Part 17

1½ tbp chicken fat or butter, 1¾ tbp flour, ½ c hot chicken stock, ½ c scalded milk, ¼ c scalded cream, ½ tsp salt, 2 tbp butter, 1 c cold broiled fowl, cut in strips, ½ c sauteed sliced mushroom caps, ¼ c canned pimientos, cut in strips, yolk 1 egg.

Melt fat; add flour and stir until well blended; then pour on gradually, while stirring constantly, stock, milk and cream; bring to the boiling point and add salt, butter bit by bit, fowl, mushroom caps and pimientos; again bring to the boiling point and add egg yolk, slightly beaten; saute the mushroom caps in butter 5 min.

GIBLETS

Do not use giblets from old fowls. A healthy liver has a light color and uniform texture; remove membranes, arteries and clotted blood around the heart; separate gall bladder from liver, taking great care that bladder is not broken; cut fat and membranes from gizzard; make an incision through thick muscle of gizzard, being careful not to cut membrane of bag inside; peel muscle off, and cook until tender; placing them in cold water and heating to boiling point; the stock is to be used for gravy. The giblets may be minced fine and added to gravy.

Smooth legs of a fowl less than a year old may be used; scald and skin; place in cold salted water and cook slowly. 3 pairs of chicken feet will make a pint of jelly as fine and just as nutritious as calf’s feet jelly.

POULTRY STUFFING

1 small onion, 3 tbp fat, 3 c soft bread crumbs, 1 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp pepper, 1 tsp poultry seasoning.

Slice onion and fry in fat until a delicate brown; add bread crumbs, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning and mix well.

CRACKER STUFFING

2 c cracker crumbs, 2 c soft bread crumbs, 1 c butter, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, 2 c scalded milk, 2 eggs.

Follow directions for Bread Stuffing; adding eggs slightly beaten.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES

Stir 1 pt fine chopped chicken into 1¼ c of sauce, made of ⅓ c of flour, 3 tbp butter, 1 c chicken stock, ¼ c cream; season with a few drops of onion extract, 1 tsp lemon juice, ½ tsp celery salt and pepper; when thoroughly chilled, form into cylindrical shapes; roll in egg and bread crumbs and fry in deep fat; serve surrounded with cooked peas and figures stamped from cooked slices of carrot seasoned with salt, paprika and butter.

CHICKEN WITH RICE

An old fowl may be used. Clean and cut into pieces as for frying and roll in seasoned flour or meal. In a frying pan put a small amount of fat; add a sliced onion and a chopped green pepper, and cook until tender; brown the chicken quickly in the seasoned fat; add 2 c hot water and 1½ c cooked rice; cover closely and cook slowly until the chicken is tender; adding more water if necessary.

CREAMED CHICKEN

To 1½ c white sauce add 2 c diced cooked chicken; heat thoroughly; season with salt, paprika and chopped parsley, and serve on toast or in pastry or mashed potato cases. A chopped hard-boiled egg may be used for garnishing.

CHICKEN GRAVY

Pour off liquid in pan in which chicken has been roasted; from liquid skim off 4 tbp fat; return fat to pan, and brown with 4 tbp flour; add 2 c stock in which giblets, neck and tips of wings have been cooked; cook 5 min; season with salt and pepper, then strain. The remaining fat may be used in place of butter for frying potatoes, or for basting when roasting another chicken.

For =Giblet Gravy=: Add to the above giblets (heart, liver and gizzard) finely chopped.

CHICKEN-CORN PUDDING

3 lb chicken, 1 qt green corn, cut fine, 3 eggs, 1 pt sweet milk, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper, few grains cayenne.

Clean, dress and cut the chicken in small pieces; simmer in a covered kettle until it begins to grow tender; remove to a buttered baking dish; seasoning well with salt and pepper; combine the corn, scalded milk, seasoning and beaten egg; pour this mixture over the chicken; cover the top with fine buttered bread crumbs and bake in a moderate oven for 25 min or until set and a delicate brown; reduce the stock in which the chicken was cooked 1 pt; make a gravy and serve with the pudding.

CHICKEN CAKES

1 c chopped, cold, cooked chicken, or turkey, 1 tbp cream, 1 egg, slightly beaten, ¼ tsp salt. Few grains pepper.

Mix ingredients in order given, shape in small, flat cakes, dip in egg and crumbs, and saute in butter until well browned on both sides. Remove to hot platter and pour around one cup white sauce, to which has been added (just before serving time) ⅓ cup celery cut in small pieces.

CREAMED CHICKEN

2 c cold cooked chicken, cut in dice, 2 c white sauce, ⅛ tsp celery salt.

Heat chicken dice in sauce, to which celery salt has been added. Let stand in double boiler 30 min.

CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOMS

Add to creamed chicken ¼ c sauteed sliced mushroom caps.

CHICKEN WITH POTATO

Serve creamed chicken in potato border.

JELLIED CHICKEN

Dress, clean, and cut up a 4-pound fowl. Put in a stewpan with 2 slices onion, cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until meat falls from bones. When half cooked, add ½ tbp salt. Remove chicken; reduce stock to ¾ c, strain, and skim off fat. Decorate bottom of a mould with parsley and slices of hard-boiled eggs. Pack in meat freed from skin and bone and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Pour on stock and place mould under heavy weight. Keep in a cold place until firm. In summer it is necessary to add 1 tsp dissolved granulated gelatine to stock.

CHICKEN SOUFFLE

2 c cold chicken chopped fine, 2 c scalded milk, 2 tbp butter, 2 tbp flour, 1 tsp chopped parsley, ½ c bread crumbs, 1 tsp salt, few grains cayenne, 4 eggs.

Melt butter, add flour and seasonings, cook; add gradually the milk, cooking to a smooth cream, add to this the parsley, bread crumbs and the chicken. Combine with beaten yolks; lastly fold in the whites beaten stiff. Turn into a buttered baking dish, bake in a slow oven 35 min.

ROAST TURKEY

Dress, clean, stuff, and truss a 10-lb turkey, same as a chicken; place on its side on rack in pan, spread breast, legs, and wings with ⅓ c fat; sprinkle with salt and pepper and a little flour; dredge bottom of pan with flour; place in hot oven; when flour on turkey begins to brown, reduce heat; baste every 20 min until turkey is cooked; this will require about 3 hr. Use ½ c fat melted in ½ c boiling water for basting; pour water in pan during cooking as needed to prevent flour from burning; turn turkey frequently so it will brown evenly. Cover with buttered paper to prevent burning. Garnish with parsley, watercress, or celery tips. Use double the quantity of stuffing given in recipe.

BRAISED TURKEY

Prepare as for roasting, brown lightly in frying pan or quick oven, remove to braising pan with onions and sweet herbs or vegetables. Cover and cook slowly for 4 hr or until tender.

GRAVY

Pour off liquid in pan in which turkey has been roasted. From liquid skim off 6 tbp fat; return fat to pan and brown with 6 tbp flour; pour on gradually 3 c stock in which giblets, neck, and tips of wings have been cooked, or use liquor left in pan. Cook 5 min, season with salt and pepper; strain. For giblet gravy add to the above, giblets (heart, liver, and gizzard) finely chopped.

CHESTNUT GRAVY

To 2 c thin turkey gravy add ¾ c cooked and mashed chestnuts.

TO CARVE TURKEY

Bird should be placed on back, with legs at right of platter for carving. Introduce carving fork across breastbone, hold firmly in left hand, and with carving knife in right hand cut through skin between leg and body, close to body. With knife pull back leg and disjoint from body. Then cut off wing. Remove leg and wing from other side. Separate second joints from drum-sticks, and divide wings at joints. Carve breast meat in thin crosswise slices. Under back on either side of backbone may be found two small, oyster-shaped pieces of dark meat, which are dainty tidbits. Chicken and fowl are carved in the same way. For a small family carve but one side of a turkey, that remainder may be left in better condition for second serving.

ROAST DUCK

Dress, singe, wash and wipe duck same as a chicken. Stuff with dressing; tie wings and legs close to body; spread with melted fat and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a flour; put in a hot oven for 15 min; then add 1 c water; reduce heat and cook until done. This will take 20 min for every pound. Baste often, adding hot water if necessary; serve with stewed prunes, apricots or apple sauce. The prunes or apricots can be cooked in the pan with the duck.

ROAST GOOSE

Singe, remove pin feathers, and scrub a goose in hot soap suds, then remove the insides and rinse well in clear cold water. Wipe dry the inside and out, stuff, truss, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast in a hot oven for 2 hours. For the 1st hr of roasting the breast should be covered with buttered paper. Baste every 15 min. When done place on a hot platter and remove skewers and strings. Garnish with browned apples and watercress.

=Stuffing=: Chop an onion fine, blanch and drain, fry with a little butter, mix it with 2 c well seasoned mashed potatoes, 1 c bread crumbs, adding sage if liked.

=Browned Apples=: Pare 6 small sour apples and brown in butter and sugar, 1 tbp of each. Stew in broth enough to barely cover. Remove apples as soon as tender; boil the broth to a glaze and roll the apples in it.

STEWED DUCK

Singe, draw, and cut into 8 pieces each, 2 spring ducks. Season with pepper and salt and fry to a light brown on both sides in butter. Add a sliced onion and 4 oz raw, lean ham cut in dice. As soon as these have browned a little dredge with 1½ oz flour and fry again till the flour is brown, then add 1½ pt beef broth, a gill of port wine, a bunch of parsley and sweet herbs to taste, cover closely and cook ¾ hr. Remove the herbs, skim off all the fat and serve in a potato border.

SALMI OF DUCKS (English)

Stew the giblets of 1 or more ducks in veal gravy till they are tender, seasoning them highly with cayenne, shallots, pepper and salt. Cut the roast duck into large dice and lay in the stewpan with the gravy, simmer till hot through, then squeeze a bitter orange into the gravy, strain it over the pieces of duck neatly arranged on bread croutons and send to table smoking hot.

PIGEON PIE

Dress, clean, and truss 6 pigeons and saute in salt pork fat until entire surface is seared, turning frequently. Put in a kettle, nearly cover with boiling water, and add ½ tsp peppercorns, 1 onion, stuck with 8 cloves, 8 slices carrot, 2 sprigs parsley, and 2 stalks celery, and let simmer 5 hr. Remove pigeons, strain liquor, and thicken with 4 tbp butter melted and cooked with 3 tbp flour. Reheat pigeons in sauce, arrange in a pastry case, and cover with a pastry top.

SQUABS EN CASSEROLE

Dress, clean, and truss 3 jumbo squabs. Put in casserole, brush over with melted butter, cover, and bake 10 min. Add ½ c chicken stock, again cover, and cook until squabs are tender. Add 1 c boiled potato balls, 1 bunch cooked asparagus, and 5 Bermuda onions, peeled, cut in ¼″ slices, broiled over a clear fire, and then brushed over with melted butter and sprinkled with salt.

ROAST PIGEONS

Prepare exactly according to the directions for roast chicken, but unless they are surely young and fat they are much better to be steamed for 30 to 40 min before putting them into the oven. Use a generous measure of butter as the meat is rather dry.

BROILED SQUAB

The birds should be full grown but not yet out of the nest, or not more than a day or two. Singe, draw, split down the back. Crack the large bones, flatten with a heavy cleaver. Season with salt and pepper and broil slowly. Serve on dry toast with hot Maitre d’ Hotel butter poured over. Garnish with watercress.

ROAST RABBIT

Wash the rabbit well with soda water. Lay in salted water for an hr. Stuff with onion, celery, or chestnut dressing and sew up. In a baking dish place the following:

1 onion, a few cloves, 1 bay leaf, 1 carrot (diced), whole pepper corns.

Rub the rabbit with salt and pepper and place in pan, putting fat here and there over the rabbit. Sift a little flour over the top and pour a cup of stock or hot water into the pan. Cover tightly and roast, basting frequently. When ready to serve, place on hot platter and garnish with slices of lemon and cranberry or current jelly.

SPICED RABBIT

Wash rabbit in soda water. Disjoint hind legs; cut off the saddle, remove the fore quarters. This makes 9 pieces in all. Lay in salt water about an hr. Place rabbit in dish and cover with weak vinegar. Allow to remain overnight. Remove from pickle, salt each piece slightly, and arrange in baking pan. Cut an onion over it and add 1 bay leaf, a dozen pepper corns, a stalk or some leaves of celery, some parsley, a c of stock, and some of the vinegar in which the meat was soaked. Cover and bake until tender in a moderate oven. Remove to hot dish. Make gravy from the stock in the pan, using drippings and enough browned flour to thicken. Be sure it is well seasoned and pour over the rabbit.

BROILED RABBIT

Skin, singe and wipe the rabbit. Prepare for the broiler like chicken and cook over charcoal embers till done. Season with salt and pepper just before it is finished and pour over melted butter mixed with 2 tbp vinegar and 1 of made mustard. Serve with Ravigote sauce.

ROAST HARE

Skin and wipe the hare, stuff and sew up carefully. Truss the forelegs back and the hind legs forward, and put in baking pan; fasten thin slices of bacon over the shoulders and back, put into a quick oven and bake 1½ hr, basting every 10 min with ¼ c butter in ½ c of boiling water. Turn the hare several times when baking. When half done dredge with flour and baste once more. Remove to a hot platter and garnish with slices of lemon and watercress.

=Stuffing=: Make a moist stuffing as for chicken, using the water in which the giblets were boiled and working in the minced giblet meat.

SQUIRRELS

The large gray and fox squirrels are the best for eating and may be prepared cooked in any way suitable for rabbits.

SQUIRREL POT-PIE

Prepare squirrels as rabbits, cut in pieces, flour and fry brown in a little good dripping, and place in a stew pan. Add 1 qt boiling water, ¼ lemon sliced very thin, a tsp of salt, a small glass of sherry and 1 minced onion fried brown in a tbp of butter. Cover all closely and stew for an hr. Make a delicate biscuit crust, cut in rounds and lay them on the top of the squirrel, let them boil, covered closely, for 15 min; pile the squirrel in the center of a hot platter, arrange dumplings along it. Thicken the gravy with 1 tbp flour browned in 1 tbp of butter and pour gravy over meat.

ROAST VENISON

Roast venison is best to be thoroughly larded, ½ lb. pork to a leg or saddle weighing 8 to 10 lb. Cut the flanks from a saddle, and trim the haunch to good shape. Roast according to general directions, basting at the end of the first 5 min and every 15 min after. It is very nice to use claret instead of the dripping of the pan. An hour and a quarter will cook it very rare; for most people an hour and three-quarters will be none too much. Make a good gravy from the drippings in the pan, adding stock made from the bits trimmed away before roasting. Currant jelly is usually served with it.

PRESERVES

Home canning is the best means of providing a sufficient supply of vegetables and fruit during the winter months in localities where markets are not easily accessible or the price of fresh products is high. For those who do not have gardens and orchards the farmers’ road-side stands and home markets afford excellent opportunity to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, in season, at surprisingly low cost. Canning saves money, labor, time and energy. Select fresh, clean fruits and vegetables. Test every jar thoroughly. Blanch. Dip the product in and out of water—the colder the water, the better. Pack clean hot jars with the cold-dipped products, adding salt to vegetables. Pour on boiling liquid to within ¼″ of top. Place on rubbers and covers and partially seal. Sterilize products required time. Begin to count when water boils. Remove jars and seal at once. Place out of a draught to cool. Label, wrap, and store on a cool dry shelf. The cold-pack method may be relied upon to kill all bacteria, and if directions are carefully followed there will be no bad jars on your shelf.

Most commonly in use are the hot-water-bath canners and racks. There are a number of well made racks, both large enough to fit into the wash boiler, and small enough to be used even in the single kettle, and this equipment will prove practical in hundreds of cases where a boiler or a kettle is available as a container.

Use new rubber rings. After washing jars place them in a large pan, cover with boiling water, until ready to fill. All vegetables and some fruits are blanched or scalded as a first step in the coldpack method. The easiest way to blanch is to use a large cheese cloth bag or a square piece will do. Tie the washed product in bag or cloth and place in boiling water to cover for time stated in time table. A wire basket is better for tomatoes and larger vegetables. With delicately flavored greens and green vegetables, the blanching is accomplished most satisfactorily in steam since by blanching in the boiling water a quantity of the mineral salts which makes green vegetables valuable may be lost. A colander placed over boiling water may be used for this process, or a steam pressure canner, if you have one.

The cold-dip immediately follows blanching. Immediately after removal from boiling water, vegetables should be dipped in and out of cold water. This treatment cools the food sufficiently to arrest all flow of juices, sets the color and makes product firm and easily handled. Do not allow product to remain for any length of time in cold water.

Pack product into clean, hot jars or tin cans. An aluminum filling funnel makes the process simple. With such vegetables as peas, beans, beets and carrots, do not crush, but fill jars closely to within ½″ from top, using a spoon to insure a close pack.

Fill jars with boiling syrup or boiling water. The vegetables should have 1 tsp salt to each quart jar, then add boiling water up to within ¼″ of top. After filling, clasp jars, put on sterilized rubbers and hot covers. If clasp type of jar is used, clamp upper clamp into position but do not touch lower clamp. This leaves jar loosely sealed. If a boiler is used, fill with warm water and place jars carefully on rack, being sure that they do not touch each other. The water should cover the tops of the jars 1″ at least.

The time of cooking is counted from the minute the water begins to boil and continues to boil. Count no time that is not real boiling, because the bacteria that you wish to kill are killed only by a high temperature.

As soon as the sterilizing is completed, remove jars from boiler and place on a padded cloth of soft material or newspapers. Many cracked jars have been caused by placing the heated jar on a cold metal table or placing them so that draft will strike the glass. Be rapid in this part of the work. Seal jars tight. These time tables are based on the use of 1-qt jars. Use same time for pt and ½-pt jars. For ½-gal jars add 20% to time specified in table. If steam pressure cooker is used process 10 min at 5 lb pressure.

TIME TABLE FOR CANNING FRUITS

=Product= =Treatment before Canning= =Hotwater =Syrup= Bath One- Period (minutes)= Apples Wash, pare, core, cut into 20 Thin pieces, place in salt bath, pack, cover with boiling syrup Apricots Wipe with damp cloth, do not 20 Thin peel, halve and pit, pack, cover with boiling syrup Berries: Wash, stem, pack in jars, cover 20 Medium Blackberries with boiling syrup Blueberries Dewberries Elderberries Huckleberries Loganberries Mulberries Raspberries Gooseberries Grapes Cherries Wash, stem, pit, pack, cover with 20 Medium boiling syrup Currants Wash, stem, pack in jars, cover 20 Medium with boiling syrup Figs Wash, place in soda bath, drain, 20 Medium rinse, cover with boiling syrup Peaches Select them firm, ripe, blanch 3 20 Medium min, peel, cold-dip, pack Pears Select slightly under-ripe pears, 20 Thin pare, quarter, place in cold salt bath, boil in syrup, pack, cover with boiling syrup Plums Wash, prick skins, pack cold, 20 Medium cover with boiling syrup Pineapple Peel, remove eyes, cut, slice or 30 Thin shred, pack cold, cover with boiling syrup Rhubarb Wash, cut into small pieces, 16 Medium blanch 3 min, cold-dip, pack, cover with boiling syrup Strawberries Wash, stem, boil gently 15 min in 16 Medium syrup, let stand in syrup several hrs, reheat, fill jars, seal Fruit Juices Crush fruit, heat slowly, strain, 30 pour into jars

SYRUP TABLE

=Syrup= =Proportions= =Directions= Thin Syrup 1 part sugar to 1 part Boil sugar and water water together Medium Syrup 3 parts sugar to 2 parts until sugar is dissolved. water Thick Syrup 2 parts sugar to 1 part Fruit juice may be used in water place of water.

TIME TABLE FOR CANNING VEGETABLES