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Chicken, Marinaded
Cut a cold roasted chicken into neat joints, season them well in salt and cayenne, strew over them chopped onion and parsley, and soak them for an hour in equal parts of lemon-juice and oil. Turn them frequently. Drain them, and dip each piece in a light batter, or else in white of eggs beaten up, and fry them in hot butter or lard until lightly browned. Garnish with fried parsley. Sufficient, one chicken for two or three persons. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Time to fry, ten minutes.
A Victorian way of reviving yesterday's roast: a short acid-and-oil marinade, then a quick fry. The technique is sound and the recipe needs little translation.
- Start with cold cooked chickenThis is a leftovers dish, not a way of cooking raw poultry. The pieces are already done through, so frying is purely for colour and crust.
- The marinadeEqual parts lemon juice and oil, as the recipe says; about 4 tablespoons of each will do for a whole bird's worth of joints, turned frequently as directed. The recipe gives an hour, and there is no reason to go longer.
- "Season well in salt and cayenne"Cayenne here is the standard Victorian heat, used sparingly as a seasoning rather than for obvious spice. A quarter teaspoon across a whole chicken is in the spirit of the book.
- Dry before dippingDraining is not enough — blot the pieces with a cloth or paper. Oil and lemon left on the surface will make the batter or egg white slide off in the pan.
- Batter or egg whiteThe egg-white version is the lighter of the two and behaves like a thin tempura; beat the whites only until frothy, not stiff. A "light batter" of the period is roughly flour, egg and enough milk or water to make a coating the thickness of cream.
- Frying fat and temperatureButter alone will brown too fast at frying heat; lard, or butter cut with a neutral oil, is more forgiving. Aim for 350–360F in about half an inch of fat, turning once.
- Ten minutes is for browning onlyWith cooked meat, four to five minutes a side is usually enough. Judge by the crust, not the clock.
- Fried parsleyDry sprigs dropped into the hot fat for 15–20 seconds, until they stop hissing and turn brilliant green. Wet parsley will spit violently — dry it thoroughly first.
- YieldAs stated, one chicken serves two or three. The 2s. 6d. is the book's own 'probable cost' figure.
"Marinaded" in nineteenth-century English cookery meant almost exactly what a French cook meant by mariner: a steeping in acid, oil and aromatics before frying. Cassell's places this among entries for using up cold roast poultry, which is often said to reflect what a large middle-class household actually cooked. A roast bird was, by tradition, likely to appear twice, and the second appearance had to look deliberate rather than apologetic; batter, hot fat and a nest of fried parsley did that work. The lemon-and-oil soak also served a practical end, since cold roast meat that has sat in a larder overnight benefits from acid and salt to bring the flavour back forward.