FoodNetArchive

Cassell's dictionary of cookery

1892

Page 355 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Chicken, The. — Those chickens are the best which have small bones, short legs, and clean, white-looking flesh. Chickens with white legs should be boiled, those with black legs roasted. The flesh ef chickens is generally con- sidered more digestible than any other animal food. These birds are cheapest in November. Spring chickens are to be obtained in April. It is better to kill them one or two days before they are dressed. Chickens are always better for being singed, as it gives firmness to the flesh. Chicken (a la Creci). — Cut half a pound of bacon into dice, and fry these lightly, then put them into a saucepan, and with them twelve shallots, twelve button mushreoms, two large carrots cut into pieces the size and shape of a walnut, and twelve chestnuts roasted and peeled. Let these be already dressed when they are put into the saucepan. Add the flesh of a chicken cut into fillets, cover it with good brown gravy, and stew it gently for a quarter of an hour, when a tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of pepper, a blade of mace pounded, and a glass of Madeira, or any white wineChicken a la Creci, may be added. Simmer for five minutes longer, take out the chicken, and place it on a dish ; if necessary, thicken the gravy a little, then pour it over the meat. Place the chestnuts, carrots, &c., round it, together with a few mushrooms. Garnish the dish with toasted sippets. Pro- bable cost, chicken, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons. Chicken (a I'Estragon). — Put some tarra- gon leaves in hot water, dry them, and cho-p them small; make a forcemeat by mincing the chicken's liver, and mixing with it an equal (luantity of bacon, a little of the chopped tarragon, some niitmcg, salt, and pepper ; stufl: the bird v.n.ih this, cover it with slices of bacon, tie over it some sheets of buttered paper, and roast it before a clear fire. Boil some nicely- flavoiired stock with the remainder of the tan-agon leaves, thicken it with a little bro\\n thickening, or with flour and butter, and add salt, pepper, and a little lemon- juice. Send this to table with the chicken. Time to roast, half an hoiu- for a small chicken. Sufficient for two or three persons. Probable cost of chicken, 2s. 6d. Chicken (a la Marengo). — Cut a fine chicken into neat joints, season it with salt and cayenne, and brown it lightly in about two ounces of hot butter or lard. Two good slices of bacon should be put into the frying-pan with it. Drain the meat from the fat, and mix with the latter a table-spoonful of flom-, and, very gradually, sufficient good stock to make the sauce of the consistency of thick cream. Put the meat and the gravy into a saucejoan, and simmer them very gently. When about half cooked, put in a dozen button mushrooms, half a dozen small onions, and a handful of young kidney beans, or any other vegetable that maybe liked. Time to simmer, one hour. Probable cost of chicken, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for four or five persons. Chicken (a la Sainte Menehould). — Fricassee a chicken so that the gravy, when cold, will be a solid jelly ; take out the pieces oi chicken with the jelly on them, and strew over them finely-grated bread-crumbs, then dip them into egg, and then into bread-crumbs again. Fry them in hot butter or lard, and send a rich brown sauce to table with them. Time to iry, ten or fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 2s. 6'd. Sufficient for three persons.