Boil two large chickens in enough water to cover them, add salt while boiling; when very tender remove from the fire and allow the chickens to cool in the liquor in which they were boiled, when cold skim off every particle of fat, and reserve it to use instead of oil. If possible boil the chickens the day previous to using. Now cut the chickens up into small bits (do not chop), cut white, crisp celery in half inch pieces, and sprinkle with fine salt, allowing half as much celery as you have chicken, mixing the chicken and celery, using two silver forks to do this. Rub the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs as fine as possible, add one-half teaspoon of salt, white pepper, four tablespoons of chicken-fat that has been skimmed off the broth, adding one at a time, stirring constantly, one tablespoon of best prepared mustard, two teaspoons each mustard seed and celery seed, and two tablespoons of white sugar; add gradually, stirring constantly, one cup of white wine vinegar. Pour this dressing over the chicken and celery and toss lightly with the silver forks. Line a large salad bowl with lettuce leaves, pour in the salad and garnish the top with the chopped whites of six hard-boiled eggs; pour a pint of mayonnaise over the salad just before serving. A neat way is to serve the salad in individual salad dishes, lining each dish with a lettuce leaf, garnish the salad with an olive stuck up in the center of each portion. The bones of the chicken may be used for soup, letting them simmer in water to cover for three hours.
Order the chickens as for fricassy, and form the pie deep, lay in the bottom a mince-meat made of the chicken's livers, ham, parsley and yolks of eggs; season with white pepper, mace, and a little salt; moisten with butter, then lay the chicken above the minc'd meat, and a little more butter; cover the pie and bake it two hours; when baked take off the fat, and add to it white gravy, with a little juice of lemon. Serve this up hot.
Take one quart of grated, raw sweet potatoes, one tablespoon leach of meat fat and chicken fat, one half pound of brown sugar, one-half pint of molasses, one and one-half pints of cold water, one saltspoon of salt and a little black pepper, grated orange peel, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Pour into greased baking-pan and bake until it jellies. Bake in moderate oven. May be eaten as a dessert, warm or cold.
This apple sauce cake will be found as delicious and tasty as the rich fruit cake, which is so difficult to prepare, and it is very much less expensive. In a big mixing bowl, beat to a creamy consistency four tablespoons of butter, one egg and one cup of sugar. Add a saltspoon of salt, one teaspoon of allspice, one teaspoon of vanilla and a little grated nutmeg. Beat and stir all these ingredients well together with the other mixture, then add one cup of chopped raisins, after dusting them with flour. Mix these well through the dough and then add one cup of unsweetened apple sauce which has been pressed through a fine wire sieve. After this is well mixed with the other ingredients, stir in one teaspoon of baking-soda dissolved in one tablespoon of boiling water. Last of all, stir in one cup of flour, sifting twice after measuring it. Bake forty-five minutes in moderate oven. The tendency in making this cake is to get the dough too thin, therefore the apple sauce should be cooked quite thick, and then if the dough is still too thin add more flour. Bake one hour in moderate oven. This cake can be made with chicken schmalz in place of butter. Ice with plain white frosting.
Singe, wash and clean chicken; cut into pieces as follows; two second joints, two drumsticks, two wings, breast cut into two pieces, backbone cut into four pieces. Wipe with piece of cheesecloth; season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Put into hot frying pan with 2 tablespoons bacon drippings or butter and brown quickly. Add a little water, cover, reduce heat and cook slowly until tender. Remove chicken; mix 1 tablespoon flour with whatever gravy or fat is in pan; add 1 cup cold milk; boil until thick. This gravy should be rich cream color.
Chop cold roast chicken very fine. Put it into a saucepan, place it over the fire, moisten it with a little water and gravy, or a piece of butter. Season with salt and pepper; add a small tablespoonful of sifted flour dissolved in a little water; heat all through and remove from the fire to become cool. When cooled roll out some plain pie-crust quite thin, cut out in rounds as large as a saucer; wet the edge with cold water and put a large spoonful of the minced meat on one-half of the round; fold the other half over and pinch the edges well together, then fry them in hot drippings or fat a nice brown. They may also be cooked in a moderate oven.
These are made in the same manner, except that a dressing, like chicken dressing, is made for them. For one and a half pounds of veal take three crackers, half a table-spoonful of butter, half a teaspoonful of savory, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of sage, a teaspoonful of salt, a very little pepper and an eighth of a cupful of water. Spread the strips with this, and proceed as for beef olives.
Lard the fillets as for breading. For each one lay a slice of fat pork in the bottom of the braising pan, and on this a very small piece of onion. Dredge the fillets well with salt, pepper and flour, and place them on the pork and onion. Cover the pan, and set on the stove. Cook slowly half an hour; then add one pint of light stock or water and the bones of one of the chickens. Cover the pan, and place in a moderate oven for one hour, basting frequently with the gravy. If the gravy should cook away, add a little more stock or water, (there should be nearly a pint of it at the end of the hour). Take up the fillets, and drain; then cover them with soft butter, and dredge lightly with flour. Broil till a light brown. Serve on a hot dish with the sauce poured around. Or, they can be dressed on a mound of mashed potato, with a garnish of any green vegetable at the base, the sauce to be poured around it. To make the sauce: Skim all the fat from the gravy in which the fillets were cooked. Cook one table-spoonful of butter and one heaping teaspoonful of flour together until a light brown; then add the gravy, and boil up once. Taste to see if seasoned enough, and strain.
Hard-boil twelve eggs. Remove the shells. Cut the eggs into halves, crosswise. Take out the yolks without breaking the whites. Press the yolks through a sieve. Add four tablespoonfuls of finely chopped chicken, tongue or ham. Add a half teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper and two tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Rub the mixture. Form it into balls the size of the yolks and put them into the places in the whites from which the yolks were taken. Put two halves together, roll them in tissue paper that has been fringed at the ends, giving each a twist. If these balls are made the size of the yolk, and put back into the whites, they may be placed on a platter, heated, and served on toast, with cream sauce; then they are very much like the eggs Bernhardt.
