Boil the fowl until the meat will slip easily from the bones; reduce the water to one pint. Pick the meat from the bones in good-sized pieces; leave out all the fat and gristle, and place in a wet mold.
Skim all the fat from the liquor; add one-half box of gelatine, a little b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt. When the gelatine is dissolved, pour all over the chicken while hot. Season well. Serve cold, cut in slices.
FRIED CHICKEN. MRS. J. ED. THOMAS.
Kill the fowls the night before; clean, cut and set on ice until needed the next day. Flour and sprinkle with salt and pepper; pour boiling water over it, and stew three-quarters of an hour. Add sufficient b.u.t.ter to fry a light brown.
CHICKEN PIE.
Take a pair of young, tender chickens and cut them into neat joints.
Lay them in a deep pudding-dish, arranging them so that the pile shall be higher in the middle than at the sides. Reserve the pinions of the wings, the necks, and the feet, scalding the latter and sc.r.a.ping off the skin. Make small forcemeat b.a.l.l.s of fine bread crumbs seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley, a suspicion of grated lemon peel, and a raw egg. Make this into little b.a.l.l.s with the hands, and lay them here and there in the pie. Pour in a cupful of cold water, cover the pie with a good crust, making a couple of cuts in the middle of this, and bake in a steady oven for an hour and a quarter. Lay a paper over the pie if it should brown too quickly. Soak a tablespoonful of gelatine for an hour in enough cold water to cover it. Make a gravy of the wings, feet, and necks of the fowls, seasoning it highly; dissolve the gelatine in this, and when the pie is done pour this gravy into it through a small funnel inserted in the opening in the top. The pie should not be cut until it is cold. This is nice for picnics.
CHICKEN PIE. MRS. M. A. MOORHEAD.
Stew the chicken until tender. Line a pan with crust made as you would baking powder biscuit. Alternate a layer of chicken and pieces of the crust until the pan is filled; add a little salt and pepper to each layer; fill with the broth in which the chicken was cooked; bake until the crust is done. If you bake the bottom crust before filling, it will only be necessary to bake until the top crust is done. A layer of stewed chicken and a layer of oysters make a delicious pie. Use the same crust.
DROP DUMPLINGS FOR STEWED CHICKEN. MRS. W. H. ECKHART.
Stew chicken and make a rich gravy with milk or cream. Pour off a part into a separate vessel and thin with water; let it boil, then drop in dumplings made with this proportion: One quart flour, a little salt, one egg, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, and milk to make a stiff batter. Stir, and drop from spoon into boiling gravy. Cover, and let boil gently for five minutes. Try them with a fork. They must be perfectly dry inside when done. Serve with the chicken.
CHICKEN ON BISCUIT. MRS. H. T. VAN FLEET.
Have prepared for cooking a nice fat fowl about a year old; season with pepper and salt, and boil two hours, or until very tender. When done there should be a quart of broth. If there is not that quant.i.ty, boiling water should be added. Beat together very smoothly two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour with the yolk of one egg and one-third pint of cold water; add this to broth, stirring briskly all the time; add one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter. Have ready a pan of hot biscuit; break them open and lay halves on platter, crust down; pour chicken and gravy over biscuit, and serve immediately .
ROAST TURKEY. MRS. J. F. MC NEAL.
Prepare the dressing as follows: Three coffeecups of bread crumbs, made very fine; one teaspoonful salt, half teaspoonful pepper, one tablespoonful powdered sage, one teacup melted b.u.t.ter, one egg; mix all together thoroughly. With this dressing stuff the body and breast, and sew with a strong thread. Take two tablespoonfuls of melted b.u.t.ter, two of flour; mix to a paste. Rub the turkey with salt and pepper; then spread the paste over the entire fowl, with a few thin slices of sweet bacon. Roll the fowl loosely in a piece of clean linen or muslin; tie it up; put it in the oven, and baste every fifteen minutes till done. Remove cloth a few moments before taking turkey from oven. A young turkey requires about two hours; an old one three or four hours. This can be tested with fork. Thicken the drippings with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour, mixed with one cup sweet cream.
OYSTER SAUCE TO BE USED WITH THE TURKEY.--Take one quart of oysters; put them into stew pan; add half cup b.u.t.ter; pepper and salt to taste; cover closely; let come to a boil, and serve with the turkey and dressing.
TURKEY AND DRESSING. MRS. U. F. SEFFNER.
A good-sized turkey should be baked two and one-half or three hours, very slowly at first. Turkey one year old is considered best. See that it is well cleaned and washed. Salt and pepper it inside. Take one and a half loaves of stale bread (bakers preferred) and crumble fine. Put into frying pan a lump of b.u.t.ter the size of an egg; cut into this one white onion; cook a few moments, but do not brown. Stir into this the bread, with one teaspoon of salt and one of pepper; let it heat thoroughly; fill the turkey; put in roaster; salt and pepper the outside; dredge with flour and pour over one cup water.
BONED TURKEY. MRS. R. H. J.
Boil a turkey in as little water as possible until the bones can be easily separated from the meat; remove all the skin; slice, mixing together the light and dark parts; season with salt and pepper. Take the liquor in which the fowl was boiled, having kept it warm; pour it on the meat; mix well; shape it like a loaf of bread; wrap in a cloth and press with a heavy weight for a few hours. Cut in thin slices when served.
ROAST DUCKS AND GEESE.
Use any filling you prefer; season with sage and onion, chopped fine; Salt and pepper. (You can use this seasoning with mashed potatoes for a stuffing). Young ducks should roast from twenty-five to thirty minutes; full grown ones for two hours. Baste frequently. Serve with currant jelly, apple sauce and green peas. If the fowls are old parboil before roasting.
APPLE STUFFING. MRS. W. H. ECKHART.
Take one-half pint of apple sauce (unsweetened); add one half cup or more of bread crumbs, some powdered sage, a little chopped onion, and season with cayenne pepper. Delicious for roast geese, ducks, etc.
CHESTNUT DRESSING. MRS. W. H. ECKHART.
Boil the chestnuts and sh.e.l.l them; blanch them, and boil until soft; mix with bread crumbs and sweet cream; salt and pepper; one cup raisins. Excellent dressing for turkey.
PLAIN STUFFING.
Take stale bread; cut off the crust; rub very fine, and pour over it as much melted b.u.t.ter as will make it crumble in your hand. Salt and pepper to taste. To this you can add one good-sized onion (chopped fine), a cup of raisins, or a little sage.
OYSTER DRESSING.
Make dressing same as above plain stuffing; add one egg and one-half can drained oysters. Strain the oyster liquor and use for basting the fowl.
A GOOD SAUCE FOR BIRDS OR VENISON.
Chop an onion fine, and boil it in milk; when done, add the gravy from the game, and thicken with pounded cracker.
POTTED PIGEONS OR BIRDS.
Pick, soak, and boil the birds with the same care as for roasting.
Make a crust as for chicken pie; lay the birds in whole, and season with pepper, salt, bits of b.u.t.ter, and a little sweet marjoram; flour them thickly; then strain the water in which they were boiled, and fill up the vessel two-thirds full with it; cover with the crust; cut hole in the center. Bake one hour and a half.