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Chicken Chow Mein
Cook 1/4 pound noodles (thin string variety) in a quart of hot peanut oil till crisp, then drain them.
Cut 1/2 lb. pork or chicken and 1/2 lb. lobster or veal into small pieces, fry 5 minutes in frying pan, then let it simmer in butter. Add well chopped vegetables--half bunch celery, 1 onion, 1/2 lb. dried mushrooms--and simmer till tender.
Place the noodles in bottom of flat dish, pour the meat and vegetable mixture over them, topping off with slivers of boiled or baked ham and yolks of hard cooked eggs.
This is chow mein of the crisp-noodle school, where the fried noodles form a bed rather than being tossed in the pan. A few of the quantities and vessels need translating before it works on a modern stove.
- The frying oilA quart of peanut oil in a deep, heavy pan is right for depth, not for quantity of noodles; a quarter pound of thin noodles fries in two or three small batches. Bring the oil to about 350-375F and lift the noodles out the moment they stop hissing and turn pale gold, which takes well under a minute.
- Dried mushroomsHalf a pound of dried mushrooms is an enormous amount by weight -- it rehydrates to roughly two to two and a half pounds. The intent is almost certainly a soaked weight; use 2-3 oz dried, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes and sliced, and save the soaking liquid for the sauce.
- Meat and shellfish togetherThe pork-or-chicken plus lobster-or-veal pairing turns up in American recipes of this period. If you use lobster, add it only in the last two minutes of simmering; if it is already cooked, as such recipes generally assume, it will toughen alongside the vegetables.
- "Simmer in butter"The only liquid named is the butter, so this is presumably meant as a covered low braise. Add about a cup of stock or the mushroom soaking water with the butter, or the meat will scorch before the celery softens.
- The one thing to get rightKeep the noodles and the wet mixture apart until the moment of serving. Poured over early, a fried noodle bed goes limp within a few minutes and the dish loses its whole point.
- SeasoningThe recipe names no soy sauce, salt or thickener. Season the braise with soy and salt to taste, and slacken or thicken it with a cornstarch slurry if you want a sauce that clings.
- VegetablesHalf a bunch of celery is about four to five stalks. Cut it on a slant and stop while it still has bite; celery cooked to full tenderness contributes nothing but water.
- YieldWith a pound of meat total this serves four generously as a main course, six as part of a larger buffet.