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Curried Chicken
After the chickens are cut up, let them stew in as much water as will cover them for half an hour. Then add one or two onions cut very fine, let them boil again for ten minutes, add one teaspoon of flour, one-eighth of a pound of butter, a little mustard, cayenne and a large spoonful of curry; let them stew for fifteen minutes longer and as you take from the fire, stir in a cup of cream.
— Mrs. Stanley Vincent
A plain stewed curry of the New England-into-New York village type: chicken poached in its own broth, thickened lightly, and finished with cream. The whole thing runs about an hour on the stovetop.
- The hinge: don't boil the creamThe cream goes in off the heat, as written. A cup of cream stirred into a hard-boiling, mustard-spiked broth risks curdling; take the pan off the burner and stir it through the residual heat.
- "A large spoonful of curry"This means curry powder, and a large spoonful reads as roughly a tablespoon. Period curry powders were often milder than modern blends, so taste after ten minutes and add more rather than doubling at the start.
- Butter weightOne-eighth of a pound is 2 ounces: 4 tablespoons, half a stick.
- Only one teaspoon of flourThat is a thickener for gloss, not body, and the result is a thin gravy rather than a sauce that coats. If you want it heavier, work the flour into the softened butter as a beurre manié before adding, or reduce the broth before the cream goes in.
- Cutting up the chickenThe recipe says "chickens", plural, and gives no weight or number of pieces. Barely cover with water — the stewing liquid becomes the sauce, so extra water only dilutes it.
- Total cooking timeHalf an hour, then ten minutes, then fifteen comes to 55 minutes of simmering. Breast pieces will be dry by then; pull them at about 25 minutes and return them at the end if you care about texture.
- SaltNone is called for anywhere. Season the stewing water at the start and correct after the cream.
- YieldThe recipe calls for "chickens", plural, so the quantity is indeterminate; four to six servings per bird is a fair guide. Rice is the usual accompaniment and suits the thin sauce.
Curry reached American home cookery largely through England rather than India, and by the late nineteenth century commercial curry powder was widely sold as a grocery item in the United States, though cookbooks of the period still gave recipes for grinding a blend at home. The technique here is the familiar stewed fricassee — chicken cooked in water and finished with cream — with curry powder, mustard and cayenne doing the seasoning. Community cookbooks of this kind were commonly compiled by church and charitable societies, with each contributor's name attached to her dish, as here.