Chicken en Surprise

Ingredients

• a chicken
• half a pint of good cream
• salt
• dust of cayenne pepper
• buttered paper
• pale aspic jelly
• bright red aspic

Method

1. 1

   Remove the skin and meat from the chicken breast, pound with cream, and strain.

2. 2

   Mix with remaining cream, salt, and cayenne.

3. 3

   Fill a mould, cover with paper, and simmer in boiling water for 20 minutes.

4. 4

   Mix with aspic jelly, layer in a mould, and chill.

5. 5

   Garnish with chervil leaves and serve with salad.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housewife's referee (1898) by Harriet Anne de Salis, University of Leeds Library, page 89. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Chicken en Surprise. — Take a chicken, remove the skin from the breast and take away all the meat, removing any gristle there may be, and place it in a mortar. Have by your side half a pint of good cream, and begin by pouring half the quantity of it over the fowl ; pound well to- gether for a few minutes, and then rub it through a clean wire sieve. When passed, put it back into the mortar and pour on gradually the remainder of the cream, stirring it round so that they blend together perfectly, add a little salt and dust of cayenne pepper. Fill a mould with this mixture, and twist a bit of buttered paper rovind the top, then fold a sheet of paper several times, place it in the stewpan, put in boiling water halfway up the mould, and let it simmer for twenty minutes. Turn this out, and mix with it half a pint of pale aspic jelly. Have some bright red aspic

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