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Chicken Salad

Draw and singe a fowl, put in a kettle with just enough boiling water to keep it from burning, add a slice of onion, a bay-leaf, a few cloves, and a blade of mace. Cover the kettle and cook the chicken slowly until perfectly tender. This method of cooking will make the dark meat almost as white as the white meat. For special occasions use the white meat only; the dark meat can be used for croquettes or other chicken entrées. When done put the chicken away until perfectly cold; it is best always to cook it the day before using. Then remove the skin and cut the meat into dice. Cut and not tear; remove the meat from the carcass in as large pieces as possible. Cut with a sharp knife, laying the meat in blocks a little larger than ordinary dice. Under no circumstances chop it. After it is properly cut, stand away in a cold place until wanted. Wash, brush and cut the white part of celery into pieces a half inch long. Dry on a soft towel and stand away in the cold until wanted. Now make your Mayonnaise dressing according to the recipe given. To each pint of chicken allow two-thirds of a pint of celery and one cup of Mayonnaise dressing. When ready to serve mix the celery and chicken and dust lightly with salt, white pepper or cayenne; then mix with them the Mayonnaise. Garnish the salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, heap in the salad and serve at once. The bowl may also be garnished with the white, crisp celery tops. One cup of whipped cream may be stirred into the Mayonnaise just before putting it over the chicken. This makes a lighter dressing and removes a little of the oily flavor.

The liquor in which the chicken was boiled may be saved for soup.