Common Sense in the Household 14

Common Sense in the Household 14

FRICASSEED CHICKEN. (_White._) ✠

 

Clean, wash, and cut up the fowls, which need not be so tender as

for roasting. Lay them in salt and water for half an hour. Put them

in a pot with enough cold water to cover them, and half a pound of

salt pork cut into thin strips. Cover closely, and let them heat very

slowly; then stew for over an hour, if the fowls are tender. I have

used chickens for this purpose that required four hours stewing, but

they were tender and good when done. Only put them on in season, and

cook very slowly. If they boil fast, they toughen and shrink into

uneatableness. When tender, add a chopped onion or two, parsley, and

pepper. Cover closely again, and, when it has heated to boiling, stir

in a teacupful of milk, to which have been added two beaten eggs and

two tablespoonfuls of flour. Boil up fairly; add a great spoonful of

butter. Arrange the chicken neatly in a deep chafing-dish, pour the

gravy over it, and serve.

 

In this, as in all cases where beaten egg is added to hot liquor, it is

best to dip out a few spoonfuls of the latter, and drop a little at a

time into the egg, beating all the while, that it may heat evenly and

gradually before it is put into the scalding contents of the saucepan

or pot. Eggs managed in this way will not curdle, as they are apt to do

if thrown suddenly into hot liquid.

 

 

FRICASSEED CHICKEN. (_Brown._) ✠

 

Clean, wash, and cut up a pair of young chickens. Lay in clear water

for half an hour. If they are old, you cannot brown them well. Put them

in a saucepan, with enough cold water to cover them well, and set over

the fire to heat slowly. Meanwhile, cut half a pound of salt pork into

strips, and fry crisp. Take them out, chop fine, and put into the

pot with the chicken. Fry in the fat left in the frying-pan one large

onion, or two or three small ones, cut into slices. Let them brown

well, and add them also to the chicken, with a quarter teaspoonful of

allspice and cloves. Stew all together slowly for an hour or more,

until the meat is very tender; you can test this with a fork. Take out

the pieces of fowl and put in a hot dish, covering closely until the

gravy is ready. Add to this a great spoonful of walnut or other dark

catsup, and nearly three tablespoonfuls of browned flour, a little

chopped parsley, and a glass of brown Sherry. Boil up once; strain

through a cullender, to remove the bits of pork and onion; return to

the pot, with the chicken; let it come to a final boil, and serve,

pouring the gravy over the pieces of fowl.

 

 

BROILED CHICKEN.

 

It is possible to render a tough fowl eatable by boiling or stewing

it with care. _Never_ broil such! And even when assured that your

“broiler” is young, it is wise to make this doubly sure by laying it

upon sticks extending from side to side of a dripping-pan full of

boiling water. Set this in the oven, invert a tin pan over the chicken,

and let it steam for half an hour. This process relaxes the muscles,

and renders supple the joints, besides preserving the juices that would

be lost in parboiling. The chicken should be split down the back, and

wiped perfectly dry before it is steamed. Transfer from the vapor-bath

to a buttered gridiron, inside downward. Cover with a tin pan or common

plate, and broil until tender and brown, turning several times; from

half to three-quarters of an hour will be sufficient. Put into a hot

chafing-dish, and butter very well. Send to table smoking hot.

 

 

FRIED CHICKEN (_No. 1_).

 

Clean, wash, and cut to pieces a couple of Spring chickens. Have

ready in a frying-pan enough boiling lard or dripping to cover them

well. Dip each piece in beaten egg when you have salted it, then in

cracker-crumbs, and fry until brown. If the chicken is large, steam

it before frying, as directed in the foregoing receipt. When you have

taken out the meat, throw into the hot fat a dozen sprigs of parsley,

and let them remain a minute—just long enough to crisp, but not to dry

them. Garnish the chicken by strewing these over it.

 

 

FRIED CHICKEN (_No. 2_).

 

Cut up half a pound of fat salt pork in a frying-pan, and fry until the

grease is extracted, but not until it browns. Wash and cut up a young

chicken (broiling size), soak in salt and water for half an hour; wipe

dry, season with pepper, and dredge with flour; then fry in the hot

fat until each piece is a rich brown on both sides. Take up, drain,

and set aside in a hot covered dish. Pour into the gravy left in the

frying-pan a cup of milk—half cream is better; thicken with a spoonful

of flour and a tablespoonful of butter; add some chopped parsley, boil

up, and pour over the hot chicken. This is a standard dish in the Old

Dominion, and tastes nowhere else as it does when eaten on Virginia

soil. The cream gravy is often omitted, and the chicken served up dry,

with bunches of fried parsley dropped upon it.

 

 

CHICKEN POT-PIE.

 

Line the bottom and sides of a pot with a good rich paste, reserving

enough for a top crust and for the square bits to be scattered through

the pie. Butter the pot very lavishly, or your pastry will stick to it

and burn. Cut up a fine large fowl, and half a pound of corned ham or

salt pork. Put in a layer of the latter, pepper it, and cover with

pieces of the chicken, and this with the paste dumplings or squares.

If you use potatoes, parboil them before putting them into the pie,

as the first water in which they are boiled is rank and unwholesome.

The potatoes should be sliced and laid next the pastry squares; then

another layer of pork, and so on until your chicken is used up. Cover

with pastry rolled out quite thick, and slit this in the middle. Heat

very slowly, and boil two hours. Turn into a large dish, the lower

crust on top, and the gravy about it.

 

This is the old-fashioned pot-pie, dear to the memory of men who were

school-boys thirty and forty years ago. If you are not experienced in

such manufactures, you had better omit the lower crust; and, having

browned the upper, by putting a hot pot-lid or stove-cover on top of

the pot for some minutes, remove dexterously without breaking. Pour out

the chicken into a dish, and set the crust above it.

 

Veal, beef-steak, lamb (not mutton), hares, &c., may be substituted for

the chicken. The pork will salt it sufficiently.

 

 

BAKED CHICKEN PIE ✠

 

Is made as above, but baked in a buttered pudding-dish, and, in place

of the potatoes, three hard-boiled eggs are chopped up and strewed

among the pieces of chicken. If the chickens are tough, or even

doubtful, parboil them before making the pie, adding the water in

which they were boiled, instead of cold water, for gravy. If they are

lean, put in a few bits of butter. Ornament with leaves cut out with a

cake-cutter, and a star in the centre. Bake an hour—more, if the pie is

large.

 

 

CHICKEN PUDDING. ✠

 

Cut up as for fricassee, and parboil, seasoning well with pepper,

salt, and a lump of butter the size of an egg, to each chicken. The

fowls should be young and tender, and divided at every joint. Stew

slowly for half an hour, take them out, and lay on a flat dish to cool.

Set aside the water in which they were stewed for your gravy.

 

Make a batter of one quart of milk, three cups of flour, three

tablespoonfuls melted butter, half a teaspoonful soda, and one spoonful

of cream tartar, with four eggs well beaten, and a little salt. Put

a layer of chicken in the bottom of the dish, and pour about half a

cupful of batter over it—enough to conceal the meat; then, another

layer of chicken, and more batter, until the dish is full. The batter

must form the crust. Bake one hour, in a moderate oven, if the dish is

large.

 

Beat up an egg, and stir into the gravy which was set aside; thicken

with two teaspoonfuls of rice or wheat flour, add a little chopped

parsley; boil up, and send it to table in a gravy-boat.

 

 

CHICKEN AND HAM. ✠

 

Draw, wash, and stuff a pair of young fowls. Cut enough large, thick

slices of cold boiled ham to envelop these entirely, wrapping them up

carefully, and winding a string about all, to prevent the ham from

falling off. Put into your dripping-pan, with a little water to prevent

scorching; dashing it over the meat lest it should dry and shrink.

Invert a tin pan over all, and bake slowly for one hour and a quarter,

if the fowls are small and tender—longer, if tough. Lift the cover from

time to time to baste with the drippings—the more frequently as time

wears on. Test the tenderness of the fowls, by sticking a fork through

the ham into the breast. When done, undo the strings, lay the fowls in

a hot dish, and the slices of ham about them. Stir into the dripping a

little chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of browned flour wet in cold

water; pepper, and let it boil up once. Pour some of it over the

chickens—not enough to float the ham in the dish; serve the rest in a

gravy-boat.

 

 

ROAST DUCKS.

 

Clean, wash, and wipe the ducks very carefully. To the usual dressing

add a little sage (powdered or green), and a minced shallot. Stuff,

and sew up as usual, reserving the giblets for the gravy. If they

are tender, they will not require more than an hour to roast. Baste

well. Skim the gravy before putting in the giblets and thickening. The

giblets should be stewed in a very little water, then chopped fine, and

added to the gravy in the dripping-pan, with a chopped shallot and a

spoonful of browned flour.

 

Accompany with currant or grape jelly.

 

 

TO USE UP COLD DUCK. ✠

 

I may say, as preface, that cold duck is in itself an excellent supper

dish, or side dish, at a family dinner, and is often preferred to hot.

If the duck has been cut into at all, divide neatly into joints, and

slice the breast, laying slices of dressing about it. Garnish with

lettuce or parsley, and eat with jelly.

 

But if a warm dish is desired, cut the meat from the bones and lay in

a saucepan, with a little minced cold ham; pour on just enough water

to cover it, and stir in a tablespoonful of butter. Cover, and heat

gradually, until it is _near_ boiling. Then add the gravy, diluted with

a little hot water; a great spoonful of catsup, one of Worcestershire

sauce, and one of currant or cranberry jelly, with a glass of wine and a tablespoonful of browned flour.