, with the liquor in which they were
parboiled. You may add some sliced potatos. Intersperse the pieces of
chicken with layers of paste in square slices. Then cover the whole with
a lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a cross-slit in the top,
and boil the pie about an hour or more.
Instead of ham, you may add some clams to the chicken, omitting salt in
the seasoning, as the clams will salt it quite enough.
CHICKEN CURRY.--Having skinned a pair of fine chickens, cut them into
six pieces each, that is, two wings, two pieces of the breast, and two
legs cut off at the joint. Put into a stew-pan two boiled onions
chopped, and four ounces or four table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Shake
the pan till the contents begin to simmer; then add four table-spoonfuls
of curry-powder and mix it well in; also, four table-spoonfuls of
grated cocoa-nut. Mix all well in the stew-pan, and then put in the
pieces of chicken. Cover the pan, and let all stew moderately for half
an hour, stirring it round occasionally; and, if getting too dry, add a
little hot water. Also, towards the last, the grated yellow rind of a
lemon and the juice. It should stew till the chicken is quite tender,
and till the flesh parts easily from the bones. Serve it up hot, in a
covered dish, and send half a pound of boiled rice in a separate dish,
_uncovered_. This is a dish for company.
Young ducks, or a young hen turkey, or a pair of rabbits, may be cooked
in the same manner. Also, lamb or veal.
For curried oysters, take a hundred large fresh ones, and proceed as
above.
RICE PIE.--Pick clean a quart of rice, and wash it well through two or
three waters. Tie it in a cloth, put it into a pot of boiled milk, and
boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain and press it till as dry as
possible, and mix with it two ounces of fresh butter. Take a small tin
butter-kettle; wet the inside, put in the rice, and stand it in a cool
place till quite cold. Then turn it carefully out of the kettle, (of
which it will retain the form,) rub it over with the beaten yolk of an
egg, and set it in an oven till lightly browned. Cut out from the top of
the mass of rice an oval lid, about two inches from the edge, so as to
leave a flat rim or border all round. Then excavate the mould of rice,
leaving a standing crust all round and at the bottom, about two inches
thick. Have ready some hot stewed oysters or birds, or brown or white
fricassee. Fill up the pie with it, adding the gravy. Lay on the lid,
and decorate it with sprigs of green curled parsley, stuck in all round
the crack where the lid is put on.
This pie may be filled with curried chicken.
COUNTRY CAPTAIN.--This is an East India dish, and a very easy
preparation of curry. The term "country captain," signifies a captain of
the native troops, (or Sepoys,) in the pay of England; their own country
being India, they are there called generally the country troops.
Probably this dish was first introduced at English tables by a Sepoy
officer.
Having well boiled a fine full-grown fowl, cut it up as for carving.
Have ready two large onions boiled and sliced. Season the pieces of
chicken with curry powder or turmeric; rubbed well into them, all over.
Fry them with the onion, in plenty of lard or fresh butter, and when
well-browned they are done enough. Take them up with a perforated
skimmer, and drain through its holes. It will be a great improvement to
put in, at the beginning, three or four table-spoonfuls of finely grated
cocoa-nut. This will be found an advantage to any curry.
Serve up, in another dish, a pint of rice, well picked, and washed
clean in two or three cold waters. Boil the rice in plenty of water,
(leaving the skillet or sauce-pan uncovered;) and when it is done, drain
it very dry, and set it on a dish before the fire, tossing it up with
two forks, one in each hand, so as to separate all the grains, leaving
each one to stand for itself. All rice for the dinner table should be
cooked in this manner. Persons accustomed to rice never eat it watery or
clammy, or lying in a moist mass. Rice should never be covered, either
while boiling, or when dished.
We recommend this "country captain."
CURRIED EGGS.--Boil six fresh eggs till they are hard enough for salad,
and then set them away to get cold. Mix together, in a stew-pan, three
ounces (or three large table-spoonfuls) of nice fresh butter, and three
dessert-spoonfuls of curry powder. Shake them together for five minutes
over a clear but moderate fire. Then throw in two boiled onions finely
minced, and let them cook, gently, till quite soft, adding three ounces
or three large spoonfuls of grated cocoa-nut. Cut the eggs into rather
thick slices. Put them into the mixture, with a small tea-cupful of
thick cream, or if you cannot obtain cream, with two more spoonfuls of
butter dredged with flour. Let the whole simmer together, but when it
approaches coming to a boil, take it immediately off the fire and serve
it up hot. This is a nice side-dish for company.
PARTRIDGES PEAR FASHION--(_French dish._)--Your partridges should be
fine and fat, and of the same size. For a large dish have three or four.
Truss them tight and round, and rub over them a little salt and cayenne,
mixed. Cut off one of the legs and leave the other on, fill them with a
nice forcemeat. Make a rich paste of flour, butter, and beaten egg,
using as little water as possible. Be sure to make enough of paste to
cover each partridge entirely over, and roll it out evenly, and rather
thick than thin. Put a sufficient portion of paste nicely round each
partridge, pressing it closely and smoothly with your hand, and forming
it into the shape of a large pear. Leave one leg sticking out at the top
to resemble the stem, having cut off the foot. Set them in a pan, and
bake them in a dutch oven. In the mean time, make in a small sauce-pan,
a rich brown gravy of the livers, and other trimmings of the partridges,
and some drippings of roast veal or roasted poultry. It will be better
still if you reserve one or two small partridges to cut up, and stew for
the gravy. Season it with a little salt and cayenne. When it has boiled
long enough to be very thick and rich, take it off, strain it, and put
the liquid into a clean sauce-pan. Add the juice of a large orange, made
very sweet with powdered white sugar. Set it over the fire, and when it
comes to a boil, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let it boil two
or three minutes longer; then take it off, and keep it hot till the
partridges and their paste are thoroughly well baked. When done, stand
up the partridges in a deep dish, and serve up the gravy in a
sauce-boat. Ornament the partridge-pears by sticking some orange leaves
into the end that represents the stalk. This is a nice and handsome side
dish, of French origin.
Pigeons and quails may be dressed in this manner.
SALMI OF PARTRIDGES--(_French dish._)--Having covered two large or four
small partridges with very thin slices of fat cold ham, secured with
twine, roast them; but see that they are not too much done. Remove the
ham, skin the partridges, cut them into pieces, and let them get quite
cold. Partridges that have been roasted the preceding day are good for
this purpose. Cut off all the meat from the bones, season it with a
little cayenne, and put it into a stew-pan. Mix together three
table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, a glass of excellent wine, (either red or
white,) and the grated peel and juice of an orange. Pour this gravy over
the partridges, and let them stew in it during ten minutes; then add the
beaten yolk of an egg, and stew it about three or four minutes longer.
All the time it is stewing, continue to shake or move the pan over the
fire. Serve it up hot.
ROASTED PARTRIDGES, PHEASANTS, AND QUAILS.--Make a stuffing of fat bacon
finely minced, and boiled chestnuts or grated sweet potatoe boiled,
mashed, and seasoned with pepper only. Fill the birds with this. Cover
them with thin slices of bacon, and wrap them well in young vine leaves.
Roast them well, and serve them up in the bacon and vine leaves, to be
taken off when they come to table. For company, have orange sauce to eat
with them. If you roast pigeons, &c., without a covering of bacon and
vine leaves, do them with egg and bread-crumbs all over.
If these birds have a bitter taste when cooked, do not eat them. It is
produced by their feeding on laurel berries in winter, when their food
is scarce. Laural berries are poisonous, and people have died from
eating birds that have fed on them.
BIRDS WITH MUSHROOMS.--Take two dozen reed-birds, (or other nice small
birds,) and truss them as if for roasting. Put into each a button
mushroom, of which you should have a heaping pint after the stalks are
all removed. Put the birds and the remaining mushrooms into a stew-pan.
Season them with a very little salt and pepper, and add either a quarter
of a pound of fresh butter (divided into four, and slightly rolled in
flour,) or a pint of rich cream. If cream is not plenty, you may use
half butter and half cream, well mixed together. Cover the stew-pan
closely, and set it over a moderate fire, to stew gently till the birds
and mushrooms are thoroughly done and tender all through. Do not open
the lid to stir the stew, but give the pan, occasionally, a hard shake.
Dip in hot water a large slice of toast with the crust trimmed off.
When the birds are done lay them on the toast with the mushrooms around.
If you cannot get button-mushrooms, divide large ones into quarters.
Plovers are very nice stewed with mushrooms.
BIRDS IN A GROVE--(_French dish._)--Having roasted some reed-birds,
larks, plovers, or any other small birds, such as are usually eaten,
mash some potatos with butter and cream. Spread the mashed potato
thickly over the bottom, sides, and edges of a deep dish. Nick or crimp
the border of potatoe that goes round the edge, or scollop it with a tin
cutter. You may, if you choose, brown it by holding over it a
salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Then lay the roasted birds in the
middle of the dish, and stick round them and among them, very thickly, a
sufficient number of sprigs of curled or double parsley.
THATCHED HOUSE PIE--(_French dish._)--Rub the inside of a deep dish with
two ounces of fresh butter, and spread over it two ounces of vermicelli.
Then line the dish with puff-paste. Have ready some birds seasoned with
powdered nutmeg, and a very little salt and pepper. Place them with the
breast downward. They will be much improved by putting into each a
mushroom or an oyster chopped fine. Lay them on the paste. Add some
gravy of roast veal, (cold gravy saved from veal roasted the preceding
day will do very well,) and cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste. Bake
it in a moderate oven, and when done, turn it out _carefully_ upon a
flat dish, and send it to table. The vermicelli, which was originally at
the bottom, will now be at the top, covering the paste like thatch upon
a roof. Trim off the edge, so as to look nicely. You may, if you choose,
use a larger quantity of vermicelli. The yellow sort will be best for
this purpose.
BIRDS PREPARED FOR LARDING.--Cut a thin slice of fresh veal, and fill
the bird with it, adding a bit of fat bacon. Tie a string round the body
to keep in the stuffing, and roast the bird head downward. The gravy of
the meat will diffuse a pleasant taste all through the bird.
After being well roasted, let it get cold, and then lard it all over the
breast with lardons or regular slips of fat bacon, put in with a larding
needle, and left standing in rows. It is more easy to lard poultry or
game when cold, rather than warm. Lardons should be set very close and
evenly.