Part 61

Cutlets.--(_a_) Take the fillets of 3 chicken, which will give you 6 large and 6 small ones; flatten them with the handle of a knife which has been dipped in cold water; pull off the upper skin from the large fillets with the knife, and take the sinews from the smaller ones; dip them in oiled butter, and place them in a sautépan, shaking a little fine salt over them. Have ready prepared a rich white sauce, in which a few prepared cockscombs, quenelles of veal or chicken shaped into balls the size of a marble, some button mushrooms, and a few dice of truffles have been stewed. When it is time to dress the cutlets, fry them lightly and quickly, drain the butter from them, pour over them a few spoonfuls of white sauce, and just at the last a spoonful of thick cream; arrange them in a circle in the dish, alternately a large and a small fillet, filling the centre with the sauce of cockscombs, &c., which has been preparing. If you wish to have 10 cutlets, 5 chickens will be wanted for this dish. (_b_) Take the 10 fillets, pare them well; then take the small bones from the pinions, scrape them, and stick one of these bones into the point of each fillet--this must be very nicely done; season them with pepper and salt, dip them into yolk of egg (2 will be required), then into breadcrumbs, next into some melted butter, and breadcrumbs again; see that they are quite covered. Cut the small fillets into dice, and stew them in a purée of cucumbers and onions, thickened with the yolk of egg, and seasoned with salt and a very little sugar, also some mushrooms cut into dice; put this into the middle of the dish, and having broiled the cutlets, arrange them in a circle round it. They should not be broiled a minute before they are wanted. If preferred, the small fillets may also be broiled in the same way as the others; in that case the purée of cucumbers should be omitted, and they should be served with a good white sauce, into which a little cream has been stirred just at the last, and some slices of truffle lightly fried.

Devilled.--Cut the inner part of the leg in 4 long slits, taking care not to cut them through. Put in each cut a little piece of butter, some mustard, pepper, and salt, and a little lemon juice. Place the legs in a tin in front of the fire for about ¼ hour, taking care they do not get too brown; the last thing turn them over, and finish on the top side with a little more butter, pepper, salt, and mustard.

Fricassée.--The fowl is usually divided into 12 or 14 pieces. What are called the legs make 2 and sometimes 4, but this is seldom done; the wings make 4, and the breast and back are cut up, according to the size of the fowl, into 2 or 3 pieces respectively. The mode of proceeding is this: Having plucked and singed the bird, lay it on its side on a table, grasp the thigh and leg together with the left hand, and with a sharp knife cut down to the socket of the thigh bone; pull the limb back with the left hand, disengage the thigh bone from the socket, cut the skin neatly round the thigh, and put the limb on one side. Do the same with the other leg and thigh. Cut off the head and neck close to the body. To remove the wings, lay the fowl on its back, and make an incision along the breast bone 1 in. from the ridge of it, cutting down to the joint of the wing bone, which you disjoint from the carcase; Then cut right down, and remove the wing. Take off the other wing in the same way.

You now grasp the fowl with the left hand, and inserting the knife, cut right through towards the vent, then pull the breast back, and cut it off altogether. Having removed the inside of the fowl, you chop off the ribs on either side of the back, and trim this piece neatly as well as the breast piece. The breast and the back are each cut across into 3 or 2 pieces, according to circumstances. Taking now each leg in turn, you make an incision round the heel, and pull the flesh back, chop off the bone above the heel, and pull back the flesh; then chop off the head of the thigh bone. The 2 wings are divided at the second joint, the head of the bones being cut off, as well as the spur at the end of the second joint.

Care must be had in chopping off the bones to do so at one blow, and to have a sufficiently heavy knife to make a clean cut. The blow should be given with the part of the knife next the handle; a meat chopper would be too heavy. Another point which requires attention is to let each piece, especially the wings and legs, have its proper allowance of skin. The cuts should be given freely, and at one stroke, as it were, so as to avoid any little bits of flesh or skin hanging from any of the pieces.

Fillets.--Take 3 small fowls--the backs and legs cannot be used for this dish, but they will come in usefully in making white soup, and in many other ways. The fowls should be fat and white. Clean and pick them well, scalding the legs in boiling water. Having singed the chickens, cut the fillets from the breasts; flatten and trim the 6 large fillets; of the 6 small ones make 3, by sticking 2 together. Then lay them in a sauté or frying-pan (a delicately clean one), covering them with melted butter, and sprinkling fine salt over them, and let them remain until just before dinner time; then put the sautépan on the fire, and fry the fillets lightly on both sides until they are firm, which will show that they are done. Having drained off the butter gravy will be found at the bottom of the pan; add to this 3-4 spoonfuls of rich white sauce well seasoned, moving the pan over the fire, and not letting the sauce boil at all; were it to boil, the fillets of chicken would be spoiled. Cut some slices of stale bread, rather thicker than a penny piece, stamp it out either into rounds, or into pear-shaped pieces, one on the other; fry these pieces of bread in butter until of a light brown colour. Dress the 9 fillets in a circle, with a piece of the fried bread between each. Put the sauce into the middle of the dish, and put a little of it over each fillet with a spoon, taking care not to let it touch the fried bread, which should be nice and crisp. Serve them up at once very hot.

(_b_) Having prepared the fillets as (_a_), flatten them and garnish the larger ones with truffles as follows: Cut thin small rounds of truffles, and having made 3 or 4 round slits in each of the fillets, place a round of the truffle in each of these slits, taking care not to carry it through the fillets, which would break them. After garnishing, dip each fillet into melted butter, as also the smaller fillets, and fry them lightly, so as to leave them slightly underdone. Take them off the fire, drain off the butter, reduce the sauce as before, and add to it a few spoonfuls of well-flavoured white sauce; put the fillets into this, and let them simmer gently, moving them during the time until they become firm, which will show that they are done enough. Dish them up alternately, a large garnished fillet and then a small plain one. Stir a good spoonful of thick cream into the sauce, pour it into the centre of the dish, and with a spoon put some of the sauce over each of the small fillets, but not over those which are garnished. Serve very hot.

Galantine.--(_a_) Bone a large fowl, sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper, take 1½ lb. lean veal, ½ lb. fat bacon; pound together, and pass them through a wire sieve, add a little chopped parsley and thyme, a little grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper; when this is well mixed place it on the fowl with a few truffles, pieces of tongue, previously dressed, cut the same size as the truffles, place these at equal distances and fold over the fowl carefully, so that the forcemeat is well enclosed in it, tie it up tightly in a strong cloth, tying the ends in the same way as a roley poley pudding, place a large pin in the centre to keep it quite tight while boiling: put into a large stewpan any veal trimmings, lean bacon, and fowl trimming with the bones of the fowl, and 1 large carrot, 3 large onions, some parsley, thyme, 2 bay leaves, some peppercorns, and salt, fill with cold water; when boiling put in the galantine, leave it to boil gently for 1½-1¾ hour, according to the size, but not longer; then take off the cloth while hot, and roll the galantine tightly again in it, taking care which side is the breast; place the galantine between 2 common dishes or boards breasts uppermost, place a weight on it (for a galantine of this size a 7 lb. weight is sufficient); leave it until cold, when it should be garnished with some pale aspic jelly. If the galantine appears dry on the outside glaze it lightly and garnish with parsley. Galantines can be made of turkey, pheasant, partridge, or grouse in the same way as the above, only the livers should be lightly fried and added to the forcemeat. (Jane Burtenshaw.)

(_b_) To bone a fowl, proceed as follows: Give a blow to the legs just above the heel with a heavy kitchen knife, so as to break the bone; cut the skin round; then, holding the foot, give it a twist, and pull it off, thereby removing the strong sinews of the leg. Chop off the wings just above the second joint, then slit the skin of the neck lengthways; pull this out, cut it off close, and cut the skin square. Lay the fowl breast undermost and make an incision all along the back, from end to end; then with a pointed knife--what is called a vegetable knife will do very well--proceed to detach the flesh from the carcase, beginning at the neck end; when you come to the wing bone disjoint it from the carcase, and then make a slit inwardly along the wing joint, and remove the bone; work along down to the leg, and when you come to the thigh bone disjoint it from the carcase. Also do the other side in the same way. Now work along each side, detaching the breast; and this requires great care not to injure the skin, especially over the breast bone. When you have worked round both sides, remove the carcase--which can be drawn at leisure, and should be boiled along with the galantine when this is put to cook and you have the fowl all boned except the thigh and leg bones on each side. The mode of getting rid of these is this: Make an incision along the thigh, dissect the bone from the flesh, scrape the flesh along the leg bone, and finally pull this out, and it will carry the remaining sinews with it. All that now remains to be done is to cut out the “wishing-bone,” which will probably have remained in the flesh of the breast, as well as the two large white sinews of the breast. (The G. C.)

Grilled Legs.--Take the legs of cold fowl, score them well, and rub in plentifully some made mustard, salt, and cayenne; broil over a clear fire and serve with: _grill sauce_. Take 1 gill good gravy, add to it 1 tablespoonful mushroom ketchup, 1 teaspoonful French mustard, a few chopped capers, and a little grated lemon peel; add a little butter rolled in flour, a few drops of chili vinegar, simmer until quite hot, pour over the legs, and serve.

Old Hen.--(_a_) To make this tender, it should be divided into joints, after picking and drawing; place these pieces into a deep baking dish with a pinch or two of salt, filling the dish with cold water so as to more than cover the meat. Set it in the oven and let it remain there for 3-4 hours, or until it is sufficiently done to draw the bones out easily, which must be ascertained by occasionally taking it out to try; it will also require watching to see that the water does not dry up, or if it does, to keep adding from time to time a little hot water to keep the meat covered till it is sufficiently done. When this is the case, draw out the bones, remove all the skin, and take the sinews from the drumsticks. The meat will now be perfectly tender, and may be used for curries, rissoles, fricassées, or in any other way in which ordinary chickens are used.

(_b_) Pluck, draw, and singe the hen and put it into a saucepan with just enough water to cover; stew very gently for 1 hour, keeping the lid of the saucepan on all the time. Take up the bird, cut it into medium-sized pieces, and roll round each piece a thin slice of bacon; place in a pie dish, cut 2 hard-boiled eggs into slices, lay these among the pieces of fowl, sprinkle over a tablespoonful of minced parsley, season with pepper and salt, and pour over all the gravy in which the fowl was stewed, or as much of it as the dish will hold; cover with a light crust and bake one hour. Any gravy left over should be saved, as it makes excellent light stock for many purposes. (Bessie Tremaine.)

(_c_) Put 4 quarts water in a pot with 3 teaspoonfuls salt, 1 of pepper; stuff the hen with veal stuffing, after taking off the head; take off the legs and draw out the strings, and truss. When the water boils, put in the hen with 4 pieces salt pork, ½ lb. each, or whole if preferred; add ½ lb. onions, 1 lb. celery, 6 pepper-corns, a bunch of sweet herbs; boil slowly 1½ hour. Mix 3 oz. flour with 2 oz. butter, melt in a small pan with 1 pint of the liquor from the pot, ½ pint milk, the onions and celery cut up fine and added to it. Boil for 20 minutes until rather thick. Serve the hen on a dish with the pork, pouring the sauce over all. The remainder of the broth makes excellent white soup. (Soyer.)

(_d_) When plucked and drawn joint it as for a pie. Do not skin it. Stew 5 hours in a covered saucepan with salt, mace, onions, or any other flavouring; turn out into so deep a dish that the meat be covered with the liquor. Let it--and this is the secret of success--stand thus in its own jelly for a day or two; then serve as a curry hash or pie, and it will be found nearly equal to a pheasant.

(_e_) Stuff with forcemeat; put an onion inside; let the fowl simmer, not boil, for 4 hours, just covered with water. Send it to table with either onion or white sauce, with a small pickled cucumber cut finely in it; garnish with bacon; the stock will make Palestine soup.

(_f_) Pick, singe, and truss, as usual; put into the inside of the fowl a large lump of fat bacon, and sew the neck and vent, so as to fasten the bacon in securely; dust the fowl with flour, and tie it up in a cloth, put it into a pan with a close-fitting lid, and nearly cover the fowl with warm, not hot water; put in also 2 onions, a sliced carrot, and 1 or 2 cloves; let the water come to the boil as slowly as possible, and then let it simmer in the gentlest manner for 3 hours, or longer if the fowl be a large one. Take it carefully out of the cloth and completely smother it with any sauce you prefer. Next day break up the carcase of the cold fowl, and put it back into the liquor it was boiled in, with the drumsticks if you have them; add a cupful of rice, a blade of mace, and some pieces of turnip, boil 2 hours gently, and pulp through a sieve everything that will pass. You will have a small quantity of excellent soup; salt and pepper to taste.

(_g_) The following way makes excellent potted meat: After dressing the fowl, skin it, cut it up, and stew gently into a digester with a ham bone and 1 qt. water for 6 hours; strain the liquor off, pass the fowl through a sausage machine, then beat in a mortar or wooden bowl, keep adding the liquor to moisten it; season according to taste, put into pots, and cover with clarified butter.

Panada.--(_a_) Take the meat of a cold roast fowl, carefully removing all the skin, and put it in a stewpan with ¼ pint water, a few herbs and vegetables (if allowed), and a shallot. Boil these ingredients very gently, and, when quite tender, take out the meat and mince it, and then pound it in a mortar with 1 oz. butter, and as much of the liquor as is required to bring it to pulp. Put this back into a stewpan, after rubbing it through a hair sieve, with about 1 gill stock made from the bones of the fowl, a gill of cream, a slight seasoning of pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of flour. Let this simmer gently till it thickens sufficiently, and serve hot, with toast sippets; or it may be eaten cold.

(_b_) Skin the chicken and cut it up in joints. Take all the meat off the bones, and cut up into small pieces; put it in a jar with a little salt, tie it down, and set it in a saucepan of boiling water. It should boil 4-6 hours; then pass it through a sieve with a little of the broth. It could be made in a hurry in 2 hours; but it is better when longer time is allowed. Do not put the wings in the panada.

Poos-pass.--Put a fowl into a saucepan with 3½ qt. water and boil for ½ hour; then take it off the fire and strain and skim it. This done, put the gravy, fowl, and 4 oz. rice (or 2 oz. for each person) again into the saucepan, and stew them for ¾ hour, adding salt, cloves, and cardamoms to your taste.

Roast.--(_a_) Take a piece of butter the size of a walnut, mix with it some pepper and salt and a little flour, put it inside the fowl, then baste it with a little butter (a small tin is best to use instead of a dripping pan). When the fowl is done pour the gravy (made with the giblets, thickened with flour and flavoured with mushroom ketchup) into the tin, and strain over the bird. Tiny suet dumplings to be served in the dish with it.

(_b_) Fowls require constant attention in dredging and basting, and the last 10 minutes let butter rolled in flour be stuck over them in little bits, and allowed to melt, without basting. The gravy for fowls should always be thickened, and slightly flavoured with lemon-juice. Sausages or rolled bacon should be served on the same dish, and white mashed potatoes always be handed with poultry.

Salad.--Pick 1 lb. meat quite free from bone, and thoroughly cleanse a good head of celery; chop both very fine, or, better still, pass through a mincing machine; put this in a large basin. Beat the yolk of an egg until it is thick, mix with it 1 teaspoonful made mustard, a pinch of salt, and ¼ teaspoonful white pepper. Beat well into the mixture ½ teacupful thick cream, and add the juice of a small lemon drop by drop, beating the mixture with a fork all the time. Stir this dressing well among the minced chicken and celery. Mould with a spoon into any shape you like, and serve on a dish with beetroot cut into fanciful shapes. Some prefer a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar instead of lemon juice, and salad oil can be used instead of the cream; but the cream makes it much whiter and daintier in appearance, and gives a better flavour.

Soufflé.--Pound the white flesh of a roast or boiled chicken in a mortar with quarter of its bulk of butter, and with pepper, salt, and spices to taste. Mix all well together, add a gill of cream, or of Béchamel sauce, and leave it to get nearly cold; then add the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, according to quantity, and lastly the whites of the eggs whipped to a stiff froth. Put it at once into a soufflé tin, or into paper cases, and bake in the oven.

Stewed (sauté).--Slice 2 onions and fry them in oil or butter with a fowl cut up as for fricassée. When the pieces of fowl have taken colour, moisten with 3-4 tablespoonfuls French tomato sauce, and as much stock free from fat as may be necessary to make enough gravy; add 6 button mushrooms cut in half, some minced parsley, pepper, salt, and powdered spices to taste, and let the whole simmer till done.

Timballe.--Bone and cut up 2 chickens, lard the pieces, put them into a stewpan with some mushrooms, shallot, spices, pepper, minced parsley, a little butter, a glass of white wine, and two large spoonfuls of good stock; simmer till quite done. Boil some truffles in white wine, add them to the chicken, and let it all cool. Butter a mould, line it with rolled paste, beginning at the middle of the bottom, and continuing till it comes to the top; the rolls of paste must lie firmly one over the other. Have a piece of paste, a little larger than the bottom, to come up the sides; brush it over with the yolk of an egg and put it in, pressing it well down; put a lining of forcemeat balls round the sides nearly to the top, lay in the chicken and truffles, cover the whole with paste, fixing it firmly, make a hole in the top, bake 1½ hour, fill up the hole with a piece of paste, turn out the timballe, cut a small hole in the top, pour in some reduced gravy, and serve.

Vol-au-Vent.--Roll out some puff paste to the thickness of ¾ in. on a baking sheet. A plate or a piece of paper cut in a circle being used as a guide, cut the paste all round it with a sharp knife dipped in hot water and held at such an angle that the top of the disc of paste be slightly (not more than ⅛ in.) less in diameter than the base. Carefully brush over with beaten-up egg the round of paste, taking care not to egg the sides, then, using a knife dipped in hot water as above, make an incision ½ in. deep within 1 in. of the edge all round the top, and put the vol-au-vent case in a brisk oven. If the oven be at the right temperature, and the paste well made, ½ hour’s baking will cook it. Being removed from the oven, the top is lifted off, the inside is taken away in flakes, and, should it be necessary, the sides of the vol-au-vent are strengthened inside by having pieces of the flakes stuck against them with white of egg. Lastly, the vol-au-vent is placed at the mouth of the oven for 10-15 minutes to dry up the inside. Fill it with quenelles, adding as much as is wanted of sauce, and garnish the top with truffles, cockscombs and mushrooms. Or, more economically, use none of these last, and simply put on the paste cover.

_Goose_ (Oie). Roast: see Fowl.

Liver patty (pâté de foie gras).--(_a_) Line some small moulds with puff paste, fill them with rice, and put on the covers, egg the top, and bake in a moderate oven; take off the covers, remove the rice, and fill them with sliced foies gras and truffles, tossed in some thick well-flavoured brown sauce; put on the covers, and serve hot.

(_b_) Take 1½ lb. turkey or goose livers (the latter is best) and ½ lb. calves’ liver, chop fine, and then pound in an iron mortar or pass through an iron sieve; then add ¼ lb. butter, put on the fire, and stir about 2 minutes, then add ⅛ pint cream, 12 drops rose water, and a little cayenne pepper and salt, keep it on the fire, and stir 5 minutes more; add truffles and a teaspoonful of brandy, put it again on the fire, and keep stirring till it becomes thick, when you may pour it into jars, and as soon as it is hard cover with butter.

Pie.--Boil a neat’s tongue till it is tender, peel it, and cut off the root and tip end. Bone a large goose and a large fowl. Mix ½ oz. beaten mace with a spoonful of pepper and one of salt; season the inside of the fowl and of the goose, put the fowl in the goose and the tongue in the fowl. Make some raising paste and raise it up high, put in the goose breast uppermost, sprinkle some seasoning on it, lay on ½ lb. butter; put on the lid. Rub the pie all over with the yolk of an egg, and ornament the sides and top. Bake 3 hours. If it is to be eaten hot, put the bones of the goose and fowl into a saucepan with 1 qt. water, a bundle of sweet herbs; 2 blades of mace, a little pepper and salt, and stew it till it is about half wasted; then strain it off, and 1 hour before the pie is done, take it out and put the liquor in, and when it is done send it up hot. If it is to be eaten cold, put no liquor in, but cut it in slices, cut across, put it in a dish, and garnish it with parsley.