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Pressed Chicken
Mrs. C. Belford.
Cut up the fowls and place in a kettle with a tight cover, so as to retain the steam; put about two teacups of water and plenty of salt and pepper over the chicken, then let it cook until the meat cleaves easily from the bones, cut or chop all the meat (freed from skin, bone and gristle) about as for chicken salad; season well, put into a dish and pour the remnant of the juice in which it was cooked over it. This will jelly when cold, and can then be sliced or set on the table in shape. Nice for tea or lunch. The knack of making this simple dish is not having too much water; it will not jelly if too weak, or if the water is allowed to boil away entirely while cooking.
A cold jellied chicken loaf that sets on its own collagen, with no added gelatin. Everything depends on the ratio of water to bird.
- The hinge: keep the liquid scantTwo teacups is roughly 1 1/2 cups of water — barely enough to raise steam. A tight lid and the lowest possible simmer are what keep it from cooking away; if you top up the pot, the broth will be too weak to set and you will have chopped chicken in a puddle.
- "Fowls" are not broilersA fowl in 19th-century usage is a mature bird, tough and rich in connective tissue, which is what makes the cooking liquid jell. A supermarket roasting chicken has far less collagen. Bone-in thighs and legs, plus the backs and wings, give the closest result; a whole chicken cut up and cooked with its neck and any extra bones is the practical substitute.
- "Kettle" means a heavy lidded potNot a tea kettle. A Dutch oven with a well-fitting lid over the lowest burner setting, or a covered pot in a 300F oven, both hold the steam the recipe assumes.
- TimeExpect 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours for the meat to cleave from the bone — a mature hen can want longer. Check the water level once or twice rather than trusting the clock.
- Season the meat, not just the brothCold jellied food tastes flatter than hot, and the original calls for seasoning at two stages: "plenty of salt and pepper" in the pot, then "season well" again after chopping. Salt and pepper the chopped meat before it goes into the dish and taste the broth while it is still warm.
- Pressing and chillingPack the meat tightly into a loaf pan or bowl, pour the reduced juice over, and weight the top with a plate and a can so the slices hold together. Chill promptly and thoroughly — get it into the refrigerator within a couple of hours, not overnight on the counter as a 19th-century larder would have allowed.
- If it will not setTest a spoonful of broth on a cold saucer before pouring. If it stays liquid, boil it down further; a properly gelatinous chicken stock will be tacky between the fingers when cool.
- Yield and servingThe yield depends on how many birds you use; a single chicken gives a small loaf, enough for a light supper for a few. Serve cold with mustard, pickles or a sharp mayonnaise, as the "tea or lunch" note suggests.
Pressed chicken belongs to a whole family of jellied cold meats — pressed veal, potted tongue, chicken loaf — that filled the supper and luncheon tables of middle-class American households in the second half of the 19th century, when the substantial meal came at midday and the evening "tea" was cold, sliced and ready in advance. The technique is older than the name: reduce a collagen-rich broth until it sets on its own, pack meat in it, weight it, and let the larder do the rest. It suited kitchens without dependable refrigeration less because it kept well and more because it could be made in the cool of the morning and drawn on all day. The Home Cook Book, compiled in Chicago in the 1870s from recipes contributed by named local women and sold for the benefit of a local charity, is a good example of the subscription charity cookbook, which is why this page carries Mrs. C. Belford's name rather than an editor's — and why its instructions read like one cook telling another what she has learned, right down to the warning that the knack lies in not using too much water.