The paper-bag cookery manual

Careful cooks have always boiled fowls and chickens by previously wrapping them up in buttered paper ; but boiling them in paper bags is more convenient, and certainly cleaner. Procure the bird to be boiled ready trussed for boiling; rub the outside with a cut lemon, then put it in a well buttered paper-bag with a sliced onion, a piece of celery, a small peeled onion stuck with a clove, and a small bunch of herbs, parsley, etc. ; add also about a pint of salted water ; fold in the bag and fasten well with wire clips, or, if preferred, tie up the end with string. Put it on a grid shelf in a moderately heated oven for about an hour, or less, according to the size of the bird ; serve the chicken on a hot dish with its gravy or liquor. Chicken Livers with Fine Herbs. Wash, clean, and drain a dozen chicken livers, cut each in half, and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a small peeled and chopped shallot, a dessertspoonful of flour, and half an ounce of melted butter. Put all into a buttered paper-bag with a gill of stock, seal up, and place it on a wire grid and cook in a well heated oven for about 10 minutes. Dish up, garnish with sippets of toasted bread, and serve hot. Chicken with Rice. Pick and wash the rice, parboil, drain on a sieve, and keep till required. Cut a chicken into neat joints, trim each slightly, and season with salt and pepper, also a grate of lemon rind. With the carcase prepare a stock seasoned with vegetables — carrot, turnip, and onion — then strain. Put the partially cooked rice into a thickly buttered grease-proof paper-bag, upon this place the pieces of chicken, and cover with more rice, moisten with about a gill of stock ; fold in the ends of the bag and fasten with two clips; place the bag on a grid or trivet in a fairly hot oven, and cook from 45 to 50 minutes. Take out the bag, slit it open, place the pieces of chicken on a deep dish, range the rice neatly round in the form of a border; garnish with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley, and serve hot. Spatchcock of Chicken. Truss a young chicken the same as for roasting, then split it down the backbone, the breast part being left whole. Spread out flat and skewer the legs, brush over with oiled butter, place it in a buttered “ Express” bag, and cook it on a grid in a hot oven for about half an hour. When done, take out the chicken, remove the skewers, and season it with salt and pepper. Serve on a hot dish, and place a few small rolls of fried bacon, cooked separately in a paper bag, round the dish, and garnish with watercresses. Curried Chicken. Cut a chicken, ready trussed for cooking, into small joints, trim each piece, as directed for fricassee of chicken, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the prepared pieces a table-spoonful of flour, a dessert-spoonful of curry powder, and a dessert-spoonful of desiccated cocoa-nut ; enclose this in a well buttered paper-bag, adding a gill of milk and a gill of stock or water. Close up the bag and fasten with wire clips; place it on a grid shelf and cook carefully in a