Tourte of Chicken

Divide two small chickens into eight pieces each, suppressing all the bones. Melt in a sautoir three or four spoonfuls of chopped fat pork; add to it a quarter of a pound of bacon cut in large dice and fry these for four or five minutes; lift them out with a skimmer, leaving the fat in the sautoir, and into it put three spoonfuls of chopped shallot and onion; fry colorless, then add double the same quantity of chopped mushrooms, and as soon as these have evaporated their humidity, put in the chickens, a bunch of parsley and aromatic herbs; fry together and at the end of ten minutes put back the bacon, and when the meats are half cooked moisten with half a glassful of dry white wine; let reduce quickly to a glaze and pour over two or three spoonfuls of half-glaze sauce, then take out the meats and let get cold. Prepare about a pound of chicken godiveau (No. 82). Lay on a pie dish (Fig. 183) a rather thick layer of foundation paste (No. 135), having it eight inches in diameter; in the center spread a layer of the chicken godiveau six and a half inches in diameter; on this place the chickens, dressing them in a dome, and adding a few cooked mushrooms; then cover the entire dome with the remainder of the godiveau; wet the lower flat at the base of the dome and cover over with a large layer of puff paste (No. 146), press it on to the lower one and fasten the two together, decreasing the thickness, then cut very round. Wet the top layer and lay on the free surface around the dome a band of puff paste made in six turns, having it three-eighths of an inch thick; fasten the two ends, cut bias together, and wet this over; decorate the dome with fanciful cuts of paste, egg it over, as well as the bands of puff paste, and cook the tart in a moderate oven for forty minutes. After taking it out slip it on to a large dish and cut off one-third of the top of the dome to open it, and pour in a few spoonfuls of half-glaze sauce (No. 413), having more in a sauce-boat, and adding to it a few cooked mushrooms. Pigeon or rabbit tarts can be prepared the same.