Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Chicken Pie (old Virginia). — Line a deep pan with plain biscuit dough. Have two spring chickens cut in pieces ; put in the pan with thin slices of fat bacon, a pint of cream, a teacupful of stale bread-crumbs, a pint of boiling water, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, salt and pepper. Cover with a top crust, and bake slowly for two hours. Chicken, Pressed. — For either lunch or tea this will be found excellent. In cold weather a quantity can be made, as it will keep a week ; and in summer, if placed in the refrigerator, it will be as good at the end of three or four days as at first. Cut the chicken the same as for a stew. Skin the feet, and put in the bottom of the stewpan, so as to extract the gluten ; then place the remainder of the fowl on top, and boil in a small quantity of water until tender. Take out the bones, separating the dark meat from the light. Throw away the feet. Mince the skin of the chicken, with the liver, heart, and gizzard. Make a dressing of stale bread, finely crumbed and seasoned; add a small quantity of Chicken Pudding Chicken Stew butter, moisten slightly with hot water, and the finely chopped heart, etc. Arrange the large pieces of meat around the sides and bottom of a baking - dish, alternating the dark and light, that it may appear marbled ; then put in a layer of the dressing, then of the small pieces of meat, until the dish is full. Remove the fat from the water in which the chickens were boiled, and after allowing it to cool, to see if it has the consistency of jelly, heat to boiling-point, and pour over the chicken, etc., while hot. Have a plate which fits in the dish, put on, and subject it to a heavy weight for a few hours, and when cold it will be ready to turn out. Chicken Pudding (an old Virginia dish). — Cut up a young chicken, stew until tender. Take up, lay on a dish, season with pepper and salt. Make a thick batter. Butter a pudding-dish, arrange pieces of chicken in the bottom, cover with batter, lay over more chicken, pour over batter, and continue until the dish is full. Set in the oven and bake brown. Serve with butter sauce. Chicken, Ragout of. — This recipe may be followed with almost any kind of poultry or game. Partially roast the bird in the usual way. When it is half dressed, take it down, and, if liked, divide it into joints, or it may be stewed whole. Put it into a stewpan with any bones or trimmings that may be at hand, a large onion stuck with two cloves, the thin rind of a quarter of a lemon, rolled, half a teaspoonful of allspice, half a teaspoonful of whole pepper, as much stock — or, failing this, water — as will cover the ingredients, and a little salt, if required. Simmer all very gently till the bird is done enough, then pour off the liquor and keep the bird hot. Strain the gravy, and skim the fat from it. Dissolve 2 ozs. of butter in a stewpan, and mix smoothly with it as much flour as will make it into a paste ; add gradually the hot liquor, a dessert-spoonful