Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Chicken Gumbo (file a la Creole). — Put a table-spoonful of pork drippings in a pot ; when hot, add a table-spoonful of flour; stir until brown; slice an onion, and fry ; skim out. Have a chicken cut in pieces, put in the fat, and fry brown. Pour boiling water in to cover ; stir, and let simmer. Add the fried onion, a quart of sliced okra, eight cloves, a pod of red pepper, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Let boil slowly for two hours. When ready to serve, stir in a table - spoonful of file. Take up and serve with plain boiled rice. See also Soups. Chicken Jellied. — Put the chicken in a stewpan with enough water to cover it. Let it come to a boil, then push it back on the stove and let it simmer until it is very tender. Take it out and let it cool. When the water is cold take off the fat, clarify the liquor, season it to taste, and add one box of gelatine to three pints of the liquor. Then pour it into a double mould so that there may be a thickness of one-half to one inch of jelly on bottom and sides. Fill it with the chicken freed from skin, bones, and fat, and seasoned ; or, cut the chicken in slices and garnish with a border of aspic jelly. Serve with mayonnaise, tartare, or other suitable sauce. If veal is boiled with the chicken the liquor will jelly of itself, and the gelatine may be omitted. If no double mould is at hand, take two dishes or forms or moulds, one of which is about an inch smaller in diameter than the other. In such a case place the larger mould on ice and pour in enough jelly to cover the bottom one inch deep. Then, take the smaller mould, fill it with ice, place it in the larger mould, and fill the space between the two with the jelly. When set, take the ice out of the smaller mould and pour in a little warm (not boiling) water and lift out the smaller mould as quickly as possible. Chickens, Spring, with Lettuces. — Cut the feet and heads off three spring chickens, singe them, remove the short quills with a pointed knife. Draw them by a small opening cut under the breast-bone near the second joint. Clean them inside with a wet towel. Wipe them all over, but do not wash them. With a trussing-needle pass a fine twine through the legs to bring them close to the body ; tie them from the back. Cut the ends of the wings. Open the skin from the back of the neck to the shoulders, in order to remove the neck ; then fold the skin over the back, turn the wings also on the back, and pass the twine through them to hold them tightly. Tie them on the back. Put in a skillet two table-spoonfuls of butter. When hot, put in the chickens, cook them for fifteen minutes slowly, and not covered, until nicely brown all over. Pour over them one pint of good, warm beef broth. Add half of a bay-leaf, two sprigs of parsley, one clove, one small white onion. Season with one saltspoonful of salt and half a salt-spoonful of pepper. Cover the saucepan; cook slowly for fifteen minutes. The lettuces, cooked as follows, must be already prepared : Pare off the tough part of three large lettuces ; clean them well ; cut them in halves. Tie each half with a string, put them in plenty of boiling water, boil thirty minutes, remove them, drain them, and plunge in cold water ; drain again, and squeeze them gently to take the water out.