Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

“Wyvern’s” Spitchcock. — Pluck and clean a chicken, saving the giblets, of which a broth should be made, assisted by any scraps of meat there may be, vegetables, and half an ounce of glaze. Next open the bird down the back, truss the legs and wings as for boiling, and flatten out the fowl like a steak. When to be cooked, wipe the fowl, brush it over with egg, turn it over on a cloth spread with breadcrumbs, and grill it carefully over a bright fire. To do this effectively the crumbs must be given time to set well, and just before grilling a brush dipped in melted butter should be passed over the bird. Butter the gridiron and see that the fire is not too fierce. Lay the inside to meet the fire first, and turn gently — not too close to the coals ; butter should be brushed over the surface once or twice during the process. Serve as soon as the bird is done, on a hot dish, garnishing with watercress. The clear broth without thickening should be handed in a boat, a dessertspoonful of coarsely-chopped tarragon being added to it. Hand bread sauce also. CHICKEN A LA TOSCANE Chicken a la Toscane. — Cut up a cold chicken, get all the meat from it, and set it aside. Chop up the bones, skin, and trimmings. Put the bones in a stewpan, cover with milk and water, bring slowly to the boil, add four ounces of onion, one of celery, one of parsley, a bunch of herbs, and the chopped stalks and peelings of a quarter of a pound of fresh mushrooms. Add salt and pepper, simmer for one hour, and strain. Turn the liquid to a sauce, passing it through the hair sieve, and adding a tablespoonful of cream. Lay the pieces of fowl in this with the whole mushrooms separately fried and cut into squares, two ounces of cooked macaroni cut very small, and a tablespoonful of coarsely-chopped cooked ham. Heat all up gently, and dust a fine layer of grated Parmesan over all. Serve in an entree dish. [ Wyvem.] Chicken Roasted French Fashion.— When the chicken is trussed leave on the neck. Bend the neck so as to close the opening from which the crop was drawn out, and press it well inside the bird. Weigh the liver, and add to it an equal weight of bacon. Fasten the chicken together with string, and hang it like a bundle to the bottle-jack, neck downwards. Baste it continually with butter, and roast it a warm brown. When done take off the string-, lay the bird in a hot dish, and pour round it (without any additions) the unstrained unclarified butter with which the chicken was basted . Be careful to pour the butter round, not over, the chicken. It ought not to be in the least greasy. Poulet au Riz. — Boil a chicken and keep it hot in a covered dish. Blanch six ounces of Patna rice in three quarts of boiling water, using a large stewpan ; drain it on a sieve. Put it back in the dry, hot pan with two ounces of butter and a seasoning of pepper and salt. Turn the rice about with a wooden spoon, and add very gradually the eau cle cuisson in which the chicken was boiled. Do this very slowly, making the rice absorb as much as possible. Then empty the rice, steaming hot, over the chicken, and serve at once. This is the real Poulet au Riz. Plenty of vegetables must have been boiled with the chicken, or it will be tasteless. Flavouring can, if liked, be given by v adding tomato pulp, or grated cheese, to the rice. Boiled Chicken with Oysters.— Fill the inside of the