Take two chickens, one or two years old, and cut each in about fourteen pieces, dividing each joint, and cutting the breast in two pieces; cut the gizzard quite small, and put it and the liver with the chicken. When the chicken is half done, cover with cold water, adding a good-sized onion, and when it reaches a boil, skim carefully; and when the same is about half cooked add sufficient salt and pepper, and also a handful of the green leaves of celery chopped fine, which will give it the flavor of oysters. Boil slowly until you can tear the chicken with a fork, when turn it out in a dish. Next, take one half pound of good butter, the yolks of three boiled eggs, and two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch or flour, and, after working well together, so as to form a thin batter, add the liquor from the chicken, return to the kettle, and, after boiling for five minutes, return the chicken, season with nutmeg or sal-piquant, adding at the same time a teacupful of cream or good milk, also the whites of the eggs, chopped fine. Keep hot until served.
Stewed Tripe.
Cut and prepare the tripe as for pepper-pot; season highly; add a pint of soup stock, and four spoonfuls of tomatoes, with a little butter, and half an onion chopped fine. Cook until quite tender.
Chicken Salad.
Boil a good-sized chicken, not less than one year old, in as little water as possible; if you have two calves' feet boil them at the same time, salting slightly, and leaving them in after the chicken is cooked, that they may boil to shreds. This liquid forms a jelly, which is almost indispensable in making good salad. When the chicken becomes cold, remove the skin and bones, after which chop or cut to the size of a pea; cut celery and lettuce equally fine—after taking off the outer fibre of the former—and mixing, add Clayton's Salad Dressing, (the recipe for which will be found elsewhere); also incorporating four eggs, which should be boiled eight minutes, cutting three as fine as the chicken and celery, and leaving the fourth as a garnish on serving. Cold roast turkey, chicken or tender veal make most excellent salad treated in this way.
Clayton's Celebrated California Salad Dressing.
Take a large bowl, resembling in size and shape an ordinary wash-bowl, and a wooden spoon, fitted as nearly as possible to fit the curve of the bowl. First put in two or three tablespoonfuls of mixed mustard, quite stiff. Pour on this, slowly, one-fourth of a pint of best olive oil, stirring rapidly until thick; then break in two or three fresh eggs, and, after mixing slightly, pour in, very slowly, the remaining three-fourths of the pint of oil, stirring rapidly all the while until the mixture forms a thick batter. Next, take a teacupful of the best wine vinegar, to which the juice of one lemon has been added, along with a small tablespoonful of salt, and another of white sugar, stirring well, until the whole of these ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. When bottled and tightly corked, this mixture will remain good for months. Those who are not fond of the oil, will find that sweet cream, of about sixty or seventy degrees in temperature, a good substitute; but this mixture does not keep so well.
Salad Flavoring.
It will be found a good thing before ornamenting a salad, to take a section of garlic, and, after cutting off the end, steeping it in salt, and then rubbing the surface of the bowl, putting in at the same time, small pieces of the crust of French or other bread, similarly treated. Cover the bowl with a plate, and shake well. This gives the salad a rich, nutty flavor.