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To Stew a Chicken

Cut the prepared chicken in pieces suitable for serving. Separate the first and second joint and wing joints, divide the breast into four compact pieces, and separate the neck, back, etc. Put the gizzard, heart, wings and legs in the bottom of the kettle, then put in the back and neck and bony pieces, reserving the second joints and breast for the top. Add a pint of boiling water for each full grown fowl, cover the kettle closely, and after it has cooked or stewed a few minutes, add a tablespoonful each of butter and flour stirred to a smooth paste. Let it cook slowly, but constantly, until the fowl is tender, which can be ascertained by examining the pieces on top. If the top pieces are found to be sufficiently cooked; those beneath will be also, as in placing the pieces in the kettle, those requiring the most cooking were put at the bottom so as to be subjected to the greatest heat. A one-year-old fowl will stew in about an hour and a half, and each added year, an additional hour's cooking. When the fowl has stewed until perfectly tender, drain into a bowl all the liquid, and set the kettle, with the pieces undisturbed in it, upon the back of the stove. If the broth is too oily, skim from it as much grease as you wish, then add to it a spoonful of flour stirred to a smooth paste with a spoonful of butter, and season highly with salt and pepper, as this gravy must season the entire fowl. After the gravy has been seasoned, pour it over the fowl in the kettle and simmer gently for fourteen minutes, then serve fowl and gravy together on the same platter. Meats stewed in a closely covered vessel need not be entirely covered with liquid, and a fowl, by occasionally turning, can be cooked whole in a quantity barely sufficient for gravy.