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To Fricassee Chickens
568. Mix together a cupful of cream, some mace beat fine, essence of anchovy, lemon-peel and juice or pickle, and salt to the taste. Let these simmer on the fire for an hour, then thicken it with flour and butter; have ready the chickens nearly done enough to eat, skin them, leave out the drum-sticks, liver, and gizzard, then put the chicken into the sauce, and make it thoroughly hot. To garnish the fricassee, make very small forcemeat balls of veal or pork, a little grated bread, chopped parsley, suet, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and lemon-peel, mixed up with an egg, and boiled half an hour in milk and water. For family use, milk may be in part, or wholly, substituted for the cream; and chicken which has previously appeared at table is excellent cooked in this way
An old-style white fricassee: the sauce is built first, then cooked chicken is warmed through in it. The hinge is that the chicken is already cooked, so nothing after that point should boil hard or the meat toughens and the cream splits.
- Do not simmer the sauce an hourA cupful of cream held on the fire for an hour will reduce to almost nothing on a modern hob. Ten to fifteen minutes at a bare simmer is enough to infuse the mace and lemon peel; strain out the peel before thickening.
- Essence of anchovyA Victorian bottled anchovy extract, close to today's anchovy paste or the anchovy element of Worcestershire sauce. Half a teaspoon of paste, mashed into the warm cream until dissolved, gives the intended savoury lift; it should not read as fish.
- MaceThe dried outer covering of nutmeg, warmer and less sweet than the seed. Blade mace infused whole and lifted out is easier to control than ground; a quarter teaspoon ground is the ceiling for a cupful of cream.
- "Juice or pickle"Pickle here means lemon pickle, a standard eighteenth- and nineteenth-century store of salted lemons in spiced vinegar. Lemon juice plus a little of the brine from preserved lemons stands in for it.
- Flour and butterEqual weights kneaded raw together \into into the hot sauce in small pieces, whisking, is the period method and works; a tablespoon of each will thicken a cupful of cream. Give it two or three minutes of gentle heat so the flour loses its rawness.
- MeasurementsThe cupful is roughly 8 fl oz. Quantities for the forcemeat are left entirely to the cook: about 4 oz minced veal or pork to 1 oz breadcrumbs, 1 oz suet and one egg makes a dozen small balls.
- The forcemeat ballsHalf an hour in milk and water is long for balls the size of a marble. Poach them at a bare simmer until firm and cooked through, eight to ten minutes, and keep them separate until serving so they stay distinct.
- Reheated chickenThe suggestion to use chicken that has already appeared at table is sound thrift, but it must be brought fully hot right through in the sauce, not merely warmed. Serve as soon as it is, with rice or plain boiled potatoes.