Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/48

This page has been validated.
44
COOKERY.

in the stew-pan. Cut up an onion and add it also. Now pour in some stock or water, and let stew for a couple of hours very slowly. When serving arrange the pieces nicely on the dish, and have ready a sauce—made with milk, butter, flour, and an egg beaten up—to pour over it, or serve in a gravy tureen.

Fricassed Chicken.

Ingredients: A young chicken, one bunch of savory herbs, one onion, cloves, half a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, one tablespoonful of butter, and one of flour, a few mushrooms, two eggs.

Mode: Few young housekeepers know how to prepare a fricassee, so I will give the plain directions. Choose a young plump chicken about nine weeks old, draw, singe, and skin it. This is a very simple matter if you use hot water to puck it. Then cut it into neat joints and soak them in cold water for twenty minutes, drain them and put them into a saucepan with the herbs, a small onion stuck with two or three cloves, salt and pepper, and enough water to cover them. Bring the liquid to a boil, skim, and simmer very gently for half an hour, or till the meat is cooked. Remove the chicken on to a plate to drain. And now put the butter,flour,and mushrooms, if you have them, into a stew pan and stir about till well mixed, and add gradually a pint and a half of the liquor, or as much as there is, in which the chicken was boiled, simmer for a few minutes, and put in the pieces of chicken. When quite hot remove them again, beat up the eggs, add them to the liquor with a small piece of

butter. Do not let it boil after the eggs are added. Arrange the chicken on a dish and pour the sauce over them. This is a very delicious dish when well prepared, but I doubt whether it is worth the trouble.

Potted Chicken. (Home Made).

Ingredients: Cold chicken, butter, salt, a little cayenne, mace, nutmeg, allspice.

Mode: Cut the meat small, run it through the mincing machine, then pound it well, either in a mortar, or on a board, until reduced to a paste. To a pound of meat add two tablespoonsful of butter, half a nutmeg, teaspoonful pounded mace, and one teaspoonful of allspice also is a great improvement. Put into small pots or jars, and cover with mutton fat poured on hot, the latter is quite as good as butter for the purpose, tie down with badder. In potting ham allow a proportion of fat to the lean, about a quarter of a pound to every two pounds of lean. The great thing is the pounding which must be done thoroughly, and till all is reduced to a smooth paste.

Devilled Liver.

(A Good Breakfast Dish).

Ingredients: The livers of two or three fowls, chicks, or game of any sort, mustard, salt, cayenne, a teaspoonful of anchovy paste or sauce, a little butter.

Mode: Boil the livers for ten minutes; mash them on a plate. Mix in a little made mustard, the salt, cayenne, and anchovy paste, with a little butter. Spread on hot buttered toast, and serve.