Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 3rd ed. Eliza Leslie
in this manner will be found excellent.
Clams may be substituted for oysters; but they should be removed from the fowl before it is sent to table. Their flavour being drawn out into the gravy, the clams themselves will be found tough, tasteless, and not proper to be eaten.
FRENCH CHICKEN PIE.—Parboil a pair of full-grown, but fat and tender chickens. Then take the giblets, and put them into a small sauce-pan with as much of the water in which the chickens were parboiled as will cover them well, and stew them for gravy; add a bunch of sweet herbs and a few blades of mace. When the chickens are cold, dissect them as if for carving. Line a deep dish with thick puff-paste, and put in the pieces of chicken. Take a nice thin slice of cold ham, or two slices of smoked tongue, and pound them one at a time in a marble mortar, pounding also the livers of the chickens, and the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs. Make this force-meat into balls, and intersperse them among the pieces of chicken. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour, and then (having removed the giblets) pour on the gravy. Cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste, rolled out thick; and notch the edges handsomely; placing a knot or ornament of paste on the centre of the top. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and bake it brown. It should be eaten warm.
This pie will be greatly improved by a pint of mushrooms, cut into pieces. Also by a small tea-cup of cream.
Any pie of poultry, pigeons, or game may be made in this manner.
CHICKEN GUMBO.—Cut up a young fowl as if for a fricassee. Put into a stew-pan a large table-spoonful of fresh butter, mixed with a tea-spoonful of flour, and an onion finely minced. Brown them over the fire, and then add a quart of water, and the pieces of chicken, with a large quarter of a peck of ochras, (first sliced thin, and then chopped,) and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the pan, and let the whole stew together till the ochras are entirely dissolved, and the fowl thoroughly done. If it is a very young chicken, do not put it in at first; as half an hour will be sufficient to cook it. Serve it up hot in a deep dish.
A cold fowl may be used for this purpose.
You may add to the ochras an equal quantity of tomatoes cut small. If you use tomatoes, no water will be necessary, as their juice will supply a sufficient liquid.
TOMATO CHICKEN.—Take four small chickens or two large ones, and cut them up as for carving. Put them into a stew-pan, with one or two large slices of cold boiled ham cut into little bits; eight or ten large tomatoes; an onion sliced; a bunch of pot-herbs, (cut up;) a small green pepper, (the seeds and veins first extracted;) half a dozen blades of mace; a table-spoonful of lard, or of fresh butter rolled in flour; and two pounded crackers, or a handful of grated bread-crumbs. Add a tumbler or half a pint of water. Cover the sauce-pan closely with a cloth beneath the lid; set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire; and let it stew slowly till the chickens are thoroughly done, and the tomatoes entirely dissolved. Turn it out into a deep dish.
Rabbits may be stewed in this manner. Also, veal steaks, cut thin and small.
TURKEY AND CHICKEN PATTIES.—Take the white part of some cold turkey or chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced; a very little cayenne; and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh butter. Have ready some puff-paste shells, that have been baked empty in patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture.
Cold fillet of veal minced, and mixed with chopped ham, and grated yolk of egg, and seasoned as above, will make very good patties.
CHICKEN RICE PUDDING.—Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till soft and dry, a pint of rice; and while warm, mix with it a large table-spoonful of fresh butter. Beat four eggs very light; and then mix them, gradually, with the rice. Spread a coating of the rice, &c., over the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of the parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was boiled—seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour, and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with the remainder of the rice; set the pudding immediately into the oven and bake it brown.
Cold chicken or turkey cooked the day before may be used for this purpose. The pudding may be improved by the addition of a few very thin, small slices of cold ham or smoked tongue.
RICE CROQUETTES.—Boil half a pound of rice till it becomes quite soft and dry. Then mix with it two table-spoonfuls of rich (but not strong) grated cheese, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and sufficient fresh butter to moisten it. Mince very fine six table-spoonfuls of the white part of cold chicken or turkey, the soft parts of six large oysters, and a sprig or two of tarragon or parsley; add a grated nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon. Mix the whole well, moistening it with cream or white wine. Take of the prepared rice a portion about the size of an egg, flatten it, and put into the centre a dessert-spoonful of the mixture; close the rice round it as you would the paste round a dumpling-apple. Then form it into the shape of an egg. Brush it over with some beaten yolk of egg, and then dredge it with pounded crackers. In this way make up the whole into oval balls. Have ready, in a sauce-pan over the fire, a pound of boiling lard. Into this throw the croquettes, two at a time, so as to brown them. Let them brown for a few minutes; then take them out with a perforated skimmer. Drain them from the lard, and serve them up hot, garnished with curled parsley.
COLUMBUS EGGS.—Take twelve hard-boiled eggs. Peel off the shells, and cut the eggs into equal halves; cutting off also a little piece from each of the ends to enable them to stand alone, in the form of cups. Chop the yolks, and with them mix cold ham or smoked tongue, minced as finely as possible. Moisten the mixture with cream, (or a little fresh butter,) and season it with powdered mace or nutmeg. Fill with it the cups or empty whites of the eggs, (being careful not to break them;) pressing the mixture down, and smoothing it nicely. Arrange them on a dish; putting two halves close together, and standing them upright, so as to look like whole eggs.
WHITE FRICASSEE.—Cut a pair of chickens into pieces, as for carving; and wash them through two or three waters. Then lay them in a large pan, sprinkle them slightly with salt, and fill up the pan with boiling water. Cover it, and let the chickens stand for half an hour. Then put them immediately into a stew-pan; adding a few blades of mace, and a few whole pepper-corns, and a handful of celery, split thin and chopped finely; also, a small white onion sliced. Pour on cold milk and water (mixed in equal portions) sufficient to cover the chickens well. Cover the stew-pan, set it over the fire, and let it stew till the chickens are thoroughly done, and quite tender. While the chickens are stewing, prepare, in a smaller sauce-pan, a gravy or sauce made as follows:—Mix two tea-spoonfuls of flour with as much cold water as will make it like a batter, and stir it till quite smooth and free from lumps. Then add to it, gradually, half a pint of boiling milk. Next put in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, cut into small pieces. Set it over hot coals, and stir it till it comes to a boil, and the butter is well melted and mixed throughout. Then take it off the fire, and, while it is hot, stir in a glass of madeira or sherry, and four table-spoonfuls of rich cream, and some grated nutmeg. Lastly, take the chickens out of the stew-pan, and pour off all the liquor, &c. Return the chicken to the stew-pan, and pour over it, hot, the above-mentioned gravy. Cover the pan closely, and let it stand in a hot place, or in a kettle of boiling water for ten minutes. Then send it to table in a covered dish.
To the taste of many persons, this fricassee will be improved by adding to the chicken, while stewing, some small, thin slices of cold boiled ham.
Rabbits or veal may be fricasseed in the above manner.
BROWN FRICASSEE.—Half roast a pair of ducks. Then cut them apart, as for carving. If they are wild-ducks, parboil them with a large carrot (cut to pieces) inside of each, to draw out the fishy or sedgy taste. Having thrown away the carrot, cut the ducks into pieces, as for carving. Put them into a clean stew-pan, and season them with pepper and salt. Mix in a deep dish a very small onion minced fine, a table-spoonful of minced or powdered tarragon-leaves, (for which you may substitute sage and sweet-marjoram, if you cannot procure tarragon,) and two or three large tomatoes, scalded, peeled, and quartered, or two large table-spoonfuls of thick tomato catchup. Put in, also, two table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in grated bread-crumbs,