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Cooking of True Proteids Continued: Meat: Fowl

HOW TO COOK AND SERVE REST OF THE FOWL Separate the fowl at the joints, wash in cold water, drain, cover with boiling water and let boil six or seven minutes, then let simmer until tender. It will take about two hours, then add a teaspoonful of salt and cook longer if not perfectly tender.

FOWL SAUTED Roll the legs and wings in flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then set them to cook in a frying pan containing three or four tablespoonfuls of hot, salt pork fat. When browned on one side turn the pieces and brown the other side. Serve garnished with celery tips and parsley. Serve also at the same time macaroni in tomato sauce, Turkish pilaf, plain boiled rice, curried rice, spinach a la creme, creamed potatoes, etc. Use some of the broth for a sauce. A partridge separated into joints may be cooked in the same way. CHICKEN PIE FOR TWO Pick the rest of the meat from the bones; add any bits left from the breast and chicken broth to cover the whole; add also salt and pepper to season. Heat to the boiling point, then turn into a small earthen baking dish. In the meanwhile sift together into a bowl a cup and a half of pastry flour, three level teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a scant half teaspoonful of salt. With the tips of the fingers work into the flour about one-third a cup of shortening, then with a knife mix the mass to a dough with sweet cream or rich milk in quantity as is needed. Turn the dough on to a floured board, turn it around with the knife, to flour it a little, then knead lightly and pat and roll into a sheet, a little larger than the dish. Cut out a round to fit the dish and make two cross-wise slits in the center. Butter the edge of the dish, and set the crust in place. With a small round cutter stamp out several rounds from the rest of the dough. Use the same cutter and stamp the rounds into crescent and oval-shaped pieces; brush the under side of these with cold water and set them upon the crust in symmetrical fashion. Brush over the whole top with melted butter and bake about half an hour. If any chicken broth still remains, use it in making a sauce for the pie. To make a beefsteak pie, use small pieces of steak, simmered until tender, in the same way. For a partridge pie use the joints of the partridge, cooked tender, in the same way. ROAST CHICKEN We will suppose the chicken, weighing about three pounds and a half, has been picked and drawn. If long hairs remain upon it, take the legs in one hand, and the neck in the other, and thus turn the body in the flame from a tablespoonful of alcohol ignited on a tin plate or cover, to burn off the hairs. Cut off the feet at the knee joint. Turn back the skin on the neck, and cut off the neck itself on a line with the top of the wings. Do not cut off the skin. Wash the chicken inside and out and fill with bread stuffing. Sew up the opening through which the stuffing was put into the body of the chicken. Turn the third joints of the wings back over the neck skin, turned down upon the back. Run a threaded trussing needle through the flesh of the wing into the body, and let it come out through the skin of the neck, turned down on the back, and on a line with the place where it went in; put the needle back through the body and second wing an inch from where it came out, to leave a stitch in the back; now leave a stitch an inch long on the wing and run the needle through the body, to come out an inch from the place where it entered the first wing. Tie the thread in a bow knot. Press the legs close to the body, drawing them up as high as possible. Run the threaded needle through the legs and body and return to the first side an inch from the place where the needle comes out. Tie in a bow knot. Spread a slice of salt pork over the breast of the chicken, set on a rack in a pan of suitable size and set to cook in a hot oven; after fifteen minutes, reduce the heat and let cook about two hours. Baste every ten minutes with the dripping in the pan, or with hot fat taken from the top of the soup kettle. Dredge with flour after each basting. An eight pound turkey requires at least three hours of cooking; often another hour is desirable. A fowl is cooked, when the joints may be easily separated. BREAD STUFFING Remove the crust from bread that has been baked at least twenty-four hours. Grate the bread or press it through a colander. To two cups of crumbs, add two fresh sage leaves, a sprig of summer savory, and a thin pepper-pod two inches long, all chopped fine, also a teaspoonful of onion juice, and half a teaspoonful of salt, with half a cup of melted butter. Mix all together very thoroughly and use to fill the chicken.

GIBLET SAUCE FOR ROAST CHICKEN Pour the fat from the baking pan, to leave two tablespoonfuls in the pan; add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stir and cook until frothy, then add one cup of the water in which the giblets were cooked (these should be cooked while the chicken is being roasted), and stir until the boiling point is reached. Add the chopped giblets and serve.

BLANQUETTE OF VEAL Have a pound and a half of the best end of a breast of veal; wipe the surface with a damp cloth and cut the meat into pieces two inches square; add water just to cover the veal, also a carrot, scraped and cut in quarters, two small onions, peeled and tied in a bit of cheese cloth, with a teaspoonful of celery seed, two branches of parsley, two cloves and a bit of bay leaf; cover and let simmer until the veal is tender (about an hour and a half); strain off the broth, discard the vegetables, and keep the veal hot. Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter; cook in it three tablespoonfuls of flour with a little salt and pepper, then add the broth and stir until the sauce boils. Beat the yolk of an egg; dilute with half a cup of cream and stir into the sauce; let cook, without boiling, stirring constantly until all is very hot, then stir in a tablespoonful of lemon juice and pour the sauce over the veal. BEEF BALLS WITH SPAGHETTI OR MACARONI Put over the fire half a can of red tomatoes, half a sweet green or red pepper, cut in shreds (after discarding the seeds), half an onion, cut in thin slices, two sprigs of parsley and a cup of water; let cook half an hour, then pass through a sieve into a casse-role; add half a teaspoonful of salt and two tablespoonfuls of butter and the beef balls prepared as follows. Chop very fine half a pound of steak, freed from fat and stringy portions. Steak from the top of the round should be selected. To the chopped meat add one egg, beaten light, one fourth a cup of grated crumbs of bread, a grating of onion (about a teaspoonful) half a teaspoonful of salt and the same quantity of paprika; mix all together thoroughly, then divide the mixture into half a dozen portions; roll each into a compact ball. Have ready in a frying-pan two tablespoonfuls of hot fat (that from salt pork, bacon or the top of the soup kettle preferred); in this roll the beef balls until they are slightly browned on the outside, then drain on soft paper and put into the sauce in the casserole, cover the dish and let cook in the oven or on the back of the range about forty-five minutes. In the meantime cook half a cup of spaghetti, in whole or half lengths as preferred, in boiling, salted water until tender (it will take about half an hour); drain and rinse in cold water. When about ready to serve the dish, take out the meat balls, turn in the spaghetti and one-fourth a cup or more of Parmesan cheese and lift the spaghetti with a spoon and fork until it is thoroughly mixed with the sauce and cheese; return the beef balls, cover and let stand in the oven to become very hot, then serve in the casserole. Common American cheese may be used. VEAL POT PIE, BAKED DUMPLINGS Have about a pound and a half of veal from the breast or about a pound cut from the thick portion of the leg (cutlet or slice); cut the meat into small pieces, cover with boiling water and let simmer until tender. A slice of bacon or fat salt pork, cut in tiny strips, may be cooked with the veal and will improve the flavor. Turn the meat with broth to nearly cover into a baking dish. Season with half a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper. Sift together one cup and a fourth of pastry flour, a scant half a teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls and a half of baking powder; into these work three tablespoonfuls of shortening, then stir in milk or water to make a dough that is not quite as stiff as for biscuits. Cut through and through the dough with a knife, then put it by the spoonful upon the meat, letting it rest upon the meat and cover the surface. Bake about twenty-five minutes.