The sweetbreads, when several are served at a time, may be placed on the dish, either around it, forming a kind of crown, or forming a pyramid, or in any other way, according to fancy. They may also be served with a sauce fines herbes.
PORK.
TO SELECT.
When the rind is tender and thin, the pork is young; when thick and hard, it is old.
To be good, the meat must be soft, and have a fresh and good appearance.
We do not think it necessary to indicate here how to make black puddings, chitterlings, Bologna, and other sausages. It is nearly, if not quite impossible, for a person having no practice in it, to make them edible; it is better to buy them ready made at pork-butchers' shops, or to hire an experienced person to make them.
CHINE AND FILLET.
Take a good chine of pork, place it on the spit before a sharp fire, baste often with a little melted butter first, and then with the drippings; when properly cooked, serve it with a vinaigrette, Robert, piquante, or poivrade sauce. It will take from two to three or four hours to roast, according to the size of the chine.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE CHINE OF PORK.
Place it in a crockery vessel, pour on it two tablespoonfuls of sweet-oil, then sprinkle on two teaspoonfuls or chopped parsley, also salt and pepper, two onions chopped fine, four cloves, and two bay-leaves; leave thus twenty-four hours in winter, and ten in summer, turning over two or three times. The taste of the meat is much improved by that process. The oil may be used for basting instead of butter.
Baked.—Put the chine in a bakepan, sprinkle salt over it, coyer the bottom of the pan with cold water, and put in a rather quick oven, baste often, and in case there should be much fat in the pan, take it off and add a little cold water.
When overdone, serve with any of the following purées: beans, lentils, Lima beans, onions, peas, potatoes, sorrel, or spinach.
It may also be served with the following sauces: fines herbes, piquante, poivrade, Provençale, ravigote, rémolade, Robert, tarragon, Tartar, and vinaigrette.
It is served also with a tomato-sauce. Make more sauce for pork than for other dishes, and make the tomato-sauce rather thick by boiling it gently for some time; it tastes better so with pork.
Always use mustard with pork, if you like it. Horse-radish, also, is good with it.
CUTLETS.
Flatten the cutlets with a chopper (they may be improved in the same way as the chine), place them on the gridiron and set on a sharp fire; turn over two or three times, and when properly done, serve them with a piquante, Robert, or tomato-sauce, adding to them some slices of pickled cucumbers just before serving.
The same, sautées.—Instead of broiling them, when prepared as above, place them in a frying-pan with a little butter, turn over two or three times during the cooking, and serve as the above, or on a purée of sorrel.
LEG, ROASTED.
How to improve it.—Take the skin or rind gently off, put the leg in a crockery vessel, pour on it the following mixture: a pint of white wine, two tablespoonfuls of sweet-oil, a bunch of sage, salt, pepper, and a pinch of grated nutmeg. Leave it thus two days in winter and one in summer, turning it over two or three times during the process.
Place the leg on the spit and put before a very sharp fire, baste often with the mixture from the crockery vessel, or with melted butter, and serve when cooked, with the gravy strained. It will take about two or two and a half hours to roast it.
Baked.—Bake and serve the leg in the same and every way as the chine, with purées and sauces. Any part of pork is prepared like chine.
Ham in hors-d'oeuvre.—Cut the ham in small and thin slices, place the slices tastefully on a dish, either overlapping or in pyramid, or in any other fancy way, and serve with parsley in the middle or around. Slices of lemon may also be served with it, either with the parsley or without it.
HAM.
To boil.—Sugar-cured are preferred to others.
Scrape off the outside gently, soak in cold water for from six to twenty-four hours, take off and wipe dry.
Envelop it in a towel and tie it. Place it in a kettle large enough to hold it without bending it; cover with cold water; season with six small onions, two carrots, four cloves, two bay-leaves, a handful or two plants of parsley, two or three stalks of thyme, two of celery, two cloves of garlic (a handful of hay and half a bottle of white wine, if handy would improve the taste); boil gently for four or five hours, according to the size (four hours for a ten-pound one, five for a fifteen-pound one). Pay no attention to the old saying that "it takes half an hour to every pound."
Take from the fire, remove the towel, break off and remove the small bone at the larger end of it, and without tearing the meat. Remove the rind also, leaving only about two inches of it near the smaller end, cutting it so that it will be dentilated.
To decorate.—It is decorated in several ways, according to taste and fancy. If the fat is not white after having removed the rind, spread a very thin coat of lard over it, place the ham on a dish, the fatty side up. Cut carrots, turnips, and beets, boiled tender, in fancy shapes, with paste-cutters or with a knife; place them tastefully all over the ham; place also all over it some parsley, capers, and olives. Chop some meat-jelly and put it all around the dish, and serve. In carving it, scrape back the lard and vegetables, slice, and serve.
Another.—When boiled, trimmed, and the rind removed, put it in the oven for about twenty minutes, basting the while with a Madeira sauce. Serve with the sauce. Any kind of purée may be served with it.
Another.—When trimmed and soaked in water as directed, boil it with half wine and half water: the same seasonings as when boiled in water. Use either Catawba, Sauterne, or Rhine wine. It makes it more expensive, but it is excellent. It is served as when boiled in water.
Another.—Boil it in claret wine, and when trimmed and decorated, serve it with a mushroom or a truffle sauce.
Another.—Boil, trim, and cut off the rind as described in the above cases; place the frill, and serve with spinach au beurre.
A, skewers; B, carrot; C, truffle or mushroom; D, jelly; E, frill.
Another.—Boil and trim the ham as above, cut the rind in the same way. What is left of the rind is cut as seen in the cut opposite: that is, some small square pieces are cut off, from place to place, so that it resembles a checkerboard; stick two or more skewers in it, glaze it with essence of beef or with sugar, and serve either on a tomato-sauce or on peas à l'Anglaise.
Ham English fashion.—Soak it in water and trim it as directed. Make some paste with water and flour only; spread a coat of this paste all over the ham, and then envelop it in buttered or oiled paper. Put it on the spit and baste with fat while it is roasting. Roast it for three or three and a half hours, according to size; remove the paper about two hours after it has been taken from the fire; cut a hole in the paste about an inch in diameter and on the lean side; pour into it, little by little, half a pint of good Madeira wine, cover the hole with some paste, placing a band of paper on it to prevent it from falling; put the ham back on the spit for about twenty minutes, and serve whole with Madeira sauce. We mean, by serving whole, with the paste around it, but not the paper.
Besides the sauce, some green vegetables, boiled only, are served on separate dishes, but eaten with the ham.
It is also served like game, with currant-jelly, apple-sauce, etc.
Champagne Sauce.—Proceed as for the above in every particular, except that you use Champagne instead of Madeira wine, and when done serve it with a Champagne sauce.
Another.—It may be boiled as directed above, and served with a Champagne sauce also.
Another.—When soaked and dry, put it in a crockery vessel; put on and all around it four onions chopped fine, two bay-leaves, two sprigs of thyme, a piece of nutmeg, and pour on the whole a bottle of white wine; cover the vessel as nearly air-tight as possible, leave it thus for about twenty-four hours, turning it over two or three times, so as to let every side take the seasonings. Place the ham on the spit before a good fire, baste often with the seasonings from the crockery vessel, and when done take it off, dust it with fine raspings of bread, place it fifteen minutes in a slow oven, strain the drippings, boil them till reduced to a proper thickness, dish the ham, pour the drippings on it, and serve.
SALTED PORK.
The best and only proper way to cook salted pork, is, to put it in a kettle, entirely cover it with cold water, boil gently till cooked, and serve it with a purée or with a garniture of cabbage. Any thing else that you might put with it would rather spoil than better it.
PIG'S EARS.
How to prepare.—Soak them in warm water for a few minutes, then wash and clean them well, and scrape the hair off, if any.
Boiled.—When prepared, you throw them in boiling water for two minutes and take from the fire; add four onions for four ears, one carrot, salt and pepper; leave just water enough to cover the whole, and when cooked, drain. Serve them on a purée of beans or of lentils.
The same, broiled.—When cleaned, prepared, and cooked as above, just dip them in beaten eggs, roll them in bread-crumbs, place on the gridiron and on the fire, broil for about two or three minutes; then serve them with a maître d'hôtel sauce.
PIG'S FEET.
Broiled, or à la Sainte Menehould.—Split six feet in two, lengthwise, and soak them in tepid water for ten minutes, then envelop each in a piece of linen well tied or sewed; place them in a kettle or stewpan with four small onions, four sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, two of sweet basil, two bay-leaves, two cloves of garlic, two cloves, two small carrots cut in pieces, salt, pepper, and half a pint of white wine; cover with cold water, simmer about six hours, skim them properly, fill with boiling water so as to have them covered all the time; take from the fire when cooked, and when nearly cool take the feet from the kettle, untie them, throw away the linen, and let them cool. Dip each in melted butter or in sweet-oil, roll in bread-crumbs, and place on a gridiron and on a good fire; serve them as they are, when properly broiled.
Stuffed.—Prepare the feet and cook them as above. When perfectly cold, remove the long bone of each half, fill the place with sausage-meat; dip each in melted butter and yolk of egg, mixed and seasoned with salt and pepper, roll in bread-crumbs, and broil. While they are broiling, baste them with melted butter. Serve as they are, or with meat-jelly, or gravy.
Stuffed with Truffles.—Proceed as with the above in every particular, so far as removing the long bone of each half, so as to be ready for stuffing them.
Cut truffles in small dice, enough to half fill the feet, and put them on the fire in a small saucepan, just covered with Madeira wine; toss and stir till the wine is absorbed and nearly boiled away, then add a little gravy, stir half a minute, take from the fire and let cool. When cold, fill each half foot till half full, and finish with sausage-meat; then dip in butter and egg, roll in crumbs, broil and serve as the above.
They may be filled with truffles only, and served with meat-jelly.
PIG'S HEAD.
Soak in water and clean it well; take all the bones and flesh out; then cut the flesh and about one pound of salt pork in strips, which you put inside of the head, well mixed with salt, pepper, half a dozen middling-sized onions chopped, two teaspoonfuls of chopped parsley, half a saltspoonful of allspice, two bay-leaves, two sprigs of thyme, a little sage, and the juice of half a lemon; lay it in a crockery vessel for from four to six days. Envelop the head in a towel, place it in a kettle with eight small onions, two carrots cut in pieces, salt, pepper, four sprigs of parsley, four of thyme, four bay-leaves, two cloves, and a pint of white wine; cover with water, set on the fire, and simmer from six to eight hours; take from the fire and drain, take the towel off and drain again till dry and cold. Serve it with sprigs of green parsley around.
Wild-Boar like.—Prepare, stuff, cook, and allow it to cool as the one preceding; then place it on an oval dish, the ears up, with one or two skewers to hold them in place, and also two or three decorated skewers in the middle of the head and between the eyes—not across, but lengthwise. Glaze it with essence of beef, by means of a brush; make eyes with meat-jelly, which you cut with a vegetable spoon, and imitate the tongue, teeth, and tusks with butter colored with cochineal and kneaded with flour. Cover the back part with jelly and skewers ornamented with flowers or slices of truffles, or with both. Some jelly, chopped, may also be placed all around, and flowers in the ears and on the eyes. It is served as an entrée, or for supper, lunch, or breakfast.
PIG'S KIDNEYS.
Prepare, cook, and serve like calf's kidneys.
PIG'S TAIL.
Prepare, cook, and serve like pig's ears.
PIG'S TONGUE.
Prepare, cook, and serve like beef tongue.
Head-cheese.—Soak a pig's head in cold water for two or three hours, clean, and then cut the whole of it, ears and tongue included, in strips one or two inches long, and then put the whole with about two pounds of salt pork, cut in strips also, in a crockery bowl, season with salt, pepper, chopped onion, chopped parsley, thyme, bay-leaf, and sage, chopped also, the juice of a lemon, and leave thus for about two or three days, turning it over occasionally. Then put the mixture in a mould or wrap it in a towel and boil till done. It must be immersed in the water.
Some beet or sheep's tongue, together with the flesh of chicken, may be added to the head.
When cooked and cold, if there are any empty places, they may be filled with meat-jelly.
It is served at late suppers, or at lunch and breakfast. It is always served cold, with parsley around.
SUCKING-PIG.
A sucking-pig, to be good, must be fat.
Then properly cleaned, and hoofs off, clean the inside, leaving the kidneys; skewer it, put in it half a pound of butter kneaded with chopped parsley and green onions, four or five mushrooms, and two white onions with a clove stuck in each; place it on the spit before a good fire, baste often with melted butter first, and then with the drippings, and when done serve on a vinaigrette.
Some truffles may be added to the seasoning, if handy; it gives it a good taste.
Baked.—Stuff it as the above, place it in a baking-pan with just cold water enough to cover the bottom of the pan; put it in a quick oven, baste often, and when done serve with a rémolade or vinaigrette sauce.
When roasted or baked, place it on a dish with slices of truffles, mushrooms, and parsley all around. Run some skewers through slices or truffles and whole mushrooms, and plant them in it like the one represented in the cut on the following page.
A small red apple is placed in the mouth after it is cooked, to make room for which a stone is placed in the mouth before cooking it, in order to keep the mouth open. It is served as warm as possible.
A, skewer; B, slices of truffles; C, mushrooms
Boned.—A sucking-pig can be boned and filled just the same as a turkey, and cooked and served alike also.
POULTRY.
Chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese must be killed not less than twenty-four hours, and not more than three days in summer, nor less than two days nor more than six days in winter, before cooking them.
HOW TO PREPARE AND CLEAN.
To transport poultry, see Game.
Poulterers are of the opinion that the best and quickest way of killing poultry is by cutting the throat or the tongue. Tie the legs of the bird, hang it by the legs, then kill and let bleed. Some cut the head off and throw it away on the ground, but the poor things do not die so fast, and therefore suffer more.
As soon as the throat or tongue is cut, if the head is held down the bird dies sooner, as it allows the blood to run more freely, preventing the bird from bending and twisting its neck, and also from swallowing its blood.
It is much better to pick the bird dry. By scalding, the skin is spoiled, and very often the flesh of a young and tender chicken is spoiled also, being blanched. When picked, singe the bird carefully, in order not to burn the skin.
Split the skin on the back of the neck, from the body to near the head; then detach the skin from the neck by pulling it downward and the neck upward; it gives you plenty of room to pull the crop out, which you do. Cut the skin off at about the middle of the neck, and the neck close to the body; that part of the skin of the neck is left to cover the place where the neck was cut off, by turning it on the back of the bird, and holding it with twine in trussing.
Make an incision under the rump, lengthwise, and large enough to draw the bird easily.
When drawn, wipe the inside of the bird with a towel, but do not wash it, except when you have broken the gall-bladder. If that should happen, cut the bird in pieces immediately and wash well in lukewarm water; never roast or prepare whole a bird that has had the gall-bladder broken in it in drawing it. Sauté it or prepare it in fricassee.
If there should be any thing unclean on the outside, wipe it off, if possible, or otherwise cut the place off, or wash only the unclean place. A washed bird is a very inferior article. If you see that a bird cannot be cleansed properly except by washing it, do not buy it.
CHICKEN.
To select.—Buy a chicken with white flesh and pale-yellow fat. If young, the cock has small spurs, the hen has the lower part of the legs and feet rather soft and smooth; those parts are rough in old ones.
If the rump is hard and stiff, they are fresh enough; but if soft, it is necessary to examine the bird carefully; it might be tainted.
To truss.—When prepared as directed for poultry, put the bird on the table on its back, and with a chopper or with a round stick flatten the breast-bone, which you break at a single blow if possible; the bird is much more sightly when served. Cut the legs off just above the first joint, or cut off only half of the claws and trim off the ends of the wings. Place the bird on a table, the breast up and the rump toward you. Push the legs under the skin, so that, by holding them perpendicularly and pressing on them, the part from the second to the third joint is alongside the chicken, or horizontally. Then run a trussing-needle, with twine attached to it, just above the bone of the leg, as near the second joint as possible, on the side (toward you) of the bone of the leg that is perpendicular, through the leg (which leg is the left one of the bird), body, and also through the bird, and at the same place, that is, as near the second joint as possible. Turn the bird upside down and the neck toward you; turn the ends of the wings on the back, as seen in the cut (p. 240), turn the skin of the neck on the back also, between or under the wings and in order to cover the place where the neck has been cut off, then run the needle again through the right wing, the skin of the neck and part of the body, and through the other wing. Tie the ends of the twine fast together.
As it is, the legs of the bird, when on its back, are pointing upward. Bend them gently down till they are perpendicular and as seen in the cut, run the trussing-needle through both and also through the body, above the bones of the legs and under the end of the breast-bone; run it again the other way, but under the bones of the legs, tie the two ends of the twine together, and you have a bird trussed exactly like the one represented in the cut on next page.
Another way to truss is, to cut only half of the claws, instead of cutting the legs at the first joint; but, to truss thus, the first joint must be partly cut as represented below. If the nerve were not cut, it would contract in cooking, and instead of being straight, the legs would point upward.
A bird stuffed is trussed exactly in the same way as above, with the exception that the skin of the neck must be sewed up with a trussing-needle before commencing to truss the legs, and the incision must also be sewed up as soon as filled and before trussing.
The twine used to sew and truss the bird is removed just before dishing it.
Some experiments have been made lately, in France, to find out the best way to kill chickens and make them tender. Those killed by electricity were more tender than any other, but they must be cooked immediately, as they become tainted in a very short time.
To blanch.—When cut in pieces as directed, throw it in boiling water to which a little salt has been added; boil two minutes and drain.
To cut.—To make a chicken sauté or in fricassee, it is generally cut into eight pieces; the two legs, the wings, one piece of the breast-bone, and three pieces of the back-bone. The ends of the wings, the lower part of the legs after being skinned by warming them, the neck, gizzard, heart, kidneys, and head, are put in the soup-kettle. Generally the bones of the legs above the second joint are removed by breaking them with the back of a knife just above the second joint. The ends of the small bones of the three pieces of the back-bone are trimmed off also.
To dish and serve.—Dish the pieces in the following order: the neck, gizzard, the fore part of the back and the low part of the legs in the middle; then one leg on each side of the dish, with one wing beside each, then the breast and hind part of the back, and lastly the ends of the wings at the top. If cut in eight pieces only, place the breast-bone on the middle of the dish, the hind part of the back-bone at one end of it and the two others at the other end; the legs and wings on each side.
Boiled.—A chicken is boiled only when it is an old one, whose tenderness is doubtful, and which is not needed to make broth or consommé.
Clean, prepare, and truss it as directed for poultry. Brown the bird in a saucepan with about one ounce of butter, then half cover it with cold water; season with a few slices of onion, same of carrot, two cloves, two stalks of parsley, salt and pepper. Boil gently about one hour and a half, and when done, dish the bird, strain the sauce over it, and serve warm.
If the sauce boils away, add a little cold water; and if there is any fat on it, skim it off.
An old chicken may be cooked especially to make a salad.
Boned.—Pick, bone, fill, cook, and serve a boned chicken exactly like a boned turkey; the only difference is, that it requires less filling, being smaller.
For an extra, legs of large chickens may be boned and filled like the chicken, the rest being used for a fricassee.
Broiled.—Young, or what are called spring chickens, are broiled; an old one would not be as good.
To broil, a chicken is split in two lengthwise, or the back only is split, so as to open it. Salt both sides and butter them slightly, then broil on a good but not sharp fire. Serve with a maître-d'hôtel, piquante, or ravigote sauce.
Broiled hunter-like.—When cleaned and prepared, split the chicken in two lengthwise and place it in a crockery dish with the following seasonings: a teaspoonful of parsley chopped fine, a middling-sized onion in slices, two cloves, salt, pepper, a tablespoonful of sweet-oil, and the juice of half a lemon. Half an hour after turn the chicken over, and after another half hour place the above seasonings all around the chicken, fasten them with paper, tie the paper with twine, and broil carefully on a rather slow fire, and turning over two or three times. When done, remove the paper in which they are enveloped, scrape off the slices without scratching the meat, and serve as warm as possible with a maître-d'hôtel, ravigote, or Madeira sauce.
When an older chicken is prepared hunter-like, it is generally served with a Tartar sauce.
Another way.—Clean and prepare a chicken as directed. Cut the neck off, also the legs at the first joint, split the breast in two so as to open the chicken, and flatten it with a chopper. Put about two ounces of butter in a saucepan and set it on the fire; when melted, add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, stir for half a minute with a wooden spoon, then put the chicken in with salt and pepper; when about half fried on one side, turn it over and half fry the other side; then take off the chicken, roll it in chopped parsley and bread-crumbs mixed together, broil it properly and serve on a Tartar sauce.
A chicken broiled either way above described may also be served on a Béchamel or on a cream sauce.
Croquettes.—The proportions that we give below are for half a middling-sized chicken.
A chicken may be cooked especially to make croquettes, but it is generally made with cold meat.
Chop the meat fine. Chop fine also half a middling-sized onion; fry it with one ounce of butter, then add half a tablespoonful of flour, stir for half a minute, then add also the chopped meat and a little over a gill of broth, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, stir for about two minutes, take from the fire, mix two yolks of eggs with it, put back on the fire for one minute, stirring the while; lastly you add four mushrooms chopped, or two truffles, chopped also, or both, according to taste; do not put back on the fire, but turn the mixture into a dish, spread it and put it away to cool.
When perfectly cold, mix it well, as the upper part is more dry than the rest; put it in parts on the paste-board, about a tablespoonful for each part. Have bread-crumbs on the paste-board, roll each part of the shape you wish; either round like a small sausage, or flat, or of a chop-shape; then dip each croquette or part in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs again, and fry in hot fat. (See Frying.)
The best way to shape them, is to roll each part round first with a few bread-crumbs, then with a knife smooth both ends, while with the left hand you roll them gently, and if wanted flat, strike gently on them with the blade of a knife. If wanted of a chop-shape, when flat, shape with the hands and strike again to flatten them.
Croquettes are made with any kind of cold meat.
In Fricassee.—Clean, prepare, and cut as directed. If the flesh is not white, blanch it. Put it in a saucepan, cover it with broth or cold water (broth is better than water), set it on the fire, and add one onion whole, and if covered with water, add also a bunch of seasonings, composed of three stalks of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, boil gently till done. Put about two ounces of butter in a saucepan with one tablespoonful of flour, set on the fire, stir and mix while the butter is melting; then turn the broth or water in which the chicken has been cooked into this pan through a strainer, add salt, six mushrooms sliced, then the pieces of chicken; give one boil, dish the pieces as directed, mix a yolk of egg in the sauce, turn it over the chicken, and serve with or without a border of paste.
Border of Paste.—Knead well together, so as to make a rather thick paste, two whites of eggs with flour; spread it with a rolling-pin in a long strip about two inches and a half broad and one-fifth of an inch thick. Trim the sides if not straight; cut three rows of holes in the middle with a fruit-corer, then cut the strip of paste in two, lengthwise and in the middle of the middle row of holes. Cut it again across in pieces about three or four inches long. Put it in a warm place to dry till hard enough to keep in shape and still be pliable; warm the dish on which you wish to place it; beat the white of an egg just a little with a pinch of sugar, glaze the straight side of the paste with it; place it all around and on the border of the dish with the dentilated side up. Place the pieces of chicken inside of the border as directed above, and serve.
The cut below represents the border. One, a, is the border before being cut in two, and b when cut.
It may seem difficult to place the border at first, but it will be easily done after having tried once or twice, and following the directions previously given. It is better to try when not in a hurry and before being wanted; that is, before you wish to serve it. The border may be made and placed on a dish without a chicken, it will be better for an experiment.
In Fricassée à la chevalière or Parisienne.—While the chicken is cooking as directed for fricassée, prepare a garniture of chicken-combs, and, when the chicken is dished, place the garniture all around it, and serve warm.
A la Française.—While the fricassée is being made, prepare a garniture of mushrooms or one of truffles, or both.
Dish the chicken as directed, place a garniture of mushrooms or one of truffles, or both, tastefully all around, and serve warm.
When a fricassée is made for several persons, with two, three, four, or more chickens, three garnitures may be placed around the same dish, and, when carefully and tastefully arranged, it makes a sightly one.
The three garnitures are, generally, of chicken-combs, mushrooms, and truffles; they may be also of chicken-combs, quenelles of chicken, and croutons; or, of financière, truffles, and chicken-combs; or a boiled craw-fish here and there, and two of any of the above-mentioned garnitures.
Instead of a garniture, it may be served with a border of rice. (See Rice in Border.)
A la financière.—This is a fricassée of chicken served with a financière garniture.
Au suprême.—Chicken, or rather chickens, au suprême is a fricassée made with the breasts of chickens only. Each side of the breast-bone is carefully detached in two long pieces called fillets; so that, with two chickens, there are eight pieces.
To detach them properly, split the skin right on the breast-bone from the neck to the rump, then pull it off on both sides so as to have the whole breast skinned. Take hold of one wing with the left hand, and, with a sharp knife in the right, split or cut the joint off carefully, we mean the third joint of the wing, or that near the body; as soon as the joint is cut, by merely raising the back of the knife, leaving the edge on the cut joint and pressing gently on the chicken, you easily pull off the larger part of the half breast; detach the end of the other half with the point of the knife and pull it off also.
Do the same for the other side.
When the breasts or fillets are thus detached, prepare them as chicken in fricassée, and serve with a border of paste, or with one of rice, as directed in the receipts above, and serve warm.
What is left of the chickens is put in the broth-kettle, or used to make consommé.
Another suprême.—Detach the breasts of two chickens as above directed, then prepare the eight pieces or fillets as directed for chicken sauté. Ten minutes before taking from the fire, add and mix with the whole two or three truffles, weighing at least six ounces, and sliced; finish the cooling, and serve.
To serve.—Dish the pieces tastefully and according to fancy, and put the dish away in a warm place, then mix a suprême sauce with what you have left in the pan, sauce, truffles, etc., boil the whole till rather thick, stirring continually while it is boiling, turn over the pieces of chicken, and serve. The suprême sauce used in that case is generally made with very rich chicken gravy.
Chickens au suprême is considered a very recherché dish, and it is a rather expensive one. For a grand dinner, the breasts of six chickens are used, and all the other parts of the chicken are used to make chicken gravy with rich broth, and that gravy is, in its turn, used to make the suprême sauce that is mixed with the liquor in which the chicken has cooked.
The broth used to sauté the chicken is generally rich, and very often two pounds of truffles are used with six chickens.
A la Bourguignonne.—This is a fricassée also, but instead of covering the chicken with broth or water, it is covered with white wine.
Proceed, for the rest, and serve as fricassée.
With Carrots.—While you are cooking a chicken in fricassée, prepare a dish of carrots au jus or glazed, for ornamenting the dish; cut the carrots with a vegetable spoon before cooking them.
Dish the chicken as directed, place the carrots tastefully all around the meat, and serve warm. This dish was devised by a monk, and is often called à la Saint Lambert.
A la Royale.—This is nearly the same as au suprême; the only difference is, that the pieces of breast or fillets are larded with salt pork, and then cooked, served and decorated the same as described for au suprême.
Marengo.—Clean, prepare, and cut up the chicken as for fricassée. Put in a stewpan five teaspoonfuls of sweet-oil, and set on a good fire; when hot, put the chicken in with salt and pepper; turn over once in a while, till every piece is of a golden color, and nearly cooked, then add two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, tied together with twine; add also three or four mushrooms cut in slices, and if handy three or four truffles also cut in slices; when the whole is cooked, dish the pieces of chicken thus: the neck and gizzard, with the fore part of the back, and the low part of the legs in the middle, one leg on each side of the dish with one wing beside each, then the breast and hind part of the back, and the ends of the wings at the top. Have an Italian sauce ready, pour it on the chicken, place on the whole the pieces of mushrooms and truffles, also some croutons fried in butter, and serve.
With Green Peas.—Clean, prepare, and truss the bird as directed for poultry, then cook it whole as a stewed chicken above. When done, dish the chicken, place peas à l'Anglaise all around, strain the sauce over the whole, and serve.
Larded with Truffles.—Clean, prepare, and truss a fat chicken. Make about two dozen small pegs, with truffles, about half an inch long and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Take a skewer, make a hole in the flesh of the breast of the chicken, and put a truffle-peg into it. Put a dozen pegs in the same way on each side of the breast-bone, and cook and serve the chicken. It is either boiled, stewed, or roasted, and served as directed for either.
With Tarragon.—Proceed as for a stewed chicken, with the exception that it is cooked whole after being trussed as directed for poultry, and after having stuffed it with two ounces of butter kneaded with half a dozen stalks of tarragon chopped fine. Serve with a few stalks of tarragon around the dish.
Roasted.—Clean, prepare, and truss the chicken as directed. Place it on the spit slightly salted and buttered all around, or envelop it in buttered paper, or merely cover the breast with thin slices of salt pork tied with twine. Baste often, at first with melted butter, and then with the drippings.
If the bird has been enveloped with paper, the latter must be removed about ten minutes before taking the chicken from the fire; do the same with the slices of salt pork.
It takes from twenty-five minutes to one hour to roast a chicken, with a good fire. The time depends as much on the quality of the bird as on the size. With a skewer or a small knife, or merely by pressing on it with the fingers, anyone can learn how to tell when done, after having roasted only two or three. Even by the look of it, many persons can tell.
With Water-cress.—Dish the chicken when roasted, put fresh water-cress all around, remove the fat from the gravy, which you turn over the whole; add salt and pepper to taste, a little vinegar or lemon-juice, and serve warm.
With Sauces.—When roasted, serve with the following sauces: soubise, tarragon, oyster, tomato, and Provençale.
With Garnitures.—Dish the bird when roasted as directed, and place one of the following garnitures around, and serve warm: quenelles of chicken or of veal, Macédoine, and cauliflowers.
With Macaroni.—Spread four ounces of macaroni au jus on a dish, place the roasted chicken on it, and serve the whole warm.
With Butter.—It may be served with its gravy and craw-fish or lobster-butter.
With Chestnuts.—When dished, surround the chicken with chestnuts glazed, and serve.
With Pigeons.—Dish the bird, place four roasted pigeons around, one at each end and one on each side; fill the intervals with green peas au jus, and serve warm.
All the above may be decorated with skewers. Run the skewer in a chestnut and then in a craw-fish; or, in a quenelle and then in a chestnut or craw-fish; or, in a chicken-comb, and in a quenelle, and stick it on the chicken. Two skewers only for a chicken make a fine decoration. Slices of truffles, of mushrooms, and chicken-combs, make fine as well as delicious decorations.
Baked.—Put the chicken in a baking-pan, after being cleaned, prepared, and trussed. Salt and butter the breast, which must be upward, place a piece of buttered paper on it, and a little cold water in the bakepan. Set it in a warm, but not too quick oven; baste often with the liquor in the pan. If the water and juice are absorbed by the heat, add a little cold water, so as to have liquor to baste with. Remove the paper about ten minutes before taking from the oven. It takes about forty minutes to cook a chicken of middle size.
Serve a baked chicken with sauces and garnitures, and decorated the same as if it were roasted, and as described in the above receipts.
Sauté.—After being cleaned and prepared as directed, cut the chicken in pieces as for fricassée. Put it in a saucepan with about an ounce of butter; set on the fire, stir now and then till it is of a golden color and pour off the fat, if any is in the saucepan. Add a tablespoonful of flour and stir half a minute, then add also broth enough to nearly cover the meat, half a pint of white wine, a bunch of seasonings composed of four stalks of parsley, one of thyme, half a bay-leaf, and one clove, the four tied together with twine; add salt, and one onion whole. Boil gently till done. Ten minutes before serving, add half a dozen mushrooms.
Dish the pieces of chicken as directed for fricassée, place the mushrooms over them, strain the sauce all over, and serve warm.