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Fowl, with Onions
Pluck, draw, singe, and wash a fowl, and truss as if for boiling; lay it, with a pint of white broth, in a saucepan. The pan should be previously rubbed with butter, and the fowl should also be smeared with it. Season to taste with pepper and salt, and stew gently for half an hour; then add a dozen and a half of small onions, and stew another half hour. The fowl should be turned three or four times during the cooking. Probable cost, 3s. to 3s. 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A plain braise of a whole bird in a small quantity of broth, with button onions added halfway. The method is sound; the timing assumes a different bird from the one you will buy.
- The bird"A fowl" here means a dressed hen of roughly 3-4 lb. Buy it plucked and drawn; trussing "as if for boiling" simply means the wings folded back and the legs tied tight against the body so it holds a compact shape and cooks evenly in the pan.
- White brothAn unbrowned, lightly seasoned stock from veal or chicken bones, without tomato, wine or dark aromatics. A good low-sodium chicken stock stands in; avoid anything roasted-dark, since the point is a pale dish.
- A pintAn imperial pint, 20 fl oz, or about 2.4 US cups. That is little liquid for a whole bird: it will come only part-way up it, which is what makes this a braise rather than a boil.
- Total time is shortOne hour of gentle stewing will not reliably bring a whole 4 lb bird through. Cook to temperature rather than the clock: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, clear of bone. Expect closer to 75-90 minutes at a bare simmer, and add the onions so they get their last 30 minutes.
- Small onionsA dozen and a half of pickling or pearl onions, peeled whole. Frozen peeled pearl onions work and save considerable time; they need only 20 minutes or so, so add them slightly later.
- Keep it at a shiver"Stew gently" is the hinge. A rolling boil in this little liquid will shred the breast and cloud the broth. Aim for the surface barely trembling, lid on, and turn the bird three or four times as directed so the exposed side does not dry.
- The liquorThe recipe stops without finishing the sauce. Lift out the bird and onions, reduce the broth hard for a few minutes, and either serve it as is or bind it with a small beurre manie. A squeeze of lemon lifts an otherwise very plain dish.
- Cost and yieldThe recipe prices itself at three shillings to three and six, and gives the yield as three or four persons. Carved and served with the onions and its broth over rice or boiled potatoes, it still serves four.
The treatment here is a plain one: no browning, no wine, no forcemeat, just butter, broth and onions. That plainness is the point. A mature laying hen past her best was often bought as an economy, tougher than a roasting chicken and better suited to slow moist heat, and the buttered pan and buttered skin are there to keep a lean old bird from going stringy. The whole small onions, added late so they hold their shape, are the sort of garnish often used for a white braise, the same button onions that turn up in fricassees and blanquettes. The stated cost is a useful reminder of what these books were for: the price sits in the recipe itself, so a housekeeper could weigh the dish against the week's budget before she started.