2 young fowls, or one full-grown.
½ lb. corned ham.
1 gallon of water.
Cut the fowls into pieces as for fricassee. Put these with the ham into
the pot with a quart of water, or enough to cover them fairly. Stew for
an hour, if the fowls are tender; if tough, until you can cut easily
into the breast. Take out the breasts, leaving the rest of the meat
in the pot, and add the remainder of the water—boiling hot. Keep the
soup stewing slowly while you chop up the white meat you have selected.
Rub the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs smooth in a mortar or bowl,
moistening to a paste with a few spoonfuls of the soup. Mix with these
a handful of fine bread-crumbs and the chopped meat, and make it into
small balls. When the soup has boiled in all, two hours and a half, if
the chicken be reduced to shreds, strain out the meat and bones. Season
with salt and white pepper, with a bunch of chopped parsley. Drop in
the prepared force-meat, and after boiling ten minutes to incorporate
the ingredients well, add, a little at a time, a pint of rich milk
thickened with flour. Boil up once and serve.
A chicken at least a year old would make better soup than a younger
fowl.