Kill the day before it is smothered. Split open the back, as if to broil. When ready to cook, wipe dry with a clean towel, rub well with butter and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Put in a pan with a slice of bacon or pork and a pint of water. Simmer an hour or more, basting frequently. When thoroughly done, place on a hot dish.
Stir into the gravy remaining on the fire a beaten egg, mixing it carefully. Pour this into the dish, but not on the chicken. Sift over it cracker, first browned and then pounded. Garnish with parsley, and serve.—Mrs. S. T.
Stewed Chicken.
Cut up the chicken as if to fry, adding the prepared head and feet. Soak in weak salt and water. If for dinner, do this immediately after breakfast.
An hour and a half before dinner, put in a saucepan, covering well with water. Let it simmer slowly for one hour. Take it out with a fork and lay in a bowl. Add a teacup milk and half a teaspoonful black pepper to the liquor. Let it boil up and strain on the chicken. Rinse the saucepan and return all to the fire. Beat one egg with a tablespoonful of flour and one of milk until quite smooth. Mince some parsley, thyme, and a very little onion, and stir all into the saucepan. Then put in a tablespoonful of butter. Stir around and pour into a dish in which small pieces of toast have been neatly arranged. Garnish with curled parsley.—Mrs. S. T.
Stewed Chicken.
Cut up and lay in salt and water. Put them in water enough to cover them, with some slices of middling. Let them boil till nearly done. Then put in the dumplings, made like biscuit but rolled thin, and let them boil till done. Roll a piece of butter in flour, with pepper, salt, chopped parsley and celery, or a little celery-seed. When the gravy is thick enough, pour in a teacup of cream or milk, and let it boil up once. Take off the fire and serve hot.—Mrs. Col. W.
Fried Chicken.
This dish is best when the chicken is killed the same day it is fried. Cut off the wings and legs, cut the breast in two, and also the back. Wash well and throw in weak salt and water, to extract the blood. Let it remain for half an hour or more. Take from the water, drain and dry with a clean towel, half an hour before dinner. Lay on a dish, sprinkle a little salt over it, and sift flour thickly first on one side and then on the other, letting it remain long enough for the flour to stick well. Have ready on the frying-pan some hot lard, in which lay each piece carefully, not forgetting the liver and gizzard. Cover closely and fry till a fine amber color. Then turn over each piece and cover well again, taking care to have the chicken well done, yet not scorched. Take the chicken up and lay in a hot dish near the fire. Pour into the gravy a teacup of milk, a teaspoonful of butter, a saltspoon of salt, and one of pepper. Let it boil up and pour into the dish, but not over the chicken. Put curled parsley round the edge of the dish and serve.—Mrs. S. T.
Fried Chicken.