Singe, wash and clean chicken; cut into pieces as follows; two second joints, two drumsticks, two wings, breast cut into two pieces, backbone cut into four pieces. Wipe with piece of cheesecloth; season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Put into hot frying pan with 2 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter and brown quickly. Add a little water, cover, reduce heat and cook slowly until tender. Remove chicken; mix 1 tablespoon flour with whatever gravy or fat is in pan; add 1 cup cold milk; boil until thick. This gravy should be rich cream color.
Lard the fillets as for breading. For each one lay a slice of fat pork in the bottom of the braising pan, and on this a very small piece of onion. Dredge the fillets well with salt, pepper and flour, and place them on the pork and onion. Cover the pan, and set on the stove. Cook slowly half an hour; then add one pint of light stock or water and the bones of one of the chickens. Cover the pan, and place in a moderate oven for one hour, basting frequently with the gravy. If the gravy should cook away, add a little more stock or water, (there should be nearly a pint of it at the end of the hour). Take up the fillets, and drain; then cover them with soft butter, and dredge lightly with flour. Broil till a light brown. Serve on a hot dish with the sauce poured around. Or, they can be dressed on a mound of mashed potato, with a garnish of any green vegetable at the base, the sauce to be poured around it. To make the sauce: Skim all the fat from the gravy in which the fillets were cooked. Cook one table-spoonful of butter and one heaping teaspoonful of flour together until a light brown; then add the gravy, and boil up once. Taste to see if seasoned enough, and strain.
Cut a chicken into pieces the size you wish to serve at the table. Wash clean, and put in a stew-pan with about one-eighth of a pound of salt pork, which has been cut in small pieces. Cover with cold water, and boil gently until the chicken begins to grow tender, which will be in about an hour, unless the chicken is old. Season rather highly with salt and pepper, add three tea-cupfuls of rice, which has been picked and washed, and let boil thirty or forty minutes longer. There should be a good quart of liquor in the stew-pan when the rice is added. Care must be taken that it does not burn. Instead of chicken any kind of meat may be used.
Make a mince of any cold white meat, such as veal, pork or chicken, and add to it some minced ham; sprinkle it with a thick white sauce. In the meantime the chicories should be cooking; tie each one round with a thread to keep them firm and boil them for ten minutes. When cooked, drain them well, open them lengthwise very carefully, and slip in a spoonful of the mince. Close them, keeping the leaves very neat, and, if necessary, tie them round again. Put them in a fire-proof dish with a lump of butter on each, and let them heat through. Serve them in their juice or with more of the white sauce, taking care to remove the threads. [Madame Limpens.]
Get a turkey that has not been frozen (freezing makes it tear easily). See that every part is whole; one with a little break in the skin will not do. Cut off the legs, in the joints, and the tips of the wings. Do not draw the bird. Place it on its breast, and with a small, sharp boning knife, cut in a straight line through to the bone, from the neck down to that part of the bird where there is but little flesh, where it is all skin and fat. Begin at the neck, and run the knife between the flesh and the bones until you come to the wing. Then cut the ligaments that hold the bones together and the tendons that hold the flesh to the bones. With the thumb and fore-finger, press the flesh from the smooth bone. When you come to the joint, carefully separate the ligaments and remove the bone. Do not try to take the bone from the next joint, as that is not in the way when carving, and it gives a more natural shape to the bird. Now begin at the wish-bone, and when that is free from the flesh, run the knife between the sides and the flesh, always using the fingers to press the meat from the smooth bones, as, for instance, the breast-bone and lower part of the sides. Work around the legs the same as you did around the wings, always using great care at the joints not to cut the skin. Drawing out the leg bones turns that part of the bird inside out. Turn the bird over, and proceed in the same manner with the other side. When all is detached, carefully draw the skin from the breast-bone; then run the knife between the fat and bone at the rump, leaving the small bone in the extreme end, as it holds the skewers. Carefully remove the flesh from the skeleton, and turn it right side out again. Rub into it two table-spoonfuls of salt and a little pepper, and fill with dressing. Sew up the back and neck and then the vent. Truss the same as if not boned. Take a strong piece of cotton cloth and pin the bird firmly in it, drawing very tight at the legs, as this is the broadest place, and the shape will not be good unless this precaution be taken. Steam three hours, and then place on a buttered tin sheet, which put in a baking pan. Baste well with butter, pepper, salt and flour. Roast one hour, basting every ten minutes, and twice with stock. When cold, remove the skewers and strings, and garnish with aspic jelly, cooked beets and parsley. To carve: First cut off the wings, then about two thick slices from the neck, where it will be quite fat, and then cut in thin slices. Serve jelly with each plate. Filling for a turkey weighing eight pounds: The flesh of one chicken weighing four pounds, one pound of clear veal, half a pound of clear salt pork, one small capful of cracker crumbs, two eggs, one cupful of broth, two and a half table-spoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, one teaspoonful of summer savory, one of sweet majoram, one of thyme, half a spoonful of sage, and, if you like, one table-spoonful of capers, one quart of oysters and two table-spoonfuls of onion juice. Have the meat uncooked and free from any tough pieces. Chop very fine. Add seasoning, crackers, etc., mix thoroughly, and use. If oysters are used, half a pound of the veal must be omitted. Where one cannot eat veal, use chicken instead. Veal is recommended for its cheapness. Why people choose boned turkey instead of a plain roast turkey or chicken, is not plain, for the flavor is not so good; but at the times and places where boned birds are used, it is a very appropriate dish. That is, at suppers, lunches and parties, where the guests are served standing, it is impracticable to provide anything that cannot be broken with a fork or spoon; therefore, the advantage of a boned turkey, chicken, or bird, is apparent. One turkey weighing eight pounds before being boned, will serve thirty persons at a party, if there are, also, say oysters, rolls, coffee, ices, cake and cream. If the supper is very elaborate the turkey will answer for one of the dishes for a hundred or more persons. If nothing more were gained in the boning of a bird, the knowledge of the anatomy and the help this will give in carving, pay to bone two or three chickens. It is advisable to bone at least two fowls before trying a turkey, for if you spoil them there is nothing lost, as they make a stew or soup. Aspic jelly: One and a half pints of clear stock--beef if for amber jelly, and chicken or veal if for white; half a box of gelatine, the white of one egg, half a cupful of cold water, two cloves, one large slice of onion, twelve pepper-corns, one stalk of celery, salt. Soak gelatine two hours in the cold water. Then put on with other ingredients, the white of the egg being beaten with one spoonful of the cold stock. Let come to a boil, and set back where it will just simmer for twenty minutes. Strain through a napkin, turn into a mould or shallow dish, and put away to harden. The jelly can be made with the bones of the turkey and chicken, by washing them, covering with cold water and boiling down to about three pints; by then straining and setting away to cool, and in the morning skimming off all the fat and turning off the clear stock. The bones may, instead, be used for a soup.
Cut the livers in pieces the size of a half dollar, and have thin slices of bacon of the same size. Nearly fill a small wire skewer with these, alternating. Place in the frying basket and plunge into boiling fat for about one minute. Serve on the skewers, or on toast, with thin slices of lemon for a garnish. Or, the skewers can be rested on the sides of a narrow baking pan and placed in a hot oven for five minutes. Serve as before. The livers of all other kinds of poultry can be cooked the same as chicken.
Make three pints of force-meat. (See force-meat for game.) Cut all the solid meat from four grouse. Lard each piece with very fine strips of pork. Put half a cupful of butter and a finely-cut onion in a frying- pan. Stir until the onion is yellow; then put in the grouse, and cook slowly, with the cover on, for forty minutes. Stir occasionally. Take up the grouse, and put three table-spoonfuls of flour with the butter remaining in the pan. Stir until brown; add one quart of stock, two table-spoonfuls of glaze, a bouquet of sweet herbs, and four cloves. Simmer twenty minutes, and strain. Butter a four-quart earthen dish, and cover the bottom and sides with the force-meat. Put in a layer of the grouse, and moisten well with the gravy, which must be highly seasoned with salt and pepper; then put in the yolks of six hard- boiled eggs, and the whites, cut into rings. Moisten with gravy, and add another layer of grouse, and of eggs and gravy. Twelve eggs should be used. Make a paste as for chicken pie. Cover with this, and bake one hour and a half. Serve either hot or cold. Any kind of meat pasties can be made in the same manner. With a veal pastie put in a few slices of cooked ham.
Take four or five chickens, cut them in peices, take two or three Sweet-breads parboyl'd and cut the peices as big as walnuts; take the Udder of Veal cut in thin slices, or little slices of Bacon, the bottom of Hartichoaks boyl'd, then make your coffin proportionable to your meat, season your meat with Nutmeg, Mace and Salt, then some butter on the top of the Pye, put a little water into it as you put it into the Oven, and let it bake an hour, then put in a leer of butter, Gravy of Mutton, eight Lemons sliced; so serve it.
Prepare them by cutting them up the same as chicken for fricassee. Lay two or three very thin slices of salt pork upon the bottom of a stewpan; lay the pieces of duck upon the pork. Let them stew slowly for an hour, closely covered. Then season with salt and pepper, half a teaspoonful of powdered sage, or some green sage minced fine; one chopped onion. Stew another half hour until the duck is tender. Stir up a large tablespoonful of brown flour in a little water and add it to the stew. Let it boil up, and serve all together in one dish, accompanied with green peas. Palmer House, Chicago.
Lard the fillets, having four fine strips of pork for each one, and season with salt and pepper. Dip in beaten egg and in fine bread crumbs. Fry ten minutes in boiling fat. Serve on a hot dish with a spoonful of Tartare sauce on each.
