Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Minced Chicken aux fines herbes.— Mince half a pound of mushrooms coarsely, add a bunch of herbs, a very little salt, two tablespoonfuls of cream and a slice of bacon cut into small pieces. Stew all well together till cooked, then take out the herbs, and let the rest cool. Add the minced white meat of a MINCED CHICKEN AUX FINES HERBES 267 chicken (or use the legs if the white meat cannot be spared), warm up the whole gently in the bain-marie, and finish with a squeeze of lemon-juice and a sprinkling of finely-minced chervil and parsley. Garnish with croutons of fried bread. Mousse de Volaille. — For this half a pound of white meat must be allowed to a pint of cream. The breast of an old hen is the best to use, but rabbit or veal can be substituted for it. Pound the meat thoroughly in a mortar, adding by degrees half a pint of the cream, and dusting in a little pepper and salt. Pass it through a hair sieve into a basin and work in the other half pint of cream. Butter a plain mould thoroughly, put a buttered paper at the bottom, put the mixture of chicken and cream in, filling the mould about three parts full, and cover with another buttered paper. Steam for one hour as gently as possible. It will be done when the mixture feels firm. Turn it out most carefully, and serve with mushroom sauce, or if the mould is a hollow one put broiled mushrooms in the centre. Or make a veloute sauce with the giblets, pour this round, and put French beans or green peas in the centre. Chicken and Macaroni. — ( Family Recipe.) — Mince one pound of white meat as finely as possible. If the meat is fresh simmer it gently in a little veal or chicken stock for threequarters of an hour. But if it has already been cooked it will only require warming up in a little stock. Simmer some macaroni in salted water till it is quite soft, and cut it into bits the third of an inch in length. Add the macaroni to the meat, dredge a little flour into the pan, and add half a teacupful (a tablespoonful and a half) of thin cream or bechamel sauce. Minced ham or tongue should be cooked with the meat, also the remains of a sweetbread if available. Flavour with mushroom peelings fried. Serve in a hot- water dish with a cover. Caperata. — Take the remains of a cold fowl, mince all the white very small. Break the bones and the back (omitting the legs) and put them with the rest of the trimmings, a little water, a bit of lemon-peel, and a blade of mace in a saucepan. Let them boil till all the substance is out of them, and thicken as usual. Chop up some hard-boiled yolk of eggs, add them and the mince to the sauce, and give it two or three good boils up. Just before dishing add a squeeze of lemon, a little salt, and cayenne. Score the chicken legs, pepper and salt them, broil them, and lay them on the mince. Cold Chicken Pie. — ( Family Recipe.') — This is an excellent way of using old fowls. Take an oval fire-proof dish with a cover. Cut the chicken in joints, arrange them in layers with slices of hard-boiled egg. Cover all with good beef-stock, and let the stock be two inches thick above the chicken. Season with pepper. Cook very slowly in the oven with the cover on. It will take from three to four hours. Take off the cover, leave the pie all night, and serve it cold.