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POTAGE (a la Reine)

This is a delicate white soup, said to have been a great favourite with her late Majesty Queen Victoria. Skin and wash carefully three young chickens or two large fowls, and boil them in five pints of good nicely-flavoured veal stock for about an hour. Lift them out, pick off all the white meat, put the bodies of the birds again into the stewpan, and let them simmer an hour and a half longer. Season the broth with salt and cayenne, and when it is sufficiently simmered pour it out, let it cool, and thoroughly take off the fat which rises to the surface. Pound the white flesh of the birds to a perfectly smooth paste, and with it a tea-cupful of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Mix gradually with this paste a small quantity of the boiling stock, and press it through a fine hair-sieve. Add the rest of the stock, and stir the whole over a gentle fire in a clean saucepan until it boils. Add from a pint to a pint and a half of boiling cream. Serve very hot. If liked, the cream may be slightly flavoured with almonds. If veal broth is not at hand, a little may be made as follows. Buy a knuckle of veal from which nearly all the meat has been cut off. Break it into small pieces, and put them into a stewpan with half a pound of lean ham cut up small-or a ham bone-a small carrot, a small onion, a head of celery, a large blade of mace, a bunch of parsley, and a dozen white peppercorns. Pour over these a gallon of cold water. Bring the liquid slowly to the boil, skim very carefully, then draw the pan to the side and let the contents simmer for six or seven hours until the stock is reduced to five pints. Pour the soup out, and leave it until the next day. Take the fat from the top, and pour off the soup without the settlings. Boil the fowls in this stock. If the soup is not sufficiently thick, it may be made so with a little arrowroot or ground rice. Time, about four hours. Probable cost, 1s. 8d. per pint, exclusive of the veal stock. Sufficient for twelve persons.