The Rural cook book

Chicken Pie, Southern Style- — Select a fowl weighing four or five pounds; clean carefully, singe and put it on in boiling water enough to cover it, and let it simmer gently until it begins to grow tender. Save this broth with the giblets. Now cut the chicken in small pieces; slice a quarter of a pound of fat pork very thin and try it with the chicken until it is brown. After the chicken and pork are fried take them up and stir into the pan in which they were cooked a tablespoonful of flour. Stir it over the fire until brown ; then add a pint of the chicken broth, a teaspoonful of salt, quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper. Stir this gravy until it has boiled two minutes and use it for pie. To make the crust; Mix together in a bowl with a knife one pound of flour, one teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of butter, and just enough cold water to hold it together. Roll it out abotit an inch thick ; cut a quarter of a pound of butter in large slices, and lay it all over the paste; fold it up and wrap in a floured towel and put in the ice box for half an hour. Roll it out, repeating same with another quarter of a pound of butter; roll it to a thickness of half an inch, fold .it in three thicknesses and roll it out again. If the butter breaks through, fold it again in a towel and cool for half an hour before using. Line a deep dish; then put in alternate layers of chicken, pork and sliced raw potatoes ; pour in as much gravy as the dish will hold. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley, a dash more pepper and salt, and cover with a top crust, wetting the edges to make them adhere. Cut a hole in Ihe top to allow the steam to escape. Chicken Potpie with Stirred Dumplings. — Cut up the fowl for serving, wash, put in a deep stewpan, and add three pints of boiling water, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. Cook one large onion, and about three slices each of turnip and carrot, in a tablespoonful of butter, and cook till soft; mash and add to slew; then dip out two tablespoonfuls of the fat from the stew, put with the butler, and when boiling stir in three tablespoonfuls of flour. Stir over the fire till brown, then stir into the chicken to thicken it. A year-old chicken will need two hours' cooking; it should only simmer, without hard boiling. For dumplings, into a quart of wheat flour sift two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a half teaspoonful of salt. Sift at least three times. Then stir in rich, sweet milk to make a batter, not thick as can be stirred nor yet soft enough to run. Drop in spoonfuls over the top of the boiling potpie a half hour before dinner time. Should there be so much gravy that the batter would sink beneath its surface remove a bowlful. Cover closely and keep constantly boiling. Serve the dinner on a large meat platter, arranging the dumplings about its border, heaping the meat and potatoes in the center and serving the gravy from a gravy boat. In taking up the dumplings tear them apart with two forks instead of using a knife or spoon. Smothered Chicken. — Have a year-old chicken split as for broiling. Wipe dry, spread it liberally with butter all over, dust with flour and pepper, and place, skin side down, in a dripping pan (over a meat rack). Pour in a cupful boiling water, add a few sprigs of parsley, cover closely and bake in a hot oven one hour. Then torn the chicken skin side up, sprinkle with a half teaspoonful of salt, and brown uncovered, 10 or 15 minutes. Cut up the giblets, which have been cooked tender in one pint of water, add a level dessertspoonful flour and a lump of butter the size of an egg with the water from the giblets, which will be reduced to about a cupful, and stir all in the dripping pan, seasoning with a saltspoonful of salt, a good dash of pepper, parsley or sweet marjoram. Joint the chicken that it may be easily carved, but do not separate it. Serve on a platter with the gravy poured around.