GENERAL METHODS AND RECIPES
The principles of cookery are the same as with the meat. Chicken soup is made on the same principle as beef soup. After straining, it is delicious with the addition of milk or cream. The meat of the chicken may be chopped fine and used as a thickening. Rice may be added or a hard-boiled egg chopped fine.
Chicken may be served cold, for luncheon or supper, and is always very desirable in made-over dishes. Any stuffing left over may be used in the made dishes.
1. Roast chicken.
Dress and clean a chicken. Fill the cavity with stuffing and sew edges together. Truss chicken and place on its back in a roasting pan. Rub surface with salt and spread breast and legs with butter. Dredge with flour. Put a little water in bottom of pan. Place in hot oven and when flour is well browned, reduce the temperature. Baste frequently during roasting with liquid in pan. When breast meat is tender and a brown crust formed the bird is cooked. A four-pound chicken requires about 11⁄2 hours.
Stuffing. (See recipe for stuffing, page [237].)
Mix all together. No moisture need be added as the juices of the chicken will be sufficient.
Gravy.—Pour off liquid from pan in which chicken has been roasted. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of either chicken fat or butter. Stir in 2 tablespoonfuls of flour and let bubble up. Add one cup stock, in which giblets, neck, and tips of wings have been cooked, and stir steadily until thickened. Add 1⁄2 teaspoonful salt.
2. Chicken fricassee.
Clean and cut up a fowl. Cover with boiling water and let boil 5 minutes. Simmer until meat is tender. Remove chicken from kettle and place pieces in hot, greased frying pan. Sauté until browned. Put on platter. Melt 4 tablespoonfuls chicken fat in pan. Add 4 tablespoonfuls flour. Stir and let bubble up. Add 2 cups chicken stock, stir and let boil until thickened. Pour over chicken on platter.
Laboratory management.—A lesson on poultry is a very expensive one and difficult to manage so that each may have a share of the work. Such a lesson is suitable where the pupils have had work in previous years and are used to working in groups.
Preserved meats and poultry.—Smoked and salted meats are valuable foods, although the nutritive content is somewhat less available for digestion. The salted and smoked meats need long and slow cooking below the boiling temperature of water.
Canned meats and poultry of good quality are now in the market, and they are convenient and useful when not used to excess. Buy well-known brands. The government inspection of canned meats is of great importance, for the individual cannot protect himself. Canned soups are convenient for those who cook by gas and who live in small quarters. Buy good brands even if they are somewhat more expensive. The best firms manufacturing canned
soup are scrupulously clean in their methods and pride themselves on using good material.
Other parts of meat and poultry.—Some of the internal organs of the animals and fowl are used for food. Most of them are comparatively cheap, and may be made palatable.
The liver and kidneys are organs having to do with the waste products of the body and objection is raised to their use on that account. If used, they should be soaked in cold salted water, put into fresh cold water, and allowed to heat very slowly. This water should be poured off, and then a brown stew can be made. What flavors are pleasant with liver and kidneys?
Make your own recipe for liver or kidney stew.
The heart does not contain waste products. Why is it tough? What process would you select to make it tender? Even when softened, it would not be attractive or very palatable without further treatment. It is hollow, somewhat as the chicken is before roasting. Look over the recipes and flavors suitable to meat and see if you cannot make your own for Baked Heart.
Sweetbreads, the pancreas, are highly prized on account of their delicacy, and are costly. They may be broiled, or served in sauce in pastry cases or in patties.
Calf’s head and brain.—The brain is sometimes used as substitute for sweetbreads. From the meat and bones of the head soup and stew may be made.