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Poulet En Cotelettes
Chicken cutlets may either be made of the legs only of three or four fowls, the superior parts of which have been used in other ways, or a fresh chicken may be divided into cutlets. When the legs only are used, cut out the thigh-bone, and leave the drumstick untouched. Cover the joints with slices of fat bacon, and stew in nicely-seasoned stock until they are quite tender. Lift them out, put them between two dishes with a weight over them, and let them get quite cold. Trim them neatly, and rub them with a savoury powder made of a tea-spoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and the eighth of a small nutmeg, grated. Dip them in beaten egg and then into bread-crumbs, and fry them in hot fat till they are lightly browned. These cutlets may either be served without sauce, with the juice of a lemon squeezed over them, or they may have white or brown sauce poured round them. The sauce may be made by stewing the bones and trimmings of the chicken. If a whole chicken is used, the bones should be removed, and six cutlets should be made by flattening and shaping neatly the legs, wings, breast, and merry-thought. They should then be rubbed with the savoury powder, egged, breaded, and fried, as above. Time, three or four minutes to fry the cutlets which have been already dressed; ten minutes to fry those from a fresh chicken. Probable cost of chickens, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. each. Sufficient, allow two cutlets for each person.
A thrifty Victorian way of turning chicken legs — or a whole bird — into something that eats like a breaded veal cutlet. Two quite different methods are folded into one entry, and they behave differently.
- The hinge: press them coldFor the stewed-leg version, the weighting and complete chilling is what makes the cutlet hold its shape and slice cleanly. Warm or unpressed meat will slump apart in the crumb coating and the frying time will be wrong.
- Merry-thoughtThe wishbone section of the breast, cut as its own portion. Modern birds are jointed differently; from a supermarket chicken you will more likely get two breast fillets, two thighs and two wings, which is still six pieces.
- The savoury powderA teaspoon of salt, a pinch of cayenne, a quarter teaspoon of ground mace and an eighth of a small nutmeg, grated. The recipe does not say how many cutlets the mixture covers; mix it dry and rub it on before the egg, as directed.
- Fat bacon as bardingThe sliced fat bacon covers the joints while they stew in the stock, adding fat and flavour; the recipe does not say to serve it. Streaky bacon or thin sheets of pork back fat both work.
- Frying timesThree to four minutes is right for pieces already cooked in stock — you are only browning crumbs. The ten minutes given for raw chicken assumes thin, flattened pieces in shallow fat at a steady medium heat; cook to an internal 165F rather than by the clock, and expect thick thighs to need longer than breast.
- The stock and the sauceSeason the stewing stock properly, since it flavours the meat all through. The bones and trimmings simmered afterwards give the base for the white or brown sauce; reduce it hard, as unreduced chicken stock will run off the crumb.
- YieldSix cutlets from one chicken, two per person, so three servings. The legs-only method needs three or four birds' worth of legs and assumes you have already used the breasts elsewhere.
- The old prices"2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. each" is two and a half to three and a half shillings for a whole fowl — a real expense in a period when chicken was closer to a luxury than a staple, which is exactly why the book bothers to salvage the legs.
Cutlets of this kind belong to the Victorian and Edwardian habit of making one cut of meat imitate another: the shaped, crumbed, fried "cotelette" was often said to be modelled on the veal cutlet, and boning chicken into flat pieces let a cheaper or already-partly-used bird appear at table with the same silhouette. The instruction to build the dish from "the legs only of three or four fowls, the superior parts of which have been used in other ways" is the giveaway e a kitchen that had already served the breast meat elsewhere and refused to waste the rest. The French title reflects the dominance of French culinary vocabulary in English cookery books of the period, where even a dish of leftovers was given its menu name; merry-thought, by contrast, is an old English term for the wishbone, generally traced to the custom of two people pulling it for a wish.