Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

• the fowl
• the whole is reduced to about a quart
• about half an ounce of gelatine
• a couple of bay-leaves
• about half a tumbler of cream
• a few thin slices of ham
• not much bigger than a pin’s head
• a little piece of lobster-claw

Method

1. 1

   Boil the fowl in stock or water, let it cool, and cut the meat into thin slices.

2. 2

   Boil the bones with vegetables to make stock.

3. 3

   Strain and clarify the stock, then reduce it.

4. 4

   Prepare aspic jelly with part of the stock and gelatine.

5. 5

   Layer chicken and ham with white sauce, let it set, then cut into pieces.

6. 6

   Garnish with parsley and lobster-claws.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Common-sense papers on cookery (1880) by A. G. Payne, page 34. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

chicken cutlets, & c. First, early on the morning previous to the dinner, boil the fowl in some clear stock or some water ; take it out and let it get cold ; cut off all the meat, cutting the breast into thin slices ; scrape all the bones, and place the A Nice Little Dinner. 87 latter back in the stock to boil down. If water has been used, the usual vegetables must be placed in — viz., an onion stuck with six cloves, a small head of celery, a turnip, carrot, a bunch of parsley, and pepper and salt. When the whole is reduced to about a quart, strain it carefully off; remove every particle of fat, and if not clear, clear it with the white of Wo eggs, by whipping them up with a little cold water, adding them to the stock, boiling briskly for a few minutes, and then running the whole through a jelly-bag. Next, again place the stock in an ena- melled saucepan, and let it boil down to about a pint. Take a third of this and put it into a little enamelled stew-pan for the aspic jelly. Now, this jelly requires rather a decided flavour ; add therefore a couple ot beads of garlic, and let these simmer sufficiently long to give the stock — one-third of a pint — what may be called a foreign smell. The fowl-bones will probably have been sufficient to cause this to set into a firm jelly when poured out on to a plate and allowed to get cold ; should, however, it not be firm enough, a little gelatine must be added to it. Should the jelly require a little colour, a small piece of toasted bread, such as is used for toast-and-water, will be found best for the purpose — of course put in when the jelly is hot. When the jelly is set, it must be cut up — two silver forks are best for the purpose — and piled up in the 88 Common-sense Cookery. centre of the silver dish, for the chicken cutlets to be placed round it. Next we have two-thirds of a pint of strong stock left in the saucepan. Add to this about half an ounce of gelatine and a couple of bay-leaves, and let it boil till the gelatine is quite dissolved ; take out the bay- leaves, and pour it off into i basin, and take off any little scum that may have risen from the gelatine. Next pour some cream — about half a tumbler — into an enamelled saucepan ; as soon as it begins to boil, pour the warm stock on it, take it off the fire, stir with a spoon for a few minutes, and pour it into a small basin for use. Now this white sauce, which is exceed- ingly nice, when cold will be a hard jelly, looking like blancmange. Next take the slices of chicken and a few thin slices of ham, pour a little of the white sauce on to a plate, and before it has time to cool, cover the plate with very thin slices of chicken ; dip the ham into the stock, and spread it over the chicken, again covering the ham with some more thin slices of chicken. Cover the whole, by means of a spoon, with some more white sauce, taking care to leave a little sauce for use afterwards. Now when all this sets, which it will do very quickly, it becomes like a large white cake, barely half an inch thick. Cut this white cake into little oval A Nice Little Dinner. 89 pieces, the size and shape of the lobster cutlets, with a sharp penknife ; take up each cutlet carefully, and with a small spoon, or end of a silver knife, dover the edges with the white sauce, which must be nearly set. Next cut some tiny green leaves out of some pickled gherkins, and some red leaves out of some beetroot, or the red skin of a chilli, and place four little leaves, two of each in the centre of each cutlet, star-shaped ; a drop of white sauce will make it stick. Place a little piece of parsley, not much bigger than a pin’s head

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.