Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Chicken Salad. — Thoroughly cook a chicken ; boiling it is thought by many people better than roasting it. Take off the skin, and cut it into as many joints as it will make. Cut four hard-boiled eggs in quarters, so as to make sixteen pieces. Pull a cos lettuce to pieces, and arrange the chicken on it, making another cos lettuce high in the middle. Take some more white lettuce, and arrange the leaves in a border round the chicken, with the pieces of egg. Pour mayonnaise sauce (see page 136) over this border and over the chicken, but leave the middle lettuce free. Celery may be used instead of cos lettuce. Or sliced cucumbers, peeled, and drained from the water they contain, may be used alternately with cold chicken cut into rounds, and both cucumber and chicken masked, like the lettuce and the celery, with mayonnaise sauce. Arrange mustard and cress or corn salad in the middle of the chicken and cucumber salad. Never use beetroot in a chicken salad. Fried Chicken. — Cut the chicken into joints after it has been wiped or washed clean. Fry each joint in batter (see page 157, garnish with fried parsley. Hand tartare sauce (see page 137). Turkeys. — Turkeys ought to hang for a few days before they are cooked. When a Turkey is trussed the scaly part of the legs is cut off. The sinews in a Turkey’s leg are so strong and tough that it is impossible to pull them out in the usual way. The best plan is for one person to hold the body of the bird tightly in a cloth, and for another person to shut the lower part of the Turkey’s legs in the crack of the door, and pull hard TURKEYS at the sinews from the outside, the person inside holding the bird as firmly as possible. A man’s strength is. often needed to pull out the sinews. The stuffing for a Roast Turkey is either made of chestnuts, sausage-meat, or of a mixture of green herbs, breadcrumbs, and suet, for which see page 202. Or the Turkey can be stuffed with mushrooms. The stuffing fills up the breast of the bird, and must be formed into a good plump shape in the trussing. A very large Turkey will take three hours to roast ; for one weighing eight to ten pounds allow two hours, and for a small one an hour and half. Do not put sausages round the Turkey in the dish. Boiled Turkey. — Many people consider that “ Turkey Boiled is Turkey Spoiled.” At any rate an old Turkey should never be boiled. If it is to be boiled, boil it in stock with plenty of vegetables. Bring the Turkey to the boil and then let it simmer gently for one hour and a half. The stuffing may be herb stuffing or made of celery or of oysters. About two dozen sauce oysters will be wanted ; take off the beards, and stew them in their own liquor for five minutes before using them. Hand celery sauce or oyster sauce. Reduce the broth for gravy to go round the Turkey in the dish. Pulled and Grilled Turkey.— Pull the white meat off the breast of a cold Turkey with a couple of forks. Do not cut it. Warm it up in a good white sauce, flavoured if possible with mushroom peelings. Grill the thighs and pinions of the Turkey, and lay them round the white meat, with pieces of the stuffing fried. Score the Turkey legs after skinning them, and rub them well with mustard flour, pepper, and salt mixed up in a very little butter, but do not use grill sauce.