You may improve it by a few small slices of cold ham.
CHICKEN CROQUETS AND RISSOLES.
Take some cold chicken, and having cut the flesh from the bones, mince it small with a little suet and parsley; adding sweet marjoram and grated lemon-peel. Season it with pepper, salt and nutmeg, and having mixed the whole very well, pound it to a paste in a marble mortar, putting in a little at a time, and moistening it frequently with yolk of egg that has been previously beaten. Then divide it into equal portions, and having floured your hands, make it up in the shape of pears, sticking the head of a clove into the bottom of each to represent the blossom end, and the stalk of a clove into the top to look like the stem. Dip them into beaten yolk of egg, and then into bread-crumbs grated finely and sifted. Fry them in butter, and when you take them out of the pan, fry some parsley in it. Having drained the parsley, cover the bottom of a dish with it, and lay the croquets upon it. Send it to table as a side dish.
Croquets may be made of cold sweet-breads, or of cold veal mixed with ham or tongue.
Rissoles are made of the same ingredients, well mixed, and beaten smooth in a mortar. Make a fine paste, roll it out, and cut it into round cakes. Then lay some of the mixture on one half of the cake, and fold over the other upon it, in the shape of a half-moon. Close and crimp the edges nicely, and fry the rissoles in butter. They should be of a light brown on both sides. Drain them and send them to table dry.
BAKED CHICKEN PIE.
Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with a thick paste. Having cut up your chickens, and seasoned them to your taste with salt, pepper, mace and nutmeg, put them in, and lay on the top several pieces of butter rolled in flour. Fill up the dish about two-thirds with cold water. Then lay on the top crust, notching it handsomely. Cut a slit in the top, and stick into it an ornament of paste made in the form of a tulip. Bake it in a moderate oven.
It will be much improved by the addition of a quarter of a hundred oysters; or by interspersing the pieces of chicken with slices of cold boiled ham, in which case use no other salt.
You may add also some yolks of eggs boiled hard.
A duck pie may be made in the same manner. A rabbit pie also.