Creamed Chicken

A skeleton recipe of the kind common in 1920 household books: the cook was expected to know how to build a white sauce and simply told how much milk to use. The proportions below fill the gap.

• The white sauceFor one pint of milk, use 4 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons flour, cooked together two or three minutes before the milk goes in. That gives a sauce thick enough to hold the meat without turning to paste; a thinner roux will leave the dish soupy once the chicken releases its juices.
• "One chicken"A stewing fowl of the period commonly ran around 4 to 5 lb and would yield something like 3 to 4 cups of picked meat, a generous but workable amount for a pint of sauce. A modern bird of similar weight, giving roughly 1 1/2 lb of cooked meat, is a fair substitute.
• "Cut into pieces as for salad"Bite-size pieces torn or cut from both light and dark meat, not shreds and not cubes small enough to disappear. Discard skin and gristle.
• Save the cooking liquidSteaming or simmering the bird leaves you with good broth. The recipe calls for a pint of milk, but replacing a quarter to a third of it with the broth gives the sauce more flavor than milk alone.
• SeasoningSalt, white pepper, and a scrape of nutmeg or a little onion cooked in the milk and strained out. Season the sauce before the chicken goes in, then taste again, since cooked meat absorbs salt.
• Nuts and sherryBlanched almonds or toasted pecans, about a half cup, coarsely chopped. Two tablespoons of dry sherry is enough for a pint of sauce; add it off the heat so it does not cook flat.
• ReheatingOnce the chicken is in, keep the pan below a simmer. Boiling toughens already-cooked meat and can break a milk sauce.
• ServingFour to six portions, meant for toast points, split baking-powder biscuits, patty shells, or rice. The same mixture will also serve as the filling for a chicken pie or a scalloped dish topped with buttered crumbs and browned in the oven, though the recipe itself gives no oven direction.