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Fowl, with Peas
Fry the remains of a cold roast fowl in two ounces of butter until they are of a good brown colour. Have ready on a plate a little flour, chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and pounded mace. Mix these ingredients well, and turn each piece of fowl, as it comes from the frying-pan, in the mixture. Place a stewpan over the fire, with half a pint of broth or gravy, a pint of peas, and a tea-spoonful of sugar; into this put the fowl, and stew until the peas are tender. Serve the peas in the centre of the dish, and arrange the pieces of fowl in a circle round them. Probable cost, exclusive of fowl, 8d.
A late-Victorian way of turning yesterday's roast chicken into a second dinner. The method is sound; only the measures and the peas need translating.
- QuantitiesHalf an imperial pint of broth is 10 fl oz (about 285 ml); a pint of peas is about 2 1/2 cups shelled, roughly 12 oz. Two ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons, which is generous for a few pieces of fowl ype{
- \The recipe assumes cold cooked chicken cut into serving pieces — legs, thighs, wings, breast off the bone. A 3–4 lb roast chicken's leftovers, or about a pound of picked meat in large pieces, suits the quantities given.
- Pounded maceMace is the outer covering of the nutmeg, milder and more floral. Ground mace from a jar is fine; a pinch is enough, and grated nutmeg substitutes at about half the quantity.
- Peas and timingThe original means fresh shelled peas, which take 8–12 minutes. Frozen peas need three to four minutes, so add them near the end and simmer the fowl in the broth alone first, or the whole dish overcooks waiting for peas that are already tender.
- The flour coatingDredging the pieces after frying, not before, is deliberate: the flour clings to the hot butter and thickens the broth as the dish stews. Do not skip it, or the sauce stays thin.
- The sugarA teaspoon of sugar with peas is standard Victorian practice and worth keeping with fresh peas late in the season. Frozen peas are already sweet; use half or none.
- Reheating cooked meatThe fowl is already cooked, so the stewing is only to warm it through and marry the flavours — ten minutes at a bare simmer. Longer and the breast meat goes stringy.
- YieldServes two to three as a main course with bread or boiled potatoes.