This is made with the same ingredients as the above, with the exception of half a can of oysters drained and slightly chopped and added to the rest. This is used mostly with boiled turkey and chicken, and the remainder of the can of oysters used to make an oyster sauce to be poured over the turkey when served; served generally in a separate dish, to be dipped out as a person desires. These recipes were obtained from an old colored cook, who was famous for his fine dressing for fowls, fish and meats, and his advice was, always soak stale bread in cold liquid, either milk or water, when used for stuffings or for puddings, as they were much lighter. Hot liquid makes them heavy.
Boil a chicken until very tender, take out all the bones, and pick up the meat quite fine. Boil half a pound of macaroni until tender, first breaking it up to pieces an inch long. Butter a deep pudding dish, put on the bottom a layer of the cooked macaroni, then a layer of the minced chicken, bits of butter, pepper and salt, then some of the chicken liquor, over this put another layer of macaroni, and so on, until, the dish is filled. Pour a cup of cream over the whole, and bake half an hour. Serve on a platter.
Pare, quarter, core and slice four medium-sized apples. Melt one-quarter cup of butter and pour it with the juice of half a lemon over one cup of bread crumbs. Mix one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, grated rind of one- half lemon and one-quarter cup of sugar together. Butter a baking dish; put in alternate layers of apple and bread crumbs, sprinkling the apples with the sugar mixture, and making the last layer of crumbs. Pour one-quarter cup of boiling water on before adding the last layer of crumbs; cover and bake for thirty minutes or until the apples are soft; then uncover and brown the crumbs. Serve with cream or with soft custard or lemon sauce. If desired for a meat meal, substitute chicken-fat for butter and use lemon sauce.
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.]
Take a quarter of an ounce of China turmeric, the third of an ounce of cassia, three drachms of black pepper, two drachms of cayenne pepper, and an ounce of coriander seeds. These must all be pounded fine in a mortar, and well mixed and sifted. They will make sufficient curry powder for the following quantity of soup: Take two large fowls, or three pounds of the lean of veal. Cut the flesh entirely from the bones in small pieces, and put it into a stew-pan with two quarts of water. Let it boil slowly for half an hour, skimming it well. Prepare four large onions, minced and fried in two ounces of butter. Add to them the curry powder and moisten the whole with broth from the stew-pan, mixed with a little rice flour. When thoroughly mixed, stir the seasoning into the soup, and simmer it till it is as smooth and thick as cream, and till the chicken or veal is perfectly tender. Then stir into it the juice of a lemon; and five minutes after take up the soup, with the meat in it, and serve it in the tureen. Send to table separately, boiled rice on a hot-water dish to keep it warm, The rice is to be put into the plates of soup by those who eat it. To boil rice for this soup in the East India fashion:--Pick and wash half a pound in warm water. Put it into a sauce-pan. Pour two quarts of boiling water over it, and cover the pan closely. Set it in a warm place by the fire, to cook gradually in the hot water. In an hour pour off all the water, and setting the pan on hot coals, stir up and toss the rice with a fork, so as to separate the grains, and to dry without hardening it. Do not use a spoon, as that will not loosen the grains sufficiently.
Have cold roasted or boiled chicken free of skin, fat and bones. Place on a board, and cut in long, thin strips, and cut these into dice. Place in an earthen bowl (there should be two quarts), and season with four table-spoonfuls of vinegar, two of oil, one teaspoonful of salt and one-half of a teaspoonful of pepper. Set away in a cold place for two or three hours. Scrape and wash enough of the tender white celery to make one quart. Cut this, with a sharp knife, in pieces about half an inch thick. Put these in the ice chest until serving time. Make the mayonnaise dressing. Mix the chicken and celery together, and add half of the dressing. Arrange in a salad bowl or on a flat dish, and pour the remainder of the dressing over it. Garnish with white celery leaves. Or, have a jelly border, and arrange the salad in this. Half celery and half lettuce is often used for chicken salad. Many people, when preparing for a large company, use turkey instead of chicken, there being so much more meat in the same number of pounds of the raw material; but the salad is not nearly so nice as with chicken. If, when the chicken or fowl is cooked, it is allowed to cool in the water in which it is boiled, it will be juicier and tenderer than if taken from the water as soon as done.
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.
Make the force-meat as for quenelles of chicken. Simmer two large chickens in white stock for half an hour. Take up, and let cool. Have a pickled tongue boiled tender. Cut thin slices from the breast of the chickens, and cut these in squares. Cut the tongue in slices, and these in turn in squares the same size as the chicken. Butter a four-quart mould, and arrange the chicken and tongue handsomely on the bottom and sides, being careful to have the pieces fit closely together. Have note paper cut to fit the bottom and sides. Butter it well, and cover about an inch deep with the force-meat. Take up the bottom piece by the four corners and fit it into the mould, the meat side down. Pour a little hot water into any kind of a flat-bottomed tin basin, and put this in the mould and move it over the papers, to melt the butter; then lift out the paper. Place the papers on the side in the same way as on the bottom and melt the butter by rolling a bottle of hot water over them. Remove these papers, and set the mould in a cold place until the filling is ready. Cut from the tenderest part of the chicken enough meat to make two quarts. Cut four large, or six small, mushrooms and four truffles in strips. Put half a cupful of butter, half a large onion, four cloves, a blade of mace, a slice of carrot, one of turnip and a stalk of celery in a sauce-pan, and cook five minutes, stirring all the while; then add five table-spoonfuls of flour. Stir until it begins to brown, when add one quart of the stock in which the chickens were cooked, a bouquet of sweet herbs, and salt and pepper. Simmer twenty minutes; strain, and add to the chicken. Return to the fire, and simmer twenty minutes longer, and set away to cool. When cold, put a layer of the chicken in the mould, and a light layer of the truffles and mushrooms. Continue this until the form is nearly full, and then cover with the remainder of the force-meat. Spread buttered paper upon it, and put in a cool place until cooking time, when steam two hours. Turn carefully upon the dish. Brush over with three table-spoonfuls of melted glaze. Pour one pint of supreme sauce around it, and serve. The force-meat must be spread evenly on the paper and smoothed with a knife that has been dipped in hot water. All kinds of meat chartreuses can be made in this manner.
One large fowl, about four and a half or five pounds, boiled tender; half a box of gelatine, one cupful of broth in which the chicken was boiled, one cupful of cream, salt, pepper, fourteen ounces of macaroni. Just cover the fowl with boiling water, and simmer until very tender, the time depending upon the age, but being from one to two hours if the bird is not more than a year old. Take off all the skin and fat, and cut the meat in thin, delicate pieces. Soak the gelatine two hours in half a cupful of cold water, and dissolve it in the cupful of boiling broth; add to the cream, and season highly. Have the chicken well seasoned, also. Put the macaroni in a large flat pan with boiling water to cover, and boil rapidly for three minutes. Drain off the water, and place the macaroni on a board, having about twelve pieces in a bunch. Cut in pieces about three-fourths of an inch long. Butter a two-quart mould (an oval charlotte russe mould is the best) very thickly, and stick the macaroni closely over the bottom and sides. When done, put the chicken in lightly and evenly, and add the sauce very gradually. Steam one hour. Serve either cold or hot. Great care must be taken in dishing. Place the platter over the mould and turn platter and mould simultaneously. Let the dish rest a minute, and then gently remove the mould. Serve immediately. A long time is needed to line the mould with the macaroni, but this is such a handsome, savory dish as to pay to have it occasionally. If you prefer, you can use all broth, and omit the cream.
