Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Chicken a la Terrapin. — Take a nice, fat chicken, weighing about 4 lbs., and put it into a pot, with enough cold water to cover it. Cover the pot, and let the chicken simmer till done ; then remove it from the broth, and, when cold, tear the meat from the bones, and cut it into small blocks. Put the broth back on the stove, and into it put a little summer-savory, marjoram, sage, thyme, two or three bay-leaves, a little black pepper, salt, some sprigs of parsley, a small piece of onion, a slice of lemon, and a few mushrooms. Let the broth cook till it is thoroughly flavored with the herbs. Thicken with a little flour and a good-sized piece of butter creamed together. Add a teacupful of cream, and then the chicken. Take out the parsley, bayleaves, and lemon, and put in the crumbled yolks of three hard-boiled eggs ; and, lastly, enough sherry wine to suit the taste. Serve very hot in a deep dish. Chicken and Turnip-tops. — Put a fowl into a pot of cold water, and let it boil so thoroughly that the bone may be slipped out with ease. Boil gently for six hours ; a half-hour before the time for serving it, throw in the turnip-tops. Let them boil until done ; then place the fowl in the middle of a flat meat-dish, and garnish it with the salad. As an indispensable accompaniment, there must be corndodgers boiled likewise in the same pot, or corn -bread baked in small pones, and served very hot. Duck with Celery. — Draw and dress a spring duck. Put in a saucepan one and a half table-spoonfuls of butter, and when melted put the duck in, turning frequently till it is a rich golden brown. Fifteen minutes should suffice. Take out the duck, and add to the butter one and a half table-spoonfuls of flour. Stir five minutes, then add slowly, stirring constantly, one quart of good stock that has been warmed. Boil five minutes, put in the duck, with half a teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper, a bouquet of two bunches of parsley, half a bay-leaf, a tiny sprig of thyme, two large onions, with two cloves. Cover the saucepan closely, and cook, not too fast, for forty-five minutes. Remove the duck from the saucepan to a platter, take off the strings, and set in the oven with door open to keep warm. Have ready a large bunch of white celery which has been washed and stripped of green stalks and cut into pieces two fingers in length. Boil the celery thirty minutes in three quarts of water with half a table-spoonful of salt. Remove from the fire, and dry with a napkin before returning it to the boiling sauce of the duck, and cook for ten minutes more. Remove and place around the duck, pouring the sauce through a small strainer over all. Serve very hot. Remove any fat from the gravy with a piece of soft bread. Duck, Roast. — Choose two small, young ducks. If not already prepared, they must be plucked, singed. Duckling Goose, Roast and emptied, the feet scalded, skinned, and twisted round on the back of the bird ; head, neck, and pinions cut off , the latter at the first joint, and all skewered firmly to give the breast a nice, plump appearance. Stuffing as preferred. (See Force-meats and Stuffings.) Sift a little flour over it. Serve with a good brown gravy in the dish, and apple sauce in a tureen. Time:, ducks, three-quarters of an hour to an hour ; ducklings, twentyfive to thirty-five minutes.