Choose a thick cut of fine, fresh, juicy steak without fat. Broil it over the coals for only a minute, or long enough to merely heat it throughout. Put it over a warm bowl set in a basin of hot water; cut it in many places, and squeeze out all the juice with the aid of the meat-squeezer ([see page 56]). Salt it very slightly. It should be served immediately, freed from every atom of fat, and accompanied with a wafer cracker.
Chicken Broth.
Cut up a fowl, and crack the bones. Put it into three pints of cold water. Boil it slowly, closely covered, for three or four hours, or until the meat falls in pieces. Strain it, then add two table-spoonfuls of rice which has been soaked for half an hour in a very little warm water, also a chopped sprig of parsley, if you have it. Simmer it for twenty minutes longer, or until the rice is thoroughly cooked. Season with salt and pepper, but not too highly. Serve with crackers, which should be broken into the broth the last minute.
Chicken Custard.
Ingredients: One half-pint of chicken broth, beaten yolks of three eggs, a little salt. Mix well, and cook it in the custard-kettle (as for boiled custard) until it has thickened. Serve in custard-cups.
Chicken Panada.
Roast a small chicken, and take out the breasts, or use more of the meat if preferred, and add a little salt; chop it as fine as possible, pound it, and pass it through a colander. Soak half the amount of the crumb of French rolls, or good bread (not too fresh), in tepid milk; squeeze it nearly dry, and mix it with the chicken. Thin it with a little strong chicken broth (which may be made with the remainder of the chicken) or with boiling water. Serve it in a custard-cup, to be eaten with a spoon. For convalescents, a very little finely minced parsley may be added.
Mold of Chicken Jelly.
Cut half a raw chicken into small pieces, and break the bones; put it on the fire with a quart of cold water. Boil it slowly until it is reduced to less than half; season with salt and a little pepper, if the invalid is not too ill for pepper. Strain it first through a colander, then a jelly-bag, into a mold or a bowl. If the chicken is quite tender, broil carefully the breast of the other half of it; cut it into dice, or put it whole into the mold or bowl, and cover it with the liquid. When the jelly has hardened, scrape off the layer of fat at the top of the mold before turning the jelly on a little oval platter.