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Chicken Broth (Good-sized chicken small onion)
1 good-sized chicken; 1 small onion; 2 tablespoonfuls rice; 1 quart water; 2 tablespoonfuls rich cream; 1 teaspoonful salt; 1/2 saltspoonful white pepper. Clean the chicken; cut up and separate it at the joints. Take off all the skin and fat. Put it in a saucepan with the sliced onion, cover with the water, bring to a boil, and simmer slowly. When the chicken is tender take it out, slice off the best parts of the meat, put the remainder back in the kettle with the salt and pepper, and simmer until the bones are clean. Strain, and remove all the fat. Have the rice well washed and soaked for half an hour in water enough to cover, put it in the broth, and cook until the rice is tender. Add the cream, some of the nicest pieces of chicken, and more seasoning if necessary.
Serve very hot with crisp, thin crackers.
A two-stage broth: the bird is simmered, the good meat lifted out, then the bones returned to give up the rest of their flavour. Nothing here is difficult, but the water quantity is tight by modern habits.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is usually reckoned at about 1/4 teaspoon, though period sources vary, so half of one is a scant pinch of white pepper. Season to taste at the end rather than trying to measure it.
- One quart is not muchA quart will barely cover a good-sized chicken cut up. Add enough to cover by an inch and expect the finished broth to be lighter than the ingredient list implies; reduce it uncovered at the end if you want it stronger.
- Timing the two simmersThe meat is tender in 45 minutes to an hour at a bare simmer. The bones then want another hour or more, which is where the body comes from. Never let it boil hard or the broth turns cloudy.
- RiceAny medium or long-grain white rice works; the half-hour soak the recipe calls for shortens cooking. It will take 15-20 minutes in the broth and will keep thickening as it stands.
- Adding the creamStir the cream in off the heat or at the barest simmer. "Rich cream" here means something close to modern heavy cream; two tablespoons in a quart is enrichment, not a cream soup.
- Skimming the fatSkin and fat come off before cooking, but more will render out. Chilling the strained broth and lifting the set fat off gives a far cleaner result than skimming it hot.
- YieldRoughly four small first-course servings. The reserved chicken not used in the broth is enough for a salad or sandwiches.