Part 14

The excellence of spring chickens depends as much on feeding as on cooking them. If there are conveniences for building a coop, say five feet square, on the ground, where some spring chickens can be kept for a few weeks, feeding them with the scraps from the kitchen, and grain, they will be found plump, the meat white, and the flavor quite different from the thin, poorly fed chickens just from market.

The Southern negro cooks have certainly the best way of cooking spring chickens, and the manner is very simple. Cut them into pieces, dip each piece hastily in water, then sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and roll it in plenty of flour. Have some lard in a _sauté_ pan very hot, in which fry, or rather _sauté_, the chickens, covering them well, and watching that they may not burn. When done, arrange them on a hot dish; pour out the lard from the spider, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; throw in a cupful or more of milk, or, better, cream thickened with a little flour; stir it constantly, seasoning it with pepper and salt; pour it over the chickens. It makes a pleasant change to add chopped parsley to the gravy.

A nice dish is made by serving cauliflowers in the same platter with the dressing poured over both; or with potatoes cut out in little balls, and boiled in very salt water, served in the same way; or they may be surrounded with water-cresses.

SPRING CHICKENS, BAKED.

Cut them open at the back, spread them out in a baking-pan, sprinkle on plenty of pepper, salt, and a little flour. Baste them well with hot water, which should be in the bottom of the pan, also at different times with a little butter. When done, rub butter over them, as you would beefsteak, and set them in the oven for a moment before serving.

ROAST AND BOILED CHICKENS.

Chickens are roasted and boiled as are turkeys. In winter there is no better way of cooking chickens than to boil them whole, and pour over them a good caper or pickle sauce just before serving. A large tough chicken is very good managed in this manner. Of course, the chicken should be put into _boiling_ water, which should not stop boiling until the chicken is entirely done. With this management it will retain its flavor, yet the water in which it is boiled should always be saved for soup. It is a valuable addition to any kind of soup. The cut represents a chicken in a bed of rice.

BAKED CHICKENS OR FISH (_for Camping Parties_).

Dress the chickens or fish, making as small incisions as possible, and without removing the skin, feathers, or scales. Fill them with the usual bread stuffing, well seasoned with chopped pork, onion, pepper, and salt. Sew the cut quite firmly. Cover the chicken or fish entirely with wet clay, spreading it half an inch to an inch thick. Bury it in a bed of hot ashes, with coals on top, and let it bake about an hour and a quarter if it weighs two pounds. The skin, feathers, or scales will peel off when removing the cake of clay, leaving the object quite clean, and especially delicious with that “best of sauces, a good appetite;” however, there is no reason why a camping party should not indulge in other sauces at the same time.

A chicken may be surrounded in the same way with a paste of flour and water, and baked in the oven.

A FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN.

Cut two chickens into pieces. Reserve all the white meat and the best pieces for the fricassee. The trimmings and the inferior pieces use to make the gravy. Put these pieces into a porcelain kettle, with a quart of cold water, one clove, pepper, salt, a small onion, a little bunch of parsley, and a small piece of pork; let it simmer for half an hour, and then put in the pieces for the fricassee; let them boil slowly until they are quite done; take them out then, and keep them in a hot place. Now strain the gravy, take off all the fat, and add it to a _roux_ of half a cupful of flour and a small piece of butter. Let this boil; take it off the stove and stir in three yolks of eggs mixed with two or three table-spoonfuls of cream; also the juice of half a lemon. Do not let it boil after the eggs are in, or they will curdle. Stir it well, keeping it hot a moment; then pour it over the chicken, and serve. Some of the fricassees with long and formidable names are not much more than wine or mushrooms, or both, added to this receipt.

FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN (_Mrs. Gratz Brown_).

_Sauté_ a chicken (cut into pieces) with a little minced onion, in hot lard. When the pieces are brown, add a table-spoonful of flour, and let it cook a minute, stirring it constantly. Add then one and a half pints of boiling water or stock, a table-spoonful of vinegar, a table-spoonful of sherry, a tea-spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. When it is taken off the fire, strain the sauce, taking off any particles of fat; mix in the yolk of an egg. Pour it over the chicken, and serve.

RANAQUE CHICKENS.

After the first experience in making this chicken dish, it is not difficult to prepare, and it makes an exceedingly nice course for dinner. With a sharp penknife, slit the chicken down the back; then, keeping the knife close to the bones, scrape down the sides, and the bones will come out. Break them at the joints when coming to the drumsticks and wing-bones. These bones are left in. Now chop fine, cold cooked lamb enough to stuff the chicken; season it with pepper, salt, one even tea-spoonful of summer savory, two heaping table-spoonfuls of chopped pork, and _plenty_ of lemon-juice, or juice of one lemon. Stuff the chicken, and sew it, giving it a good shape; turn the ends of the wings under the back, and tie them there firmly, also the legs of the chicken down close to the back, so that the top may present a plump surface, to carve in slices across, without having bones in the way. Now lard the chicken two or three rows on top. If you have no larding-needle, cut open the skin with the penknife, and insert the little pieces of pork, all of equal length and size. Bake this until it is thoroughly done, basting it very often (once or twice with a little butter). Pour a tomato-sauce (see page 125) around it in the bottom of the dish in which it is served.

CHICKEN BREASTS.

Trim the breasts of some chickens to resemble trimmed lamb chops. Stick a leg bone (the joints cut off at each end) into the end of each cutlet; pepper and salt them, roll them in flour, and fry them in a _sauté_ pan with butter. Serve them in a circle in a dish with pease, mashed potatoes, cauliflowers, beans, or tomatoes, or almost any kind of vegetable, in the centre. They are still nicer larded on one side, choosing the same side for all of them. When larded, they should not be rolled in flour. This is a very nice course for a dinner company. These fillets are also nice served in a circle, with the same sauce poured in the centre as is served with deviled chicken.

DEVILED CHICKEN, WITH SAUCE (_Cunard Steamer_).

The chicken is boiled tender in a little salted water. When cold, it is cut into pieces; these pieces are basted with butter, and broiled.

_Sauce._--One tea-spoonful of made mustard, two table-spoonfuls of Worcestershire sauce, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; boil all together, and pour over the chicken. This dish is generally served on the Cunard steamers for supper. Or, boil the chickens, cut them into pieces, pepper and salt them, roll them in flour, _sauté_ them in a little hot lard, and serve cream-sauce, the same as for fried spring chickens. This makes a good winter breakfast.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES (_French Cook_).

Boil one chicken, with an onion and a clove of garlic (if you have it) thrown into the water, add some bones and pieces of beef also; this will make a stock, if you have not some already saved. Cut the chicken, when cooked, into small dice; mince half of a large onion, or one small one, and two sprigs of parsley together. Put into a saucepan a piece of butter the size of a small egg; when hot, put in the minced onion and parsley and half a cupful of flour; stir well until it is well cooked and of a light-brown color; then add a cupful and a half of stock, or of the stock in the kettle, boiled down or reduced until it is quite strong, then freed of fat; the stronger the stock, the better of course. Stir it into a smooth paste, add pepper, salt, not quite half of a grated nutmeg, the juice of about a quarter of a lemon, and two table-spoonfuls of sherry, Madeira, or port wine. When all is well stirred, mix in the pieces of chicken. Mold into the ordinary _croquette_ shape, or into the form of pears. When they are egged and cracker-crumbed, fry them in boiling-hot lard. If they are molded into pear shape, a little stem of parsley may be stuck into each pear after it is cooked, to represent the pear stem.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES (_Mrs. Chauncey I. Filley_).

Ingredients: Two chickens and two sets of brains, both boiled; one tea-cupful of suet, chopped fine; two sprigs of parsley, chopped; one nutmeg, grated; an even table-spoonful of onion, after it is chopped as fine as possible; the juice and grated rind of one lemon; salt and black and red pepper, to taste. Chop the meat very fine; mix all well together; add cream until it is quite moist, or just right for molding. This quantity will make two dozen _croquettes_. Now mold them as in cut (see above); dip them into beaten egg, and roll them in pounded cracker or bread-crumbs; fry in boiling-hot lard. Cold meat of any kind can be made into _croquettes_ following this receipt, only substituting an equal amount of meat for the chicken, and of boiled rice for the brains. Cold lamb or veal is especially good in _croquettes_. Cold beef is very good also. Many prefer two cupfuls of boiled rice (fresh boiled and still hot when mixed with the chicken) for the chicken _croquettes_, instead of brains.

CHICKEN CUTLETS.

These cutlets are only chicken _croquettes_ in a different form. Prepare them like trimmed lamb chops, in the following manner: Make a shape pointed at one end and round at the other; then press it with the blade of a knife, giving it the shape of a cutlet. Egg and bread-crumb these cutlets, and fry them in boiling lard; then stick in a paper ruffle at the pointed end. Serve them, one cutlet overlapping the other, in a circle, with a tomato-sauce in the centre of it, or around a pile of mushrooms or of pease. This is considered a very palatable dish for a dinner company.

CHICKEN, WITH MACARONI OR WITH RICE (_French Cook_).

Cut the chicken into pieces; fry or _sauté_ them in a little hot drippings, or in butter the size of an egg; when nearly done, put the pieces into another saucepan; add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour to the hot drippings, and brown it. Mix a little cold or lukewarm water to the _roux_; when smooth, add a pint or more of boiling water; pour this over the chicken in the saucepan, add a chopped sprig of parsley, a clove of garlic, pepper, and salt. Let the chicken boil half or three-quarters of an hour, or until it is thoroughly done; then take out the pieces of chicken. Pass the sauce through a sieve, and remove all the fat. Have ready some macaroni which has been boiled in salted water, and let it boil in this sauce. Arrange the pieces of chicken tastefully on a dish; pour the macaroni and sauce over them, and serve; or, instead of macaroni, use boiled rice, which may be managed in the same way as the macaroni.

CHETNEY OF CHICKEN (_Mrs. E. L. Youmans_).

Ingredients: One large or two small chickens, one-quart can of tomatoes, butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, one table-spoonful of flour, one heaping tea-spoonful of minced onion, one tea-spoonful of minced pork, one small bottle of chetney (one gill).

Press the tomatoes through a sieve. Put the butter (one and a half ounces) into a stew-pan, and when hot throw in the minced onions; cook them a few minutes, then add the flour, which cook thoroughly; now pour in the tomato pulp, seasoned with pepper, salt, and the minced pork, and stir it thoroughly with an egg-whisk until quite smooth, and then mix well into it the chetney, and next the cooked chicken cut into pieces. The chicken may be _sautéd_ (if young) in a little hot fat, or it may be roasted or boiled as for a fricassee. The chicken is neatly arranged on a hot platter, with the sauce poured over. Slices of beef (the fillet preferable) may be served in the same way with the chetney sauce.

This chetney is an Indian sauce, and can be procured at the first-class groceries.

CURRY OF CHICKEN (_Mrs. Youmans_).

Cut the chicken into pieces, leaving out the body bones; season them with pepper and salt; fry them in a _sauté_ pan in butter; cut an onion into small slices, which fry in the butter until quite red; now add a tea-cupful of stock freed from fat, an even tea-spoonful of sugar, and a table-spoonful of curry-powder, mixed with a little flour; rub the curry-powder and flour smooth with a little stock before adding it to the saucepan; put in the chicken pieces, and let them boil two or three minutes; add then the juice of half a lemon. Serve this in the centre of a bed of boiled rice.

Veal, lamb, rabbits, or turkey may be cooked in the same way. The addition of half a cocoa-nut, grated, is an improvement.

CHICKENS FOR SUPPER (_Mrs. Roberts, of Utica_).

After having boiled a chicken or chickens in as little water as possible until the meat falls from the bones, pick off the meat, chop it rather fine, and season it well with pepper and salt. Now put into the bottom of a mold some slices of hard-boiled eggs, next a layer of chopped chicken, then more slices of eggs and layers of chicken until the mold is nearly full; boil down the water in which the chicken was boiled until there is about a cupful left, season it well, and pour it over the chicken; it will sink through, forming a jelly around it. Let it stand overnight or all day on the ice. It is to be sliced at table. If there is any fear about the jelly not being stiff enough, a little gelatine may be soaked and added to the cupful of stock. Garnish the dish with light-colored celery leaves, or with fringed celery.

TO FRINGE CELERY FOR GARNISHING.

Cut the stalks into two-inch lengths; stick plenty of coarse needles into the top of a cork; draw half of the stalk of each piece of celery through the needles. When all the fibrous parts are separated, lay the celery in some cold place to curl and crisp.

CHICKEN LIVERS.

Chop a little onion, and fry it in butter without allowing it to color; put in the livers and some parsley, and fry or _sauté_ them until they are done; take out the livers, add a little hot water or stock to the onions and parsley, thicken it with some flour (_roux_, page 51); strain, season, and pour it over the livers.

If stale bread is cut into the shape of a small vase or cup, then fried to a good color in boiling lard, it is called a _croustade_. One of these is often used with chicken livers. Part of the livers are put in the top of the _croustade_ in the centre of the dish, and the remainder are placed around it at the base. The dish is called “_croustade_ of livers.”

TURKISH PILAU.

Truss one chicken (two and a half pounds) for boiling, and cut five pounds of shoulder of mutton (boned) into two pieces, which roll into shape; put some trimmings of pork (enough to keep the meat from sticking) into a large saucepan, and when hot place in the chicken and the rolls of mutton, and brown them completely by turning them over the fire. Now make what is called a bouquet, viz.: Put a bay leaf on the table; on this place three or four sprigs of parsley, one sprig of thyme, half of a shallot, four cloves, and one table-spoonful of saffron (five cents’ worth), and tie all together, leaving one end of the string long, to hang over the top of the saucepan for convenience in taking out the bouquet. Put the chicken, the mutton, the bouquet, and a pinch of salt and pepper into three quarts of boiling water; twenty minutes before they are done (it will require a short hour to cook them), put in five ounces of rice (soaked an hour in cold water); when done, take out the bouquet; put the chicken in the centre of a warm platter; cut the mutton into slices or scollops about half an inch thick, and form them in a circle by lapping one over the other around the chicken. Pour the hot soup (freed from grease) over the chicken; or the chicken may be cut into joints (seven pieces), and the circle around the platter may be formed of the chicken pieces and mutton scollops alternating, with the soup poured in the centre.

GEESE, DUCKS, AND GAME.

ROAST GOOSE.

The goose should be absolutely young. Green geese are best, _i. e._, when they are about four months old. In trussing, cut the neck close to the back, leaving the skin long enough to turn over the back; beat the breast-bone flat with the rolling-pin; tie or skewer the legs and wings securely. Stuff the goose with the following mixture: Four large onions (chopped), ten sage leaves, quarter of a pound of bread-crumbs, one and a half ounces of butter, salt and pepper, one egg, a slice of pork (chopped). Now sprinkle the top of the goose well with salt, pepper, and flour. Reserve the giblets to boil and chop for the gravy, as you would for a turkey. Baste the goose repeatedly. If it is a green one, roast it at least an hour and a half; if an older one, it would be preferable to bake it in an oven, with plenty of hot water in the baking-pan. It should be basted very often with this water, and when it is nearly done baste it with butter and a little flour. Bake it three or four hours. Decorate the goose with water-cresses, and serve it with the brown giblet gravy in the sauce-boat. Always serve an apple-sauce with this dish.

GOOSE STUFFING (_Soyer’s Receipt_).

Take four apples peeled and cored, four onions, four leaves of sage, and four of thyme. Boil them with sufficient water to cover them; when done, pulp them through a sieve, removing the sage and thyme; then add enough pulp of mealy potatoes to cause the stuffing to be sufficiently dry, without sticking to the hand. Add pepper and salt, and stuff the bird.

DUCKS.

Truss and stuff them with sage and onions as you would a goose. If they are ducklings, roast them from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Epicures say they like them quite under-done, yet, at the same time, very hot. Full-grown ducks should be roasted an hour, and frequently basted. Serve with them the brown giblet gravy or apple-sauce, or both. Green pease should accompany the dish. Many parboil ducks before roasting or baking them. If there is a suspicion of advanced age, parboil them.

WILD DUCKS.

Wild ducks should be cooked rare, with or without stuffing. Baste them a few minutes at first with hot water to which have been added an onion and salt. Then take away the pan, and baste with butter, and a little flour to froth and brown them. The fire should be quite hot, and twenty to twenty-five minutes are considered the outside limit for cooking them. A brown gravy made with the giblets should be served in the bottom of the dish. Serve also a currant-jelly. Garnish the dish with slices of lemons.

DUCK AND PEASE STEWED (_Warne_).

Remains of cold roast duck, with peel of half a lemon, one quart of green pease, a piece of butter rolled in flour, three-quarters of a pint of gravy, pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste. Cut the duck into joints; season it with a very little Cayenne pepper and salt, and the yellow peel of half a lemon minced fine. Put it into a stew-pan, pour the gravy over, and place the pan over a clear fire to become very hot; but do not let the stew boil.[C] Boil a quart of green young pease; when they are done, drain off the water, add some butter, pepper, and salt. Warm this again over the fire. Pile the pease in the centre of a hot dish; arrange the pieces of duck around them, and serve.

STEWED DUCK.

Cut the duck into joints. Put the giblets into a stew-pan, adding water enough to cover them for the purpose of making a gravy. Add two onions, chopped fine, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, a sage leaf, pepper, and salt. Let the gravy simmer until it is strong enough, then add the pieces of duck. Cover, and let them stew slowly for two hours, adding a little boiling water when necessary. Just before they are done, add a small glassful of port-wine and a few drops of lemon-juice. Put the duck on a warm platter, pour the gravy around, and serve it with little diamonds of fried bread (_croûtons_) placed around the dish.

FILLETS OF DUCK.

Roast the ducks, remove the breasts or fillets, and dish them in a circle. Pour over a _poivrade_ sauce, and fill the circle with olives.

POIVRADE SAUCE.

Mince an onion; fry it a yellow color, with butter, in a stew-pan; pour on a gill of vinegar; let it remain on the fire until a third of it is boiled away; then add a pint of gravy or stock, a bunch of parsley, two or three cloves, pepper, and salt; let it boil a minute; thicken it with a little butter and flour (_roux_); strain it, and remove any particles of fat.

PIGEONS STEWED IN BROTH.

Unless pigeons are quite young, they are better braised or stewed in broth than cooked in any other manner. In fact, I consider it always the best way of cooking them. Tie them in shape; place slices of bacon at the bottom of a stew-pan; lay in the pigeons, side by side, all their breasts uppermost; add a sliced carrot, an onion, with a clove stuck in, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and some parsley, and pour over enough stock to cover them. If you have no stock, use boiling water. Now put some thin slices of bacon over the tops of the pigeons; cover them as closely as possible, adding boiling water or stock when necessary. Let them simmer until they are very tender. Serve each pigeon on a thin piece of buttered toast, with a border of spinach, or make little nests of spinach on pieces of toast, putting a pigeon into each nest.

ROAST PIGEONS.

Never roast pigeons unless they are young and tender. After they are well tied in shape, drawing the skin over the back, tie thin slices of bacon over the breasts, and put a little piece of butter inside each pigeon. File them on a skewer, and roast them before a brisk fire until thoroughly done, basting them with butter.

PIGEONS BROILED.

Split the pigeons at the back, and flatten them with the cutlet bat; season, roll them in melted butter and bread-crumbs, and broil them, basting them with butter. Or, cut out the breasts (fillets), and broil them alone. Serve them on thin pieces of toast. Make a gravy of the remaining portions of the pigeons, and pour it over them.

PRAIRIE-CHICKEN OR GROUSE.

They are generally split open at the back and broiled, rubbing them with butter; yet as all but the breast is generally tough, it is better to fillet the chicken, or cut out the breast. The remainder of the chicken is cut into joints and parboiled. These pieces are then _broiled_ with the breasts (which, please remember, are not parboiled) after rubbing butter over them all. As soon as they are all broiled, sprinkle pepper and salt, and put a little lump of butter, on top of each piece, which then place for a few moments in the oven to soak the butter. Serve with currant-jelly. For fine entertainments the breasts alone are served. Each breast is cut into two pieces, so that one chicken is sufficient for four persons. If the dish is intended for breakfast, serve each piece of breast on a small square piece of fried mush (see receipt, page 73). If for dinner, serve each piece on a square of hot buttered toast, with a little currant-jelly on top of each piece of chicken. Garnish the plate with any kind of leaves, or with water-cresses. At a breakfast party I once saw this dish surrounded with Saratoga potatoes. The white potatoes, dark meat, and red jelly formed a pretty contrast.

TO CHOOSE A YOUNG PRAIRIE-CHICKEN.