[277]. Boiled Fowl, Caper Sauce. Prepare and clean a fowl, pass a wooden skewer through the thighs, put it in a saucepan with half a pound of salt pork, and enough water to cover the chicken. Boil for an hour and a half, drain, put it on a dish, and pour over it half a pint of white sauce ([Art. 84]), to which you have added a handful of capers. Instead of capers you may add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, or two dozen oysters, blanched and drained.
[278]. Aspic de Foie Gras. Heat three pints of consommé ([Art. 1]), to which add three ounces of gelatine, a branch of tarragon, a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, and two wineglasses of madeira (or sherry). Simmer gently, and, when your gelatine is dissolved, remove your saucepan to the side of the range. Mix the whites of four eggs with a glass of cold water, and add them to your jelly, also the juice of a lemon; stir until thoroughly mixed. Simmer gently at the side of the range for half an hour, then strain through a flannel several times, or until perfectly clear. Take a round mold with a hole in the middle, place it on the top of some cracked ice, and pour in the bottom a few tablespoonfuls of jelly. When stiff, decorate it with truffles and the whites of hard-boiled eggs, cut in any fancy form which pleases you, then put on top another layer of jelly, let it stiffen, then add a layer of pâté de foie gras cut in pieces, then another layer of jelly, and so on, in the same manner, until your mold is filled, then put it on the ice for an hour. Then turn out your jelly on a dish, and put in the middle a sauce remoulade (cold, [Art. 109]), or sauce ravigote (cold, [Art. 112]), or sauce tartare (114). Instead of pâté de foie gras, slices of cold chicken, turkey, sweetbreads, or lobster may be used. The receipt for this jelly is given as it is generally made in this country, where gelatine is much used.
[279]. Aspic (another manner of making it). Cut in slices two onions and a carrot, put them in a saucepan on the fire, with two cloves, two pepper-corns, two bay-leaves, a branch of thyme, a few very thin slices of ham on top, four pounds of a knuckle of veal, two pounds of the lean part of a shin of beef, half a glass of water, and the remains of cold chicken or turkey. When beginning to color, moisten with three quarts of consommé ([Art. 1]), add two calf's feet, which you have boiled ten minutes in boiling water. Simmer very gently for four hours, remove all grease, and strain it through a flannel. Put it back again on the fire, mix the whites of four eggs with a glass of water, add it to your stock, also adding three wineglasses of sherry. Simmer gently at the back of the range for half an hour, strain it through a flannel until perfectly clear, and put it on the ice. This receipt is given in the manner in which aspic is made in France.
[280]. Boned Chicken. Boned chicken is prepared exactly in the same manner as boned turkey ([Art. 292]).
[281]. Larded Chicken. Prepare a chicken as for roasting, lard the breasts with pieces of larding pork, about an eighth of an inch wide and an inch and a half long. Put it in a saucepan with a sliced onion and carrot, six parsley-roots, two cloves, a clove of garlic, two pepper-corns, a branch of thyme, a bay-leaf, a pinch of salt, and enough consommé (stock, [Art. 1]) to cover three quarters of your chicken. When beginning to boil, send it to the oven for about an hour with all its liquid, with which baste it from time to time. Serve with a purée of artichokes ([Art. 443]), purée of celery ([Art. 392] ), purée of French chestnuts ([Art. 442]), sauce Allemande ([Art. 81]), or other sauces preferred. You may also serve the chicken with a clear gravy. Grouse, partridges, and quail may be larded in the same manner.
[282]. Chicken Pie à la Christine. Clean two chickens, cut them in pieces, and put them in a saucepan with quarter of a pound of salt pork, an onion, and a little celery, all cut in small pieces, some salt, a pinch of pepper, a very little nutmeg, several branches of parsley, inclosing two bay-leaves, two branches of thyme, three cloves, and a clove of garlic, all tied together. Boil an hour, and skim off the grease carefully whenever necessary. Add two tablespoonfuls of flour with which you have thoroughly mixed half a glass of water, boil ten minutes longer, make a paste as for beefsteak pie ([Art. 197]), line a deep dish with it, in which put your chicken, covering it on top with a round of paste the size of your dish, brush over it some beaten egg, and send to the oven, until well colored. Instead of celery, you may add some chopped mushrooms and truffles, and, instead of the pork, some small pieces of cooked ham, and hard-boiled eggs cut in slices.
[283]. Chicken Croquettes. Chop and pound fine in a mortar a pound of chicken from which you have removed all skin and sinews; also chop fine about ten mushrooms, which mix with your chicken, and add half a pint of Allemande sauce ([Art. 81]) rather thick, to which you have added the yolks of three eggs, mixed in two tablespoonfuls of water or milk. Put your mixture on the ice until perfectly cold, then form it into croquettes, which roll in bread-crumbs. Beat up three eggs, with which cover your croquettes; again roll in bread-crumbs. Put some lard in a frying-pan in which, when very hot, fry your croquettes, and, when a bright yellow color, drain, and serve with fried parsley on top. You may add to your mixture, before forming into croquettes, some chopped truffles or chopped parsley.
[284]. Puff Paste. Put a pound of flour on a table, make a hole in the center of the flour, in which by degrees pour half a pint of cold water. The water should always be added in very small quantities at a time, and thoroughly worked into the flour until perfectly absorbed before adding more. When all the water has been thoroughly mixed with the flour, work your paste out with the hands until round. Take a pound of butter, which has been on the ice, and which you have carefully washed. If very hard, knead it a little with your hands, then place it in the middle of your paste, flatten it, fold your paste over the butter so that it forms a square, and put it on the ice ten minutes. Then with a rolling-pin roll out your paste (having previously sprinkled the table with flour) about two feet long, then fold it one third of its length, roll it once with the rolling-pin, then take the remainder of the paste and fold it over the two other layers, and roll the paste two or three times, fold the paste again as before, and put it on the ice fifteen minutes. Then proceed as before, and put it again on the ice. Repeat the same operation once again.
[285]. Pâté Brisée. Put a pound of flour on a table, make a hollow in the middle of the flour, in which put eight ounces of butter and not quite half a pint of water. Work this paste well, so as to be quite smooth.
[286]. Bouchées de Salpicon. Take half a pound of puff paste, and, after having given it six turns, roll it out half an inch thick, cut it out in ten rounds, with a muffin-ring or a mold for the purpose. Mark lightly in the center of each, with the point of a knife, a very small round. Brush them (with a camel's-hair brush) in beaten egg, put them on a pan, send them to a very hot oven, and watch them carefully so that they do not color too much on the outside before the inside is done. This paste should rise at least two inches. When the bouchées are thoroughly done inside, and colored bright yellow on the outside, take them out of the oven, remove the small rounds in the center which you have marked out, and also enough paste from the inside to make space for the following mixture: Put half a pint of Spanish sauce ([Art. 80]), with a glass of sherry, in a saucepan on the fire, boil it ten minutes, then add eight mushrooms, four chickens' livers, which you have previously blanched in boiling water ten minutes, the breast of a cold chicken, some cold smoked tongue, and two truffles, all cut in small pieces. When hot, fill your bouchées, place the small covers on top of each, and serve. Instead of Spanish sauce, Allemande sauce ([Art. 81]) is often preferred. You may also add four ounces of chicken farce ([Art. 11]), which form into small balls, and poach in boiling water. Instead of chicken, you may substitute sweetbreads; or you may fill the bouchées with oysters, to which you have added an Allemande sauce and some mushrooms cut in small pieces.