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To Fricassee Chicken
Wash and joint the chicken; place the pieces in a stew-pau with the skin side down. Sprinkle salt and pepper on each piece. Add three or four slices of pork, stew till tender, take them out and thicken the liquor with flour, and add a piece of butter the size of a hen's egg. Replace the chicken in the pan and let it stew five minutes longer. When it is taken up, soak in the gravy some pieces of toast, put them on plates and lay the chicken on the toast, pouring the gravy over it. To brown the chicken, stew till tender, without the pork; brown the pork, take that up, then put in the chicken and fry a light brown.-Mrs. Col. W.
A plain braise of chicken with salt pork, thickened at the end and served on gravy-soaked toast. The original assumes a farm bird and a cook who knows when to add water; both need spelling out.
- Liquid is implied, not stated"Stew till tender" with only chicken and pork in the pan will scorch on a modern burner. Add water or light stock to come about halfway up the pieces, then keep it at a bare simmer, covered.
- The pork"Slices of pork" here most likely means salt pork, the fat side meat of the barrel, rather than fresh loin. Unsmoked streaky bacon or pancetta is the closest substitute; if using salt pork, hold back on the added salt until you taste the gravy.
- Butter the size of a hen's eggRoughly 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. Whisked in after the flour it enriches the sauce; add it off the direct heat so it does not split.
- Thickening the liquorFlour tipped straight into hot broth will lump. Work it into the butter first as a paste and whisk that in, or slake it with a little cold water, then simmer two or three minutes to cook out the raw taste.
- TimingA jointed 3 1/2 to 4 lb supermarket chicken is tender in 35 to 45 minutes; breast pieces are done sooner than legs and can be lifted out early. The book's fowl would have been older and tougher and might have taken twice as long. Dark meat should reach 175F, breast 165F.
- Stew-pan"Stew-pau" is a typesetting slip for stew-pan: a wide, straight-sided pan with a lid. A Dutch oven or deep skillet with a cover does the same job. The pieces should sit in one layer, skin down as directed.
- The toastThese are sops, and they only work with a close-crumbed bread cut thick and toasted dry and hard. Soft sandwich bread dissolves. Dip briefly, then plate at once.
- The browned versionThe second method is a variant: cook the chicken through in liquid without the pork, render the pork slices in a dry pan, remove them, and fry the cooked chicken in that fat until light brown.
- YieldOne chicken with the toast serves four.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, prints its recipes much as they arrived, initials and all -- hence "Mrs. Col. W.," identified by her husband's rank in the manner of the period. Fricassee comes from the French fricasser, to cut up and cook in fat and liquid. Serving meat on gravy-soaked toast is a survival of the medieval sop.