Chickens a la Dumas—Sauted

Cut three chickens into five pieces each, having two legs, two wings and one breastbone piece; season with salt and pepper and toss them in butter with three small chopped shallots; remove the wings and breasts as rapidly as they are cooked and finish the legs, which take longer. Pare all the pieces and return them to a sautoir on the fire with a clear top part of the butter and three-quarters of a pound of minced mushrooms, pour over a few spoonfuls of thin bechamel (No. 409), roll them in the sauce without allowing it to boil. Detach the glaze from the other sautoir with a little Madeira, and add it to the sauce. Blanch three-quarters of a pound of rice, drain and place it in a saucepan and moisten it to three times its height, meaning if there be two inches high of rice, put in six inches high of unskimmed broth (No. 194a); boil, cover the saucepan and finish in the oven; it will take about twenty minutes. When the rice is sufficiently done, add to it three-quarters of a pound of very red beef tongue cut in small three-sixteenths of an inch squares, also three ounces of butter and the same quantity of grated parmesan cheese, a teaspoonful of powdered sweet peppers and a bit of cayenne pepper. Fill a plain buttered border mold (Fig. 139) with this prepared rice, keep it warm and when ready to serve invert it on a dish; dress the chickens pyramid-form in the center and cover the whole with the sauce thickened with egg-yolks, cream and butter, finishing with a pinch of prepared red pepper (No. 168). Garnish around with breaded and fried spinal marrow of veal, and send a sauce-boat of the same sauce to the table with the chicken.