Favorite Dishes Part 9

Chop one-half pound chicken quite fine; add one teaspoonful salt; one saltspoonful pepper; one saltspoonful celery salt; one teaspoon lemon juice; one tablespoon chopped parsley and a few drops of onion juice; moisten with the thick cream sauce.

_Thick Cream Sauce_--Melt two tablespoons b.u.t.ter; add two heaping tablespoons cornstarch; one teaspoon salt and one saltspoon pepper; add slowly one pint hot cream and beat well.

CURRY OF CHICKEN IN PUFFS.

From SEnORA TERESA ARMIJO DE SYMINGTON, of New Mexico.

First prepare your puffs by the following recipe. Ingredients: Two cupfuls of milk, two of flour, two eggs and a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of an egg melted; a little salt; heat the eggs separately and well; add the milk to the yolks, then the flour and so on, the whites last; beat all well together. They may be baked in teacups. This quant.i.ty will make about a dozen puffs.

_Curry of Chicken_--Buy a young chicken, cut it into pieces, leaving out all the bones; season with pepper and salt to taste; fry them in b.u.t.ter until well done; cut an onion fine, which fry in the same b.u.t.ter until brown; add a teacupful of clear stock, a teaspoonful of sugar. Take about a tablespoonful of curry powder and a little flour, mix and rub together with a little of the stock until quite smooth; add to the sauce pan; put in the chicken and let it boil for a few minutes; just before taking out add the juice of half a lemon.

When this is all ready proceed to fill puffs while hot and serve immediately. Garnish puffs with parsley and serve a dish of cold slaw with it.

PILAUF.

From MISS FLORIDE CUNINGHAM, of South Carolina, Lady Manager.

Select a good fat hen, one pound of bacon strip, and one dozen whole black peppers, and boil together until quite done. Take them out of the pot, and put into the liquid left a pint and a half of rice, seasoned with a dessertspoonful of salt, boil twenty minutes, drain from it any of the juice that may remain, and place the pot again on the range, where the rice cannot burn, but where it will have the opportunity to dry thoroughly--each grain remaining apart. Keep the chicken hot and brown the bacon in the oven. When the rice is ready serve in an open dish, place the chicken on the top and pour over it a rich sauce of melted b.u.t.ter and hard boiled eggs chopped fine. The bacon can be sliced very thin and served with lettuce as a course.

FRICa.s.sEE CHICKEN.

From MRS. HELEN C. BRAYTON, of South Carolina, Vice-President of State Board and Lady Manager.

Cut the chicken in pieces and stew in as much water as will cover it.

Add a bunch of sweet herbs, white pepper and onions. When cooked, add the yolks of six eggs, gla.s.s of white wine, chopped parsley, b.u.t.ter, and tablespoonful of cream, all beaten together.

A GOOD ROAST TURKEY.

From MRS. HELEN A. PECK, OF MISSOURI, Alternate Lady Manager-at- Large.

An ordinary turkey weighing eight to ten pounds requires at least two hours for proper and thorough cooking. Prepare your fowl and rub dry with a clean towel; then mix a little pepper and salt and rub both inside and outside of the turkey before putting in the dressing. Grate stale bread, about three cups; then add a small teaspoon of pepper and the same amount of powdered sage or sweet marjoram, salt and a little salt fat pork chopped very fine or a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of an egg; use warm water to mix the whole to the consistency of thick batter; beat an egg and stir into it the last thing; stuff the breast with half of the dressing, then sew up with coa.r.s.e white thread and put the remaining dressing into the body and sew up. Take skewers of wood or iron and pin the wings closely to the sides, then turn the neck back and pin that firmly. One can use twine and tie them if they haven't the skewers. Force the legs down and tie tightly to the body before placing the turkey in the dripping pan with nearly a pint of water. Have a brisk fire and baste the turkey at least every fifteen minutes with these drippings. This frequent basting is of great importance as it keeps in the juices and allows thorough cooking. Turn the turkey two or three times during the cooking. During the last half hour dredge with flour and b.u.t.ter freely. The crisp pasty look so desirable and appetizing comes from this. Cook gizzard and liver in a sauce pan on the stove until thoroughly tender, then chop very fine and put them in the gravy to boil thoroughly in the dripping pan in the gravy which is delicious, and to be served from a tureen.

DRESSING FOR TURKEY.

From MRS. W. H. FELTON, OF GEORGIA, Lady Manager.

Bread crumbs and cold rice, equal quant.i.ties; season with pepper, onion and salt to taste, mixing well with cup of b.u.t.ter and yolks of three hard boiled eggs; dress the outside with circles of white hard boiled eggs and sprigs of parsley or celery.

HOW TO COOK CHESTNUTS.

From MISS ELOISE L. ROMAN, OF MARYLAND, Alternate Lady Manager.

Two quarts of water to one quart of fresh chestnuts. If dried they should be soaked several hours in cold water. Boil from three- quarters to one hour. Abut five minutes before they are done add a handful of salt. Peel and skin, serve hot, browned in b.u.t.ter, or cold with salad dressing and equal parts of chopped celery. When parboiled and skinned with salt and a little pepper it makes an excellent dressing for turkeys.

GAME

WILD DUCK IN MARYLAND.

From MRS. WILLIAM REID, of Maryland, Lady Manager.

Wild ducks, canva.s.sback, redheads, etc., are roasted without stuffing.

After they are picked and thoroughly cleansed, roast them in a tin kitchen before a hot fire or in a quick oven for twenty-one minutes.

They should be well browned on the outside, but the blood should run when cut with a knife. Unless underdone the flavor of the duck is destroyed. Fried hominy is generally served with wild duck; and fresh celery. Currant jelly is sometimes used.

SNIPE AND WOODc.o.c.k BROILED ON TOAST.

From MRS. RUFUS S. FROST, of Ma.s.sachusetts, Lady Manager.

Prepare the birds with great care; place in baking tin and put in oven. Pour into the tin enough water, boiling hot, to cover the bottom of the tin or bake pan; cover the bake pan with another tin; keep them closely covered and let them cook very steadily until tender, adding from time to time enough boiling hot water to keep birds from burning, or even _sticking_ to the tin. When very tender remove from the oven and from the bake pan, carefully saving all the liquid in the pan, which you set on top of the stove, which is the foundation and the _flavor_ for your sauce or gravy which you make _in this_ pan for your birds after they are broiled. Have in an earthen dish some melted b.u.t.ter; dip the birds in the b.u.t.ter and then in Indian or corn meal and put on the gridiron to brown and finish cooking; keep them hot as possible until you serve. Arrange nicely trimmed pieces of toasted bread on the heated platter, put on each piece a bird, pour over and around the birds on the platter a sauce which you make _in_ the bake pan in which your birds were semi- cooked, and which you have kept on top of the range while your birds were broiling. Pour into this pan of _liquid_ or "juice" one teacup sweet cream, and thicken with one tablespoon b.u.t.ter, yolk of one egg and two tablespoons of Indian meal; let it boil up once just to thicken, and pour boiling hot onto the birds and toast on platter, saving some to send in separate serving dish. If you prefer flour to the corn meal to dip the birds in after the melted b.u.t.ter bath, use flour also to thicken the sauce or gravy, which should be a brown sauce or gravy and is generally brown enough if made in roasting pan.

A prize cook in Was.h.i.+ngton once confided to me that "a leetle last year's spiced pickle syrup am luscious flavor for gravy of the wee birds, robins, quail, snipe and them like." Alas! In the same moment of flattering triumph for _me_, she added--triumphantly on _her_ part also--"Lor, chile, I'se de only one libing dis day dat knows nuff to use that same, sure!"

PRAIRIE CHICKEN.

From MRS. E. S. THOMSON, of Maryland, Lady Manager.

Do not wash prairie chickens. Cover this b.r.e.a.s.t.s with very thin slices of bacon, or rub them well with b.u.t.ter; roast them before a good fire, basting them often with b.u.t.ter. Cook twenty minutes, salt and pepper them, and serve on a hot dish as soon as cooked.

_Sauce for the above_--First roll a pint of dry bread crumbs and pa.s.s half of them through a sieve. Put a small onion into a pint of milk and when it boils remove the onion and thicken the milk with the half pint of sifted crumbs; take from the fire and stir in a heaping teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter, a grating of nutmeg, pepper and salt. Put a little b.u.t.ter in a sautee pan, and when hot throw in the half pint of coa.r.s.er crumbs which remained in the sieve; stir them over the fire until they a.s.sume a light brown color, taking care that they do not burn, and stir into them a pinch of cayenne pepper. For serving, pour over the chicken, when helped, a spoonful of the white sauce and on this place a spoonful of the crumbs.

VEGETABLES

VEGETABLE OYSTER.

From MRS. GOVERNOR BAGLEY, of Michigan, Lady Manager-at-Large.

_I regret that the long distance I am from home prevents me from sending you many valuable recipes I would be glad to contribute to your book. One, however, occurs to me that you may consider worthy a place, and, I a.s.sure you, makes a very delicious dish.

Sincerely yours,_

While cooking vegetable oyster put in the kettle a small piece of codfish. This adds very much to its flavor and delicacy and makes a delicious dish out of what would otherwise be an almost tasteless vegetable. The codfish should, of course, be removed before sending to the table.