CHICKEN.
To select.—Buy a chicken with white flesh and pale-yellow fat. If young, the cock has small spurs, the hen has the lower part of the legs and feet rather soft and smooth; those parts are rough in old ones.
If the rump is hard and stiff, they are fresh enough; but if soft, it is necessary to examine the bird carefully; it might be tainted.
To truss.—When prepared as directed for poultry, put the bird on the table on its back, and with a chopper or with a round stick flatten the breast-bone, which you break at a single blow if possible; the bird is much more sightly when served. Cut the legs off just above the first joint, or cut off only half of the claws and trim off the ends of the wings. Place the bird on a table, the breast up and the rump toward you. Push the legs under the skin, so that, by holding them perpendicularly and pressing on them, the part from the second to the third joint is alongside the chicken, or horizontally. Then run a trussing-needle, with twine attached to it, just above the bone of the leg, as near the second joint as possible, on the side (toward you) of the bone of the leg that is perpendicular, through the leg (which leg is the left one of the bird), body, and also through the bird, and at the same place, that is, as near the second joint as possible. Turn the bird upside down and the neck toward you; turn the ends of the wings on the back, as seen in the cut (p. [240]), turn the skin of the neck on the back also, between or under the wings and in order to cover the place where the neck has been cut off, then run the needle again through the right wing, the skin of the neck and part of the body, and through the other wing. Tie the ends of the twine fast together.
As it is, the legs of the bird, when on its back, are pointing upward. Bend them gently down till they are perpendicular and as seen in the cut, run the trussing-needle through both and also through the body, above the bones of the legs and under the end of the breast-bone; run it again the other way, but under the bones of the legs, tie the two ends of the twine together, and you have a bird trussed exactly like the one represented in the cut on next page.
Another way to truss is, to cut only half of the claws, instead of cutting the legs at the first joint; but, to truss thus, the first joint must be partly cut as represented below. If the nerve were not cut, it would contract in cooking, and instead of being straight, the legs would point upward.
A bird stuffed is trussed exactly in the same way as above, with the exception that the skin of the neck must be sewed up with a trussing-needle before commencing to truss the legs, and the incision must also be sewed up as soon as filled and before trussing.
The twine used to sew and truss the bird is removed just before dishing it.
Some experiments have been made lately, in France, to find out the best way to kill chickens and make them tender. Those killed by electricity were more tender than any other, but they must be cooked immediately, as they become tainted in a very short time.
To blanch.—When cut in pieces as directed, throw it in boiling water to which a little salt has been added; boil two minutes and drain.
To cut.—To make a chicken sauté or in fricassee, it is generally cut into eight pieces; the two legs, the wings, one piece of the breast-bone, and three pieces of the back-bone. The ends of the wings, the lower part of the legs after being skinned by warming them, the neck, gizzard, heart, kidneys, and head, are put in the soup-kettle. Generally the bones of the legs above the second joint are removed by breaking them with the back of a knife just above the second joint. The ends of the small bones of the three pieces of the back-bone are trimmed off also.
To dish and serve.—Dish the pieces in the following order: the neck, gizzard, the fore part of the back and the low part of the legs in the middle; then one leg on each side of the dish, with one wing beside each, then the breast and hind part of the back, and lastly the ends of the wings at the top. If cut in eight pieces only, place the breast-bone on the middle of the dish, the hind part of the back-bone at one end of it and the two others at the other end; the legs and wings on each side.
Boiled.—A chicken is boiled only when it is an old one, whose tenderness is doubtful, and which is not needed to make broth or consommé.
Clean, prepare, and truss it as directed for poultry. Brown the bird in a saucepan with about one ounce of butter, then half cover it with cold water; season with a few slices of onion, same of carrot, two cloves, two stalks of parsley, salt and pepper. Boil gently about one hour and a half, and when done, dish the bird, strain the sauce over it, and serve warm.
If the sauce boils away, add a little cold water; and if there is any fat on it, skim it off.
An old chicken may be cooked especially to make a salad.
Boned.—Pick, bone, fill, cook, and serve a boned chicken exactly like a boned turkey; the only difference is, that it requires less filling, being smaller.
For an extra, legs of large chickens may be boned and filled like the chicken, the rest being used for a fricassee.
Broiled.—Young, or what are called spring chickens, are broiled; an old one would not be as good.
To broil, a chicken is split in two lengthwise, or the back only is split, so as to open it. Salt both sides and butter them slightly, then broil on a good but not sharp fire. Serve with a maître-d'hôtel, piquante, or ravigote sauce.
Broiled hunter-like.—When cleaned and prepared, split the chicken in two lengthwise and place it in a crockery dish with the following seasonings: a teaspoonful of parsley chopped fine, a middling-sized onion in slices, two cloves, salt, pepper, a tablespoonful of sweet-oil, and the juice of half a lemon. Half an hour after turn the chicken over, and after another half hour place the above seasonings all around the chicken, fasten them with paper, tie the paper with twine, and broil carefully on a rather slow fire, and turning over two or three times. When done, remove the paper in which they are enveloped, scrape off the slices without scratching the meat, and serve as warm as possible with a maître-d'hôtel, ravigote, or Madeira sauce.
When an older chicken is prepared hunter-like, it is generally served with a Tartar sauce.
Another way.—Clean and prepare a chicken as directed. Cut the neck off, also the legs at the first joint, split the breast in two so as to open the chicken, and flatten it with a chopper. Put about two ounces of butter in a saucepan and set it on the fire; when melted, add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, stir for half a minute with a wooden spoon, then put the chicken in with salt and pepper; when about half fried on one side, turn it over and half fry the other side; then take off the chicken, roll it in chopped parsley and bread-crumbs mixed together, broil it properly and serve on a Tartar sauce.
A chicken broiled either way above described may also be served on a Béchamel or on a cream sauce.
Croquettes.—The proportions that we give below are for half a middling-sized chicken.
A chicken may be cooked especially to make croquettes, but it is generally made with cold meat.
Chop the meat fine. Chop fine also half a middling-sized onion; fry it with one ounce of butter, then add half a tablespoonful of flour, stir for half a minute, then add also the chopped meat and a little over a gill of broth, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, stir for about two minutes, take from the fire, mix two yolks of eggs with it, put back on the fire for one minute, stirring the while; lastly you add four mushrooms chopped, or two truffles, chopped also, or both, according to taste; do not put back on the fire, but turn the mixture into a dish, spread it and put it away to cool.
When perfectly cold, mix it well, as the upper part is more dry than the rest; put it in parts on the paste-board, about a tablespoonful for each part. Have bread-crumbs on the paste-board, roll each part of the shape you wish; either round like a small sausage, or flat, or of a chop-shape; then dip each croquette or part in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs again, and fry in hot fat. (See Frying.)
The best way to shape them, is to roll each part round first with a few bread-crumbs, then with a knife smooth both ends, while with the left hand you roll them gently, and if wanted flat, strike gently on them with the blade of a knife. If wanted of a chop-shape, when flat, shape with the hands and strike again to flatten them.
Croquettes are made with any kind of cold meat.
In Fricassee.—Clean, prepare, and cut as directed. If the flesh is not white, blanch it. Put it in a saucepan, cover it with broth or cold water (broth is better than water), set it on the fire, and add one onion whole, and if covered with water, add also a bunch of seasonings, composed of three stalks of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, boil gently till done. Put about two ounces of butter in a saucepan with one tablespoonful of flour, set on the fire, stir and mix while the butter is melting; then turn the broth or water in which the chicken has been cooked into this pan through a strainer, add salt, six mushrooms sliced, then the pieces of chicken; give one boil, dish the pieces as directed, mix a yolk of egg in the sauce, turn it over the chicken, and serve with or without a border of paste.
Border of Paste.—Knead well together, so as to make a rather thick paste, two whites of eggs with flour; spread it with a rolling-pin in a long strip about two inches and a half broad and one-fifth of an inch thick. Trim the sides if not straight; cut three rows of holes in the middle with a fruit-corer, then cut the strip of paste in two, lengthwise and in the middle of the middle row of holes. Cut it again across in pieces about three or four inches long. Put it in a warm place to dry till hard enough to keep in shape and still be pliable; warm the dish on which you wish to place it; beat the white of an egg just a little with a pinch of sugar, glaze the straight side of the paste with it; place it all around and on the border of the dish with the dentilated side up. Place the pieces of chicken inside of the border as directed above, and serve.
The cut below represents the border. One, a, is the border before being cut in two, and b when cut.
It may seem difficult to place the border at first, but it will be easily done after having tried once or twice, and following the directions previously given. It is better to try when not in a hurry and before being wanted; that is, before you wish to serve it. The border may be made and placed on a dish without a chicken, it will be better for an experiment.
In Fricassée à la chevalière or Parisienne.—While the chicken is cooking as directed for fricassée, prepare a garniture of chicken-combs, and, when the chicken is dished, place the garniture all around it, and serve warm.
A la Française.—While the fricassée is being made, prepare a garniture of mushrooms or one of truffles, or both.
Dish the chicken as directed, place a garniture of mushrooms or one of truffles, or both, tastefully all around, and serve warm.
When a fricassée is made for several persons, with two, three, four, or more chickens, three garnitures may be placed around the same dish, and, when carefully and tastefully arranged, it makes a sightly one.
The three garnitures are, generally, of chicken-combs, mushrooms, and truffles; they may be also of chicken-combs, quenelles of chicken, and croutons; or, of financière, truffles, and chicken-combs; or a boiled craw-fish here and there, and two of any of the above-mentioned garnitures.
Instead of a garniture, it may be served with a border of rice. (See Rice in Border.)
A la financière.—This is a fricassée of chicken served with a financière garniture.
Au suprême.—Chicken, or rather chickens, au suprême is a fricassée made with the breasts of chickens only. Each side of the breast-bone is carefully detached in two long pieces called fillets; so that, with two chickens, there are eight pieces.
To detach them properly, split the skin right on the breast-bone from the neck to the rump, then pull it off on both sides so as to have the whole breast skinned. Take hold of one wing with the left hand, and, with a sharp knife in the right, split or cut the joint off carefully, we mean the third joint of the wing, or that near the body; as soon as the joint is cut, by merely raising the back of the knife, leaving the edge on the cut joint and pressing gently on the chicken, you easily pull off the larger part of the half breast; detach the end of the other half with the point of the knife and pull it off also.
Do the same for the other side.
When the breasts or fillets are thus detached, prepare them as chicken in fricassée, and serve with a border of paste, or with one of rice, as directed in the receipts above, and serve warm.
What is left of the chickens is put in the broth-kettle, or used to make consommé.
Another suprême.—Detach the breasts of two chickens as above directed, then prepare the eight pieces or fillets as directed for chicken sauté. Ten minutes before taking from the fire, add and mix with the whole two or three truffles, weighing at least six ounces, and sliced; finish the cooling, and serve.
To serve.—Dish the pieces tastefully and according to fancy, and put the dish away in a warm place, then mix a suprême sauce with what you have left in the pan, sauce, truffles, etc., boil the whole till rather thick, stirring continually while it is boiling, turn over the pieces of chicken, and serve. The suprême sauce used in that case is generally made with very rich chicken gravy.
Chickens au suprême is considered a very recherché dish, and it is a rather expensive one. For a grand dinner, the breasts of six chickens are used, and all the other parts of the chicken are used to make chicken gravy with rich broth, and that gravy is, in its turn, used to make the suprême sauce that is mixed with the liquor in which the chicken has cooked.
The broth used to sauté the chicken is generally rich, and very often two pounds of truffles are used with six chickens.
A la Bourguignonne.—This is a fricassée also, but instead of covering the chicken with broth or water, it is covered with white wine.
Proceed, for the rest, and serve as fricassée.
With Carrots.—While you are cooking a chicken in fricassée, prepare a dish of carrots au jus or glazed, for ornamenting the dish; cut the carrots with a vegetable spoon before cooking them.
Dish the chicken as directed, place the carrots tastefully all around the meat, and serve warm. This dish was devised by a monk, and is often called à la Saint Lambert.
A la Royale.—This is nearly the same as au suprême; the only difference is, that the pieces of breast or fillets are larded with salt pork, and then cooked, served and decorated the same as described for au suprême.
Marengo.—Clean, prepare, and cut up the chicken as for fricassée. Put in a stewpan five teaspoonfuls of sweet-oil, and set on a good fire; when hot, put the chicken in with salt and pepper; turn over once in a while, till every piece is of a golden color, and nearly cooked, then add two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, tied together with twine; add also three or four mushrooms cut in slices, and if handy three or four truffles also cut in slices; when the whole is cooked, dish the pieces of chicken thus: the neck and gizzard, with the fore part of the back, and the low part of the legs in the middle, one leg on each side of the dish with one wing beside each, then the breast and hind part of the back, and the ends of the wings at the top. Have an Italian sauce ready, pour it on the chicken, place on the whole the pieces of mushrooms and truffles, also some croutons fried in butter, and serve.
With Green Peas.—Clean, prepare, and truss the bird as directed for poultry, then cook it whole as a stewed chicken above. When done, dish the chicken, place peas à l'Anglaise all around, strain the sauce over the whole, and serve.
Larded with Truffles.—Clean, prepare, and truss a fat chicken. Make about two dozen small pegs, with truffles, about half an inch long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Take a skewer, make a hole in the flesh of the breast of the chicken, and put a truffle-peg into it. Put a dozen pegs in the same way on each side of the breast-bone, and cook and serve the chicken. It is either boiled, stewed, or roasted, and served as directed for either.
With Tarragon.—Proceed as for a stewed chicken, with the exception that it is cooked whole after being trussed as directed for poultry, and after having stuffed it with two ounces of butter kneaded with half a dozen stalks of tarragon chopped fine. Serve with a few stalks of tarragon around the dish.
Roasted.—Clean, prepare, and truss the chicken as directed. Place it on the spit slightly salted and buttered all around, or envelop it in buttered paper, or merely cover the breast with thin slices of salt pork tied with twine. Baste often, at first with melted butter, and then with the drippings.
If the bird has been enveloped with paper, the latter must be removed about ten minutes before taking the chicken from the fire; do the same with the slices of salt pork.
It takes from twenty-five minutes to one hour to roast a chicken, with a good fire. The time depends as much on the quality of the bird as on the size. With a skewer or a small knife, or merely by pressing on it with the fingers, anyone can learn how to tell when done, after having roasted only two or three. Even by the look of it, many persons can tell.
With Water-cress.—Dish the chicken when roasted, put fresh water-cress all around, remove the fat from the gravy, which you turn over the whole; add salt and pepper to taste, a little vinegar or lemon-juice, and serve warm.
With Sauces.—When roasted, serve with the following sauces: soubise, tarragon, oyster, tomato, and Provençale.
With Garnitures.—Dish the bird when roasted as directed, and place one of the following garnitures around, and serve warm: quenelles of chicken or of veal, Macédoine, and cauliflowers.
With Macaroni.—Spread four ounces of macaroni au jus on a dish, place the roasted chicken on it, and serve the whole warm.
With Butter.—It may be served with its gravy and craw-fish or lobster-butter.
With Chestnuts.—When dished, surround the chicken with chestnuts glazed, and serve.
With Pigeons.—Dish the bird, place four roasted pigeons around, one at each end and one on each side; fill the intervals with green peas au jus, and serve warm.
All the above may be decorated with skewers. Run the skewer in a chestnut and then in a craw-fish; or, in a quenelle and then in a chestnut or craw-fish; or, in a chicken-comb, and in a quenelle, and stick it on the chicken. Two skewers only for a chicken make a fine decoration. Slices of truffles, of mushrooms, and chicken-combs, make fine as well as delicious decorations.
Baked.—Put the chicken in a baking-pan, after being cleaned, prepared, and trussed. Salt and butter the breast, which must be upward, place a piece of buttered paper on it, and a little cold water in the bakepan. Set it in a warm, but not too quick oven; baste often with the liquor in the pan. If the water and juice are absorbed by the heat, add a little cold water, so as to have liquor to baste with. Remove the paper about ten minutes before taking from the oven. It takes about forty minutes to cook a chicken of middle size.
Serve a baked chicken with sauces and garnitures, and decorated the same as if it were roasted, and as described in the above receipts.
Sauté.—After being cleaned and prepared as directed, cut the chicken in pieces as for fricassée. Put it in a saucepan with about an ounce of butter; set on the fire, stir now and then till it is of a golden color and pour off the fat, if any is in the saucepan. Add a tablespoonful of flour and stir half a minute, then add also broth enough to nearly cover the meat, half a pint of white wine, a bunch of seasonings composed of four stalks of parsley, one of thyme, half a bay-leaf, and one clove, the four tied together with twine; add salt, and one onion whole. Boil gently till done. Ten minutes before serving, add half a dozen mushrooms.
Dish the pieces of chicken as directed for fricassée, place the mushrooms over them, strain the sauce all over, and serve warm.
If the chicken is done before the sauce is reduced or is rather thick, dish the meat and put it away in a warm place, boil the rest slowly till reduced, and then turn it over the meat. Serve with or without a border, as in a fricassée. Truffles may be used instead of mushrooms, if handy, or liked. Water may be used instead of broth, but it is inferior.
Another.—To be good sauté, the chicken must be young and tender. Clean, prepare, and cut as directed. Put about one ounce and a half of butter in a frying-pan, set it on the fire, and when melted put the pieces of chicken in, stir now and then till all the pieces have a golden hue; add a tablespoonful of flour, stir again for about one minute; then add also salt and pepper, half a pint of broth, or one gill of broth and one gill of white wine; boil gently for five or six minutes. Add again a teaspoonful of parsley chopped fine, five or six mushrooms cut in slices, keep it boiling gently till done, and serve warm.
If the sauce is boiling away, or is found too thick, add a little broth. Use Champagne, Sauterne, or Catawba wine. It is much better with wine than without.
Another.—Clean, prepare, and cut the chicken as for fricassée. Put it in a saucepan with about an ounce of butter, set on the fire, stir once in a while till all the pieces are of a fine golden color; then pour off the fat that may be in the pan. Sprinkle a tablespoonful of flour all over it, and stir for about half a minute, then add three or four shallots, or two or three small green onions, chopped fine, parsley, and three or four mushrooms, both cut in small pieces, a bunch of seasonings composed of four sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, salt, and pepper.
Stir often till cooked, and serve with a few drops of lemon-juice sprinkled on it when dished.
Dish as directed for fricassée.
Stewed.—Clean, prepare, and cut the chicken in pieces as for fricassée. Brown them in a saucepan with about one ounce of butter, then take the pieces off, add half a tablespoonful of flour to the butter, stir for one minute, then add also three or four mushrooms in slices, a small onion, and half a dozen sprigs of parsley chopped fine, stir for two or three minutes, then cover with half a pint of white wine and the same of broth, boil for ten minutes, put the pieces of chicken back into the pan, boil gently till done, and serve warm as it is.
The pieces of chicken are dished as directed for fricassée.
Stuffed with Bread.—Soak stale bread in cold water, and then squeeze the water out of it. Put one ounce of butter in a saucepan and set it on the fire; as soon as melted, add one middling-sized onion chopped fine, and stir till it turns rather yellow, then add the bread, stir two minutes; add again salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, two or three tablespoonfuls of broth; stir again two or three minutes, take from the fire, mix in it a yolk of egg, put back on the fire for half a minute, stirring the while, take off again, add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and use. Fill the crop (we mean the place where the crop was) and also the body or inside of the bird with the above mixture, truss it as directed; roast or bake it, and serve with the gravy.
Stuffed with Sausage-meat.—Set a saucepan on the fire with about half an ounce of butter in it; when melted add an onion chopped fine, stir, and, when nearly fried, add also the heart and liver of the bird, chopped fine, four, six, or eight ounces of sausage-meat (according to the size of the bird), stir for about twelve minutes, take from the fire, mix a yolk of egg with it, also four or five mushrooms chopped, or one or two truffles, chopped also, put back on the fire for five minutes, stirring the while, take from the fire again, fill the prepared bird with the mixture, and as above, roast or bake it, and serve it with its gravy.
Stuffed with Chestnuts.—Roast chestnuts and skin them, removing also the white envelope that is under the outside skin. Fill the inside of a cleaned and prepared chicken till half full, add about one and a half ounces of butter, finish the filling; truss, roast or bake as directed, and serve the bird with its gravy.
Stuffed with Truffles.—The truffles, being preserved, do not require any preparation, half a pound is enough for a middling-sized chicken; it is not necessary to put any where the crop was.
Salt and pepper the inside of the bird, and put in it also about a teaspoonful of parsley chopped fine, then the truffles; sew the incision made to draw it; truss it as directed, and roast or bake.
The same, stewed.—When stuffed, put four ounces of salt pork cut in dice in a saucepan, with slices of onion and carrot, place the chicken on them, season with four stalks of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove tied together; half cover it with broth and white wine, of equal parts, set on the fire, boil gently till done, turning it over several times. Dish the bird, strain the sauce over it, and serve warm.
After being stuffed with truffles, it may be kept two days before cooking.
Cold.—What is left from the previous day's dinner is known under the name of cold meat.
For about half a chicken put one ounce of butter in a saucepan, and, when melted, turn into it a financière garniture, and half a pint of Madeira wine, boil gently about eight minutes, put the cold chicken cut in pieces in it; leave just long enough on the fire to warm it, and serve.
If not a roasted or broiled chicken, or part of either, you merely warm it in the bain-marie if possible, or on the fire, and serve as it is.
If roasted or broiled, it is served in blanquette, thus:
Cut up the meat in slices, have in a stewpan and on a good fire a piece of butter the size of two walnuts; when melted, sprinkle in it a pinch of flour, stirring with a wooden spoon the while; then pour in also, little by little, two gills of warm broth, same of boiling water, half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and two or three small onions fried in butter; boil fifteen minutes. After that time subdue the fire, place the slices of chicken in the pan, and serve as it is when well warmed.
Instead of onions, slices of pickled cucumbers may be used.
Another way.—Cut up the chicken or part of it as for fricassée. Put a little butter in a stewpan and set on the fire; when melted, sprinkle in it a little flour, half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, same of chopped mushrooms, stir with a wooden spoon the while, two or three minutes after which add two gills of white wine, boil the whole fifteen minutes; then subdue the fire, put the pieces of chicken in the pan, and serve as it is when warm.
It may also, after it is cut up, be served cold, with an oil, piquante, or poivrade sauce.
The same, in Fricassée.—An old chicken that has been used to make broth, either alone or with beef, when cool, or the next day, may be prepared just as a spring chicken in fricassée.
In Salad.—It is made with cold chicken, roasted or baked, with a whole one or part of it.
Cut all the meat in dice and put it in a bowl.
Cut just as much roasted or baked veal in dice also, and put with the chicken.
Cut also about as much table celery as chicken, which put with the meat also. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar, and very little oil; stir and mix the whole well. Add also some lettuce, and mix again gently. Put the mixture then on a platter, making a small mound with it; spread a Mayonnaise-sauce all over it; decorate with hard-boiled eggs, cut in four or eight pieces, lengthwise; also with centre leaves of lettuce, capers, boiled beets, and even slices of lemon.
A bard-boiled egg is cut across in two, then with a sharp knife scallop each half, invert them and run a small skewer through both, so as to leave the smaller end of both halves in the middle and touching; place the egg right in the middle of the dish, when the Mayonnaise is spread all over; plant the centre leaves of a head of lettuce in the middle of the upper half of the egg, with a few capers in it, and serve.
Some use mustard with a chicken salad; it is really wrong, because chickens and Mayonnaise-sauce are too delicate to use mustard with them.