To Cook an Old Hen

Ingredients

• an old hen
• a spoonful of butter
• a large white onion, cut in at the top
• a few spoonfuls of vermicelli
• a teacupful or more of cold water
• a few blades of mace
• some peppercorns
• some allspice

Method

1. 1

   Hang the cleaned hen for a few days, then wash, skin, and joint it.

2. 2

   Place the meat in an earthenware jar with butter, spices in muslin, onion, vermicelli, and cold water.

3. 3

   Cook in the stove for 4-5 hours, adding stock as needed.

4. 4

   Once tender, serve with a sauce made from egg yolk and lemon juice poured over the meat.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper (1902) by Hildagonda J. Duckitt, page 67. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

To Cook an Old Hen. — Here is an extract of G ’s last letter to me which is worth recording — “You will be amused to hear that this week I had to decide how best to cook an old hen! for you know zve never keep any except young birds ourselves. But I was staying with A , who is not very experienced about poultry, and had advised her to weed out some of the old birds. So 163 TO COOK AN OLD HEN July she said she would, if I could make anything really eatable out of them — a hard condition, but I did my best ; and fortunately remembering a good recipe of Miss Anderson’s, the result was so successful you may care to know what we did, for I remember your recipe for making soup of them. (Soup a la Reine, Hilda! s Where is it, p. 229.) “ As the weather was cool we let the bird hang for a few days after it was killed and cleaned, and then washed it well, skinned and jointed it. We had ready an earthen- ware jar with a lid, and into this jar we put the meat with a spoonful of butter, a few blades of mace, some pepper- corns, and allspice, these spices being all tied up in a bit of muslin, and of course taken out before serving. We also put into the jar a large white onion, cut in at the top, a few spoonfuls of vermicelli (or sago would do), and a teacupful or more of cold water

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