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Poularde, with Rice
Wash half a pound of best Carolina rice in several waters. Pluck and draw carefully a fine capon, and truss it for boiling. Put it into an oval stewpan with the rice, which should have been well drained, an onion stuck with two cloves, and as much nicely-flavoured broth as will cover the fowl. Simmer gently for an hour and a half; strain the gravy, and if it is not sufficiently reduced set aside part of it, and use only as much as is required for sauce for the fowl. Skim the fat from the top. Put the rice upon the dish, lay the fowl upon it, and pour the sauce over all. This dish will be improved if the sauce is thickened with flour, and made to look white by the addition of a little cream or new milk, but this will add to the expense. A small quantity only of sauce must be poured over the fowl or its appearance will be spoilt. Even without the cream this is a pleasing dish, and it is inexpensive and wholesome. Time to simmer the fowl, about an hour and a half. Probable cost, 3s. to 5s. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A plain boiled fowl on a bed of rice cooked in its own broth. Two things need attention before you start: the bird, which no longer exists in the form the book assumes, and the rice, which will not survive ninety minutes of simmering in its intended texture.
- The caponA capon is a castrated cockerel, fattened for size and fat content; they are rare outside specialist butchers and holiday seasons. A 4-5 lb roasting chicken stands in directly and matches the stated yield of five or six.
- "Pluck and draw"Birds were often sold undressed, which is why the recipe begins with plucking and drawing. Buy it dressed. Trussing for boiling means legs and wings bound tight to the body so the fowl holds a compact shape in the pot and cooks evenly.
- Carolina riceA long-grain white rice, historically from the South Carolina lowcountry and sold as a quality grade in British kitchens of the period. Any long-grain white rice serves; half a pound is about 1 1/4 cups dry.
- The rice will overcookLong-grain rice in simmering broth is done in 15-20 minutes, not the hour and a half the fowl needs. Cooked as written you get a soft, porridge-like bed rather than separate grains. For separate grains, cook the rice apart in a ladle or two of the strained broth near the end.
- Heat and doneness"Simmer gently" means barely trembling water, around 180-190F; a rolling boil toughens the breast and clouds the broth. Chicken is done at 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, which a 4-5 lb bird will usually reach well inside the stated time.
- The onion stuck with clovesAn onion clouté, the standard aromatic of the period. Two cloves in a whole peeled onion is enough; more and the broth turns medicinal. Remove and discard it before serving.
- The broth"As much nicely-flavoured broth as will cover the fowl" is roughly 2-3 quarts for a bird this size. Unsalted or low-sodium stock is safer here, since you reduce the liquid afterwards and salt concentrates with it.
- ThickeningFor the improved version, a white roux of about 1 oz butter to 1 oz flour will take a pint of the strained broth; finish with a few tablespoons of cream off the boil. The instruction to use only a little sauce over the bird is sound - the rest belongs in a boat.
- Cost"3s. to 5s." is three to five shillings. The book calls the dish inexpensive and wholesome, which is part of why it recommends it, though three to five shillings was not a trivial sum for many households.
Boiled fowl with rice is a staple of nineteenth-century English household cookery, valued precisely for the qualities Cassell's names at the end: inexpensive and wholesome. The French title poularde - properly a fattened hen, as distinct from the chapon the recipe actually calls for - reflects the period habit of dressing plain English dishes in French names for the dinner table; the two terms were used loosely in English cookbooks. Carolina rice, named for the Carolina lowcountry plantations, was the quality grade sold in British shops, and its appearance here is a quiet reminder of how far the ingredients of an unassuming family dinner had already travelled. The careful note that cream "will add to the expense" is characteristic of Cassell's, which pitched itself at households counting shillings rather than at professional kitchens.