A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

by Juliet Corson

LECTURE SIXTH.

Our first dish this afternoon, ladies, will be roast chicken. The lesson will include fish and poultry. First, to choose a tender chicken, examine the tip end of the breastbone—the lower end of the breast bone, to see if it is soft; if it bends without breaking under pressure; in other words, if the cartilage has not hardened into bone, you may be sure that the chicken is young, and consequently probably tender. The market people have a favorite way of showing you that the chicken is tender by taking hold of the wing and giving the joint a twist. They say, “You see how tender it is!” But that is no test except of strength. But there is no ingenuity which can simulate that soft cartilage on the end of the breast bone. That is always a sure test. After choosing the chicken—of course now I am speaking of dressed chicken, or chickens that are killed—after choosing the chicken, have it carefully picked and singed; then, if it is undrawn, wipe it with a wet towel, and proceed to draw it carefully without breaking the intestines. If it is drawn already the chances are that it will be imperfectly drawn and you will have to wash it. There is the disadvantage of having poultry drawn before it goes to the market, because where people draw poultry in large quantities they are very apt to do it carelessly. In that case it is necessary to wash it, but if you draw it carefully yourself you will not have to do that. By washing, you of course take away the flavor, as I told you the other day, because you lose more or less of the blood.

Cut the skin of the back of the neck and take out the crop, then out off the neck close to the body, that leaves the skin so that you can draw it up and fasten it back. If this chicken was not already cut for drawing I should cut it at one side under one of the legs, so that when I came to sew it up and dress it I could hide the cut. This chicken has been drawn carefully and does not seem to need washing. The liver and gizzard have been laid back inside. The entrails are all taken away. You can always tell by looking at the chicken whether the entrails are broken and whether it needs washing. After you have drawn the chicken very carefully separate the gall from the liver. The gall is that little greenish bag that lies on one side of the liver; and you want to cut it off without breaking, because if you break it it will make bitter everything that it touches. Save whatever fat there is about the entrails, and put it in the baking pan with the chicken. The gizzard has been cut open from one side and the inside bag which contains gravel and straw taken out. But a very much easier way to dress the gizzard instead of opening it, is to cut away the bluish skin which lies on the outside, on both sides, without opening the gizzard at all, and cut out that piece of flesh. That is the only valuable portion of the gizzard; if you dress the gizzard in this way when it is not already opened you save yourself a great deal of trouble, for it is a very hard matter to open a gizzard like that and take away the bag which contains the gravel, especially if the poultry has been frozen, as the bag is apt to break and let out the gravel. Use the gizzard and liver for making gravy, and the neck also. Cut out the oil sac or bag which lies at the back of the tail. Then the chicken is ready for stuffing. In cutting off the feet cut them below the joint, not just at the joint. If you cut them just at the joint the skin and flesh will draw up in cooking. But if you cut them just below the joint you will find that they do not draw up. After cutting off the feet scrape the skin all round to make sure that there are no bits of feather or anything of that sort, and wipe it with a wet towel and you have the chicken in readiness to stuff.

Stuff it with any force meat that you like. You remember this morning that we made force meat by chopping a teaspoonful of onion and frying it in a tablespoonful of butter, then putting in with the fried onion a cupful of stale bread soaked in cold water, seasoning with salt and pepper and sweet herbs. I said also that you could add chopped meat, cold meat or eggs, or to make any desired addition to the force meat in the way of seasoning. A little grated cheese in stuffing is very nice. You scarcely will realize what the seasoning is. I will use a little grated cheese this afternoon to make a force meat—very like what I made this morning, except in addition to the chopped onion, fried in a tablespoonful of butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, I shall put in half a cupful of grated cheese. You may like to know my way of chopping onion. In the first place, I make a lot of little cuts in one direction as far down as I think I shall need in order to get my teaspoonful; then I make little cuts in the other direction, and then by slicing it across you get your chopped onion. A very nice addition to force meat is chestnuts, either our ordinary American chestnut, or French or Italian chestnuts. These are quite large. I presume they are for sale at the fruit stores here. Our ordinary American chestnut is very good. Choose rather large chestnuts and either roast or boil them; take off the husks and skins and thus use them to stuff the chicken with, either simply using the chestnuts seasoned with salt, pepper and butter, or if you have boiled or roasted and skinned them, mix them with bread and seasoning. Then, after having prepared the force meat, you put it into the chicken, sew it up and truss it into shape. I will show you directly how to do that so as to keep the chicken plump, and so that it does not, in roasting, spread apart. I shall sew it with a trussing needle and a cord, or you might accomplish the same purpose, by using skewers, putting the skewers just where I put the cords. In sewing up a chicken after it is stuffed, remember what I said this morning; take large stitches with coarse cord so that you can easily see where to take the threads out when the chicken is done. After the chicken is trussed, if you are going to bake it, put it into a pan without any water, for the same reason that I gave you this morning. The water will soak it, half simmer it; you do not need water to keep it from burning, because a little drippings will soon come from the chicken; brown it and then dredge it with flour, and baste it every fifteen minutes or so. Bake it until it is tender and nicely brown; the time of course depends upon the heat of the oven. Truss the chicken first, pushing the legs as far up as you can towards the breast, and run the trussing needle, which is simply a long needle, through so as to hold the legs fast. Then either bend the wings back in turning them, or simply fold them together and secure them with the same string. By drawing the string tight, you keep the bird plump; keep it drawn together, and when the bird is done all you have to do is to take these two ends of string in one hand, make one cut and pull the string out.

The liver, the gizzard, the heart, the neck and the feet, use in making gravy. Of course the gizzard, liver and heart are all right as they are now prepared. If you wish to add the feet, you will scald them and scrape off the skin. Then cut off the ends of the claws, and you have the feet perfectly clean; put them with the gizzard, liver and heart to boil as the basis of your gravy. The French people always save all the feet of all kinds of poultry. They prepare them in this way and put them into soups; sometimes they cook them till the bones grow gelatinous, till they are very soft and tender; they dress them with sauce and serve them as what they call an entree or side dish. They make a dish which is more delicate than pigs’ feet. Of course in a large kitchen where a great deal of poultry is used it is possible to make a very good-sized dish of them.

FRICASSEED CHICKEN.

I shall use this chicken for fricassee; it has been singed, picked and wiped with a wet towel.

First, cut the skin down back of the neck, and cut off the neck. I shall talk about this chicken as if it was not drawn at all. Showing you how to cut it up and draw it at the same time. Cut off the neck and take out the crop, as I showed you with the other chicken. Then cut off the wings, taking a little of the breast with the wings. Find the joint where the wings join the body, cut at that joint; then, instead of cutting the wing right off short, take a little piece of the breast with it. That gives you a nice piece. Then cut the wing in two, and cut off the tip, which is dry; that you can cook in the fricassee, or not, as you please. It flavors, but there is very little meat on it. The other part of the wing you want, of course, to use. Put the pieces of chicken on two plates, putting the good pieces on one plate and the inferior pieces on the other. Having taken off the wing, take off what is called the wing side bone. Then cut forward and break off the shoulder bone. The idea is to cut the breast into several good-sized pieces. Cutting in this way you sacrifice what is called the merry-thought or wishbone. You either can cut off the side bone or not. Cut off the other wing in the same way. Then cut off the leg and second joint together. Instead of cutting the leg in two pieces at both joints, cut it in three pieces, that gives you two pieces of the second joint. In cooking chicken for fricassee you want to have the pieces about one size, so that they will cook easily. Then if they are one size they are much easier to help.

Next, to separate the breast from the back bone, cut down through the ribs on each side. If the chicken has not been drawn be careful with your knife, not to cut into the entrails. Then you can take the breast off, and if the chicken is not drawn, all the entrails will be exposed, and you can draw it with perfect ease. The lungs of the chicken, which are those light red organs on the side of the back bone, are always used by the French in cookery, not only those organs in chicken but in the larger carcasses of meat. They are quite as much food as the heart or liver. I am not in the habit of using them, but they are quite as available. After the breast has been taken off, cut it up in several pieces. First, cut off the entire tip, leaving that in one piece. Then cut the remainder in two or four pieces, according to its size. Next cut the back bone. There is a natural division in the upper part of the back bone that breaks there; cut that off and trim off the ribs. In cutting the lower part of the back bone, instead of cutting it just in two, making rather queer pieces to help, cut off the upper part of it leaving it entire, not splitting that part of it. In that way, cut off the portion called the “oysters,”—two little pieces of flesh in the upper part of the back bone, that are considered very nice. On one plate we have the inferior parts, on the other the nice parts of the chicken, being all cut in pieces of one size. It is easy to help, it cooks more evenly, and is rather nicer than if you had it in two or three sizes. Part of the chicken I am going to make into a brown fricassee, and part of it I am going to fry. There would be thirteen pieces if we counted the two pieces of the back bone. There are half a dozen of the poor pieces, not counting the wing pieces or neck. The question is asked whether the cords or sinews should be drawn from the legs. You can do that with old poultry if you want to, because those cords never get very tender. It is not necessary to do it with medium tender poultry.

First brown the chicken, using either some of the chicken fat, or butter, or salad oil for browning it. Now, since the question of using salad oil in cooking has come up, suppose I cook this chicken with salad oil so that you can taste it. After all, that is the best test you possibly can have as to whether you like salad oil in cooking. I shall put in just salad oil enough to cover the bottom of the sauce pan. That is enough to prevent sticking. For a chicken of three pounds take about three or four tablespoonfuls of salad oil; just enough to cover the bottom of the sauce pan. First put the sauce pan containing the salad oil over the fire and let it get hot; then put in the chicken and brown it. Now, can you notice the slightly aromatic odor? That is the oil, and directly you notice that odor, and the oil begins to smoke, it is hot enough. As soon as the chicken is brown,—and you can brown it just as fast as you want to,—then put a heaping tablespoonful of flour over it—some of the ladies will have seen the same process in making the brown stew of meat the other day—and stir the chicken until the flour is brown. When the flour is brown on the chicken,—and that will be by the time you get it well stirred up,—then add boiling water enough to cover it. When the flour is brown among the chicken, put in boiling water enough to cover it, season it with pepper and salt, palatably, and let it cook until it is tender. That will take from half an hour to two hours, according to the toughness of the chicken. Remember the more slowly you cook it after it once begins to cook, the nicer it will be. Cover up the sauce pan after the fricassee is seasoned, and cook it until it is tender. In the cooking of chicken the gravy that you make by putting boiling water on seems to boil away, and you may want to add a little more; just keep enough gravy over it to cover it, and when it is tender it is ready to serve. The odor you notice now is the aromatic odor of that salad oil, and is all that you will get in cooking with olive oil.