Steamed Turkey.—All poultry, after dressing, should remain in cold water from twenty minutes to half an hour to extract the blood and leave them white; then hang in a cool place for twenty-four hours, in winter even longer. They will be much sweeter and finer flavored for it.
When ready to cook a turkey, see that every pinfeather is taken out, rinse in cold water, and wipe dry with a cloth used for nothing but such purposes; rub inside with pepper and salt, and fill with oysters carefully washed in their own liquor to remove bits of shells; sew up the turkey, place in a large dish, and set it into a steamer over boiling water, or in a “Rumford Boiler”; lay a clean cloth over the steamer and shut the cover on tight, and steam till tender,—two and a half hours, or, if large, three hours; run a fork into the breast to see if done. If it seems tender, and no reddish juice flows out, it is ready to take up; strain the gravy and put into the oyster sauce, which should be ready while the turkey is cooking, made like stewed oysters and thickened with farina or butter and flour; let it just boil up, and add, if you like it white, a little boiled cream; pour this over the steamed turkey, and serve hot.
Or, if preferred, the turkey may be stuffed as for a common baked turkey and steamed; or it may be stuffed with good plump chestnuts after the skins are removed, and the gravy made with the giblets chopped fine, adding a little flour as you chop, and the gravy from the dish stirred to it, and set over the fire to boil up. While the gravy is being made, rub a little butter over and sprinkle the turkey with flour very slightly, and set in a hot oven to brown delicately. Many prefer this to sending to the table right from the steamer with white gravy poured on.
Broiled Chickens.—First boil the giblets, neck, and tips of the wings in just enough water to cover them; season with a little pepper and salt. When tender, pick off what little meat there is on the neck and wing-tips, and chop with the giblets, very fine, shaking over them, while chopping, enough flour to make the whole like a paste; then return it to the water it was boiled in, stirring all together, and leave it on the range to keep hot. This done, put the chicken on a well-heated gridiron over a clear fire, covering it closely with a cover made to fit the gridiron. Cook carefully, turning it often, and do not let it scorch. When done, it should be of a good, rich, clear brown, as uniform in color as possible. When partly cooked, sprinkle salt and pepper over it on both sides.
Put three great spoonfuls of butter on the platter you have ready to take the chickens up in; set it into the oven, leaving the door open lest you break the platter by too strong heat. When the chicken is well cooked, remove from the gridiron to this platter, turning it over several times in the melted butter; then pour over all the water in which the giblets have been put, which should have become a nice thick gravy; let the platter stand a few moments in the oven until all is thoroughly blended and heated, then send to the table hot.
If not in a hurry, it is well to melt butter in a deep kitchen-dish and put the chicken and gravy into the oven in that, and, when thoroughly heated through, remove to a hot china platter for the table. There is a risk of cracking the enamel on nice china or breaking the platter entirely, if set in the oven where a servant may forget and close the door.
To Bake a Chicken.—Choose full-grown, plump, well-fattened chickens; remove all the pinfeathers carefully and singe all the hairs off by holding a lighted paper under the chicken before opening; then open with care; see that the gall is not broken in taking out the entrails and giblets, and that none of the crop or windpipe is left in; then wash in plenty of cold water; put inside the gizzard, liver, and heart, when well cleaned and washed, and hang up to drain all night. If very warm weather, put in a piece of charcoal to keep it sweet. When ready the next morning to prepare for baking, cut off the neck and legs, and lay aside with the giblets for gravy; prepare a dressing, or stuffing, of dried bread rolled fine, with a little salt, pepper, sage, and summer savory,—the quantity of seasoning must be determined by the taste of the family; rub salt and pepper inside, fill with the dressing, putting enough into the neck or crop to give it a plump look; sew up and skewer. There should be a grate fitted to every meat-pan on which to lay meat or fowls, to keep them from becoming clammy by resting in the water; rub your fowls with a little butter and salt, place on this grate, pour boiling water into the pan, and put into the oven; let it cook about fifteen minutes, then baste with a little butter and salted water, kept in a bowl close by; dredge over some flour, and baste again; repeat the basting three or four times while the chickens are baking; turn them over every time; cook till a fork will enter the flesh easily, but taking care not to dry up the meat; then remove the skewers and thread with which they were sewed, put them on the platter and place in the heater, or where they will keep hot till the gravy is ready.
Gravy for Roast or Baked Poultry.—Put the giblets and neck into a small saucepan, sprinkle over a little salt and pepper, then cover them with boiling water and set on the back part of stove or range to cook slowly, as soon as you have put the poultry into the oven; dip the feet and legs into boiling water long enough to scald off all the leathery skin, and put them into the saucepan to boil with the giblets and neck. The feet and lower part of the leg, usually thrown away, contain a good deal of jelly, which gives a very desirable richness and body to the gravy, and when boiled tender many think them a great delicacy to be served whole. When the giblets are boiled tender, chop very fine, and while chopping dredge over flour till you have made them like a paste, then put back into the water they were boiled in to simmer till the chickens are done, stirring occasionally that the chopped giblets may not stick to the saucepan. After the fowls are taken up, set the meat-pan on the stove and shake some flour into the liquor at the bottom of the pan. By the time the poultry is cooked this should have been done to a brown gravy. After you have put in the flour, do not stir it until the liquor has boiled up over it, then rub it quite smooth, and little by little pour in the water in which the chopped giblets are; stir constantly until it thickens, and if properly managed you will have a smooth brown gravy of fine flavor.
Chicken Pot-Pie.—Cut up a chicken, or two if a large pie be required; lay the pieces neatly into the pot, and sprinkle over salt and pepper to your taste; rub one table-spoonful and a half of flour and two table-spoonfuls of butter (even full) together, and spread this paste over the chicken; then cover the whole with good new milk, or, better still, with cream, if you have it. Set the pot, covered closely with a tight-fitting cover, where it will not cook or boil rapidly, but stew or simmer, for three quarters of an hour. While this is stewing, make a crust of prepared flour, or, if you have none, with soda and cream of tartar, just as you would for light, tender biscuit; roll this out quite thick, and cover over the meat. If there be not enough gravy, add a little more milk boiling hot, or boiling water if milk be not plenty. Cut a slit in the top of the crust to let the steam escape. Boil half an hour after the crust is put on, bringing the pot over a hotter fire, that it may boil, not simmer. In taking it out, pass a knife around the sides of the pot to loosen the crust; then slip a long-handled skimmer, as nearly flat as you have, or a batter-cake turner, carefully under, and try to lift it out so as to break the crust as little as possible; but it will, if properly made and cooked, be so light that it will probably break a little. When lifted out, lay it on a dish and take out the chicken and gravy; then lay the crust together over it, and serve hot. Lean fresh pork or veal is very nice cooked in the same way.
Fried Chickens.—Cut up the chickens neatly; lay them in a large panful of cold water half an hour to extract the blood. Then drain and put into just enough boiling water to cover them; season with pepper and salt; parboil for twenty minutes. Fry crisp and brown some thin slices of salt pork. When the chicken is sufficiently parboiled, drain it from the water and lay each piece into the hot pork-fat. Dust over some flour, and fry the chicken a clear brown, turning each piece when sufficiently brown. When done on both sides, lay each piece on the platter neatly, and set where it will keep hot but not dry. When each piece is done and laid on the platter, shake from the dredge-box into the hot fat enough flour to absorb the fat. Do not stir it till all the flour is saturated; then with a spoon stir smooth and pour in, little by little, enough of the water in which the chicken was parboiled—which should be kept boiling—to make what gravy you need, stirring it all the time. When thickened and free from lumps, pour on the chicken, and serve hot.