Bohemian-American Cook Book/Poultry

All poultry should be killed twenty-four hours before using. It should be cleaned, drawn and salted immediately after killing and put in a cool place.

Cut spring chickens in halves, dust with salt and pepper and broil on both sides. Rub fresh butter over them and serve hot.

Salt the chickens, dust inside with a little pepper, place a piece of butter and fresh parsley inside, fasten the drumsticks together and put the chickens in the pan. Add a piece of good butter, a little hot water or soup and roast a light brown. Baste every ten minutes and rub butter over them occasionally. Pour the gravy over the chickens and serve.

Cut the chicken up, dip each piece in a beaten egg and then in bread crumbs. Place in a skillet, add a little butter or lard, minced onion and caraway seed, cover and bake over a slow fire. When done, take it out, add flour to the gravy and fry a light brown. Then add milk to make a gravy of the proper consistency.

Chickens weighing one or one and a half pounds are best for frying. Cut in quarters or smaller pieces, salt, dip in flour, then in a beaten egg (to which has been added a teaspoon of minced parsley), sprinkle ​thickly with bread crumbs or rolled crackers, and fry to a golden brown in rendered butter or lard. When frying older chickens, it is best to dip them in flour only.

Prepare the chicken as for roasting, salt inside and out. For the dressing cream two tablespoons of butter, add two eggs, half an onion minced fine and fried in butter, half a cup of milk, salt, pepper, a pinch of mace and enough bread crumbs or cracker crumbs to make the mixture medium stiff. Stuff the chicken with this, sew up the opening, place in a baking pan, dot bits of butter over the top, pour water under it and bake, basting frequently.

Salt a chicken inside and out, fasten the drumsticks together, rub butter over the breast, place in a saucepan, add an onion, carrot and parsley root, all sliced, a few black peppers, a bay leaf, a slice of bacon, and enough good soup or water to cover. Cover the pan tightly and allow the chicken to stew, turning it once. When done, take it out, cut in pieces, boil the liquor over a rapid fire until thick, skim off the fat and pour over the chicken. A young chicken will be done in one and a half hours, an older one in two hours.

Salt a chicken inside and out, place inside a piece of good butter, rub lemon juice and butter over the breast, place in a saucepan, cover and stand aside. In another saucepan place three onions, two small carrots, a couple of lecks and a parsnip, all sliced, add a piece of butter and stew, then add a quart of soup and stew a while longer. Half an hour before serving, strain the ​gravy over the chickens and allow them to stew, being careful that they remain juicy and the meat white. When done, take the chickens out and pour over them a brown gravy, made as follows: place in a saucepan a piece of fresh butter and a little sugar. Let it brown, then blend with flour. Thin this with soup, so as to make a gravy, add a pinch of ground ginger and mix thoroughly.

Stew and prepare a chicken as given in the foregoing recipe and pour over it mushroom sauce, made according to recipe No. 76.

Cut a chicken into pieces. Place for a few moments in cold water. Put in a saucepan a slice of ham, a piece of butter, dust with flour, add an onion into which you have stuck a few cloves, one lemon sliced, a parsley and celery root and one carrot. Tie the vegetables with a thread. Add the chicken and stew it in beef soup. When ready to serve, add a wineglass of wine and the juice of one lemon, allow all to simmer a few moments. Take the chicken out, strain the gravy over it and serve.

In a saucepan place a piece of butter, one onion into which you have stuck two cloves, a carrot, a cup of soup, and salt. Put the chicken in this, either whole or cut into pieces. Let it stew, but not too long. Place in a saucepan a piece of butter, a sliced onion, minced parsley, two tablespoons of flour, blend together until brown, thin with the strained liquor and mix smooth. ​Add the chicken and simmer a while. Before serving, beat two yolks with a little cream and add to the gravy. Take the chicken out, strain the gravy over it and serve. You may add lemon juice, if you wish.

Cut up two chickens and stew in soup, or in butter and hot water. In the meantime, prepare dumplings thus: cream a tablespoon of butter, add two eggs, a teaspoon of minced parsley, a dash of mace, pepper, salt and enough bread or cracker crumbs to form dumplings. Make dumplings the size of English walnuts and boil them separately in salted water. When the chickens are tender, take them ont, strain the liquor and if you have not enough to make a gravy, add hot water, thicken with butter and flour blended together, put back into the saucepan, add the chickens and simmer a while. Arrange the dumplings over the chickens and pour gravy over all.

Stew a nice chicken according to the foregoing recipe. When done, take it out, cover and place where it will keep warm. Blend a tablespoon of butter with one of flour, thin with the strained liquor, add the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of grated lemon rind, a bit of sugar, a few tablespoons of white wine, and simmer until smooth. When done, pour over the chicken.

Place in a saucepan two tablespoons of fresh butter, one onion sliced thin, add two quartered young chickens, salt, cover and stew until half done. Then take them out, add a tablespoon of flour to the liquor, mix smooth, thin with beef soup, add several table​spoons of sour cream and simmer a while. Strain over the chickens, which you have placed in a saucepan, add half a teaspoon of paprika and allow all to simmer together until done.

Wash a cup of rice first in cold then in hot water, then pour on it soup or hot water and boil until tender, being careful that the grains keep whole. Beat three yolks or two whole eggs with a piece of butter, add a little beef soup and a dash of mace, pour this on the rice, add a teaspoon of minced parsley and mix together. Arrange stewed chickens on a platter, garnish with the rice and serve.

Place a piece of butter or lard in a saucepan, add a chicken that has been cut up into pieces. Peel the kohl-rabi, cut into dice or strips and add to the chicken, then salt and pepper. Cover and stew over a moderate fire. Ilalf an hour before it is done prepare dumplings, as follows: two eggs beaten with a cup of milk, salt, a teaspoon of baking powder and enough flour to make a medium stiff dough. Divide this into four parts, place over the chicken. When the dumplings are half done, turn them over. When they are done, take them out, add a little hot water to the liquor, thicken with a little flour and water mixed together. Serve each, the chicken, kohl-rabi and gravy, separately.

Stew two chickens. Blend a heaping tablespoon of butter with one and a half tablespoons of flour, thin with the liquor in which the chickens have stewed. In the meantime, boil a head of cauliflower in water pro​perly salted. Cut the chickens into pieces, place them in a saucepan, pour over them the strained sauce, add a pinch of mace and simmer a while longer. Place the chickens with the gravy in a dish, arrange the cauliflower around them and serve. Chickens may be prepared in this way with asparagus.

Stew two chickens, either in soup or butter with a little hot water. Boil two celery roots until tender. Slice one and add it to the chickens. Mash the other fine and cream with a piece of fresh butter and two yolks, add a pinch of mace, thicken with butter and flour blended together, strain over the chickens and let all simmer together a moment or two. Then arrange the chickens in a dish, pour the gravy over them, garnish with sliced root and fresh celery tops and serve.

Stew two or three tomatoes, add bread or cracker crumbs which have been soaked in cream, a little beef soup, a dash each of mace and lemon rind, a bit of sugar, mix together and strain over stewed chicken.

Slice thoroughly cleaned mushrooms and stew with a little butter and minced parsley, then add chickens that have been cut into pieces, salt, cover and stew, being careful not to burn them. When done and the liquor begins to evaporate, dust with flour, add beef soup, simmer a moment or two and serve. You may add a little sweet cream to the gravy.

Salt the chicken, fasten the drumsticks together, rub lemon juice over the breast to make it whiter, and ​stew with butter, minced parsley and soup. When done, cut into pieces and cool. Beat with a silver fork six yolks, add a wineglass of olive oil, drop by drop, or melted butter, beating constantly, then add the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper. Arrange the chickens on a platter, pour the sauce over them, garnish with lettuce and hardboiled eggs and serve.

Mince left-overs of roast or stewed chicken. To two cups of this meat allow four tablespoons of stewed minced mushrooms, four tablespoons of brown sauce, four yolks, salt, pepper and mace. When all is blended together, add minced parsley and lemon juice to taste, then take out and cool. Have ready dough rolled out as for noodles. Cut out with a biscuit cutter, rub the white of an egg around the edges, put a tablespoon of the mixture on each piece, cover with another piece, press the edges together and place the rissoles on a floured board. Have ready a deep kettle of hot lard, dip each rissole in beaten eggs and fry a light brown. Arrange on a platter, garnish with fried green parsley and serve with any suitable sauce. You may prepare rissoles of various other meats in the same manner.

Mince fine two cups of left-over chicken. Cream two tablespoons of flour with one of butter, add two cups of hot milk, boil until thick and smooth, stirring constantly. Salt and pepper (use both white pepper and paprika) the minced meat, add grated nutmeg, a tablespoon of minced celery and a teaspoon of minced onion. Mix together, add the sauce, mix again and cool. When cool, make small cakes, dip in a beaten egg, then in bread crumbs and fry brown in hot fat. Half lard and half butter is good.

Cut into pieces a four or five pound chicken. Fry a minced onion in butter, add it to the chicken, then add two cups of hot water and stew. You may add half a pound of ham cut into small pieces. Peel and dice potatoes, boil half an hour and drain. When the chicken is done, remove the larger bones. Line a shallow pan with pie crust dough, place a layer of potatoes in the bottom, then a layer of meat, on this put the pieces of dough that you have trimmed off around the pan, sprinkle with a teaspoon of minced parsley, a pinch of salt and pepper and dot with pieces of butter. Cover the top with pie crust, which has one or two slits through the center, spread a beaten white over the top and bake half an hour in a hot oven. In the meantime prepare sauce as follows: place a teaspoon of butter in a saucepan, when melted, add two level tablespoons of flour, blend but do not brown, add a cup of the liquor in which the chicken was stewing and a cup of milk, stirring constantly. When it begins to bubble, add salt and pepper, a beaten yolk, a tablespoon of minced parsley and pour into the pic, through the opening. Or you may serve the sauce separately. You can prepare veal, rabbit or squirrel pie in this manner.

Wash two chickens and stew in beef soup until half done, then take them out and cool. Wash and cut in fine strips one herring, interlard the breasts of chickens with it, then cut them in halves, place them in a saucepan, pour over them the liquor in which they stewed, add a piece of butter, a dash each of mace, grated lemon rind and lemon juice and the remainder of the herring. Mince the milt of the herring and add it to the rest, then dust with flour and stew until the chickens are tender, ​When done, take them out, strain the gravy over them and serve.

Turkeys are best not more than a year old. Pick and clean as any other poultry, salt inside and out and put in a cool place at least twenty-four hours before roasting in summer, and two or three days in winter. When ready to roast it, put it in the roaster, dust inside and out with pepper, place bits of butter inside and over the top, about a cup in all, add a cup of water and roast. Baste every fifteen minutes and roast brown, having a steady though not a quick fire. Serve with cranberry sauce.

Prepare the turkey for roasting as directed in the preceeding recipe. Make stuffing as follows: mix three cups of bread crumbs with two eggs, salt, pepper, a piece of butter, enough milk to make it properly stiff, and a tablespoon of sage rubbed to a powder. Stuff the turkey, sew up the opening and roast as directed in the preceding recipe.

Prepare the turkey and stuffing as shown in the foregoing, using minced fried onion instead of sage and adding two dozen fine large oysters.

Peel two pounds of chestnuts, place them in boiling water and let them soak until the brown skin can be rubbed off with a napkin, then wash them in cold water and drain. Brown four tablespoons of butter with two of sugar, add soup or hot water, then add the chestnuts and stew until partly soft, being careful to keep them ​whole. Then take them out and cool them. Fill the crop with this stuffing, sew up the opening and proceed with the roasting as directed before.

Cream two tablespoons of fresh butter, add two or three eggs, a few teaspoons of cream, a fourth of a pound of blanched sliced almonds, a dash each of mace, grated lemon rind, salt, and if you wish the stuffing to have a sweetish taste, a little sugar, then add enough bread crumbs to make it properly stiff. Stuff the crop of the turkey with this, sew up the opening, and roast the turkey, basting frequently and rubbing butter over it occasionally.

Wash a properly dressed goose, salt inside and out, rub inside with caraway seed, place in a roasting pan, add a little water and roast rather slowly, turning it occasionally and basting frequently. When done, drain off the grease and allow the goose to brown over a quick fire. While it is roasting, pierce the skin on the back and under the wings, which allows the surplus fat to escape, and makes the skin crisp.

Prepare the goose as shown in the foregoing. Make stuffing as follows: mix together two cups of stewed and mashed tart apples, a cup of grated bread crumbs, a dash of powdered sage, a minced onion and a dash of red pepper. Stuff the goose and roast as shown above.

An old goose that would not roast well may be stewed. Place in a kettle minced bacon, minced veal, a ​sliced carrot, parsley and celery roots sliced, add the goose properly salted, a few bay leaves and several whole black peppers, soup and if you wish, a little white wine, then cover and stew until tender.

Boil the giblets until tender. Skim the broth, add a celery and parsley root, and salt. Place in a saucepan three tablespoons of butter, a cup of rice that has been picked over and washed in several hot waters, a little soup, a pinch each of salt, mace and saffron, and simmer over a slow fire until tender. See that is does not scorch and add hot water or soup, if necessary. Blend butter and flour together, thin with soup, add a pinch each of mace and salt and boil until smooth. Arrange the giblets in a dish, strain the sauce over them, garnish with the rice and serve. Instead of blending the butter and flour together, you may fry minced parsley and caraway seed in goose lard. The giblets consist of wings, feet, neck, liver, gizzard and heart.

Boil the giblets as shown in the foregoing. Make noodles with two eggs and flour. When the giblets are done, strain off the liquor, and when it has settled, pour it off into another saucepan and let it come to a boil, then boil the noodles in it. Place the giblets in a dish, put the noodles over them and serve. You may use macaroni and cheese instead of noodles, if you wish.

Boil giblets with various vegetables, as for beef. Cream a tablespoon of butter, add three eggs, a pinch of grated lemon rind, grated or minced goose liver from which the veins have been trimmed, salt, mix together, ​then add a few tablespoons of cream and enough bread or cracker crumbs to make small balls. You may add a clove of garlic mashed to a paste and a little marjoram. Let this mixture stand. Blend butter and flour in a saucepan, thin with half of the liquor in which the giblets have been boiled. Strain the rest of the liquor into a saucepan and boil in it balls the size of an English walnut, made of the above mixture. When done, add the giblets, thicken with brown sauce, add a dash of mace, and simmer a moment of two. Then take the giblets out on a dish, garnish with the quenelles and pour the gravy over all.

Boil the giblets as shown in the foregoing. Pick over a head of cauliflower, boil it in soup or in the liquor in which the giblets have boiled, being careful that it remains firm, then take it out and place in cold water, so it whitens. Blend butter and flour until brown, strain into it the liquor from the giblets, add a dash of mace, then the giblets and cauliflower and simmer a while. Arrange the cauliflower on a platter, place the giblets around it and pour the gravy over all.

Duck is roasted in the same manner as goose. You may also use the following stuffing: mince fine three onions, add a teaspoon of powdered sage, two tablespoons of bread crumbs, one egg, a piece of butter, salt and pepper.

Place lard or bacon fat in a saucepan, add a sliced onion, a few whole black peppers and stew the duck in this a short time, then add several tablespoons of soup, ​cover the pan and stew, turning the duck once. When it is more than half done, add two or three dozen small mushrooms. When all is done, place the duck on a platter, garnish with the mushrooms and pour over it the strained liquor, which you have mixed with tomato sauce.

Cut off the heads of properly dressed squabs, take out the crop carefully and make an opening in the breast, for stuffing. Cream a tablespoon of butter, add one egg and one yolk, two tablespoons of milk, a pinch of salt, a dash of grated lemon rind, a bit of minced parsley, four tablespoons of bread crumbs, and mix together thoroughly. Stuff the squabs with this, sew up the opening, fasten the drumsticks to the back, and place the squabs in the roasting pan with butter and water. Roast until done, basting frequently.

Boil properly dressed squabs in salted water about three minutes, then cool and dry them. Place in a saucepan a piece of butter, one sliced onion, one sliced carrot, a parsley root, add the squabs, salt and stew a few minutes. Dust with flour, add soup and stew half an hour longer, skimming off the grease. When the squabs are done, put them into another saucepan and stand in a warm place. Place the gravy over a rapid fire, add four beaten yolks, a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of lemon juice and salt, strain and pour over two cups of asparagus tips boiled in salted water. Pour this over the squabs and serve.

Place in a saucepan a piece of butter or diced bacon, a dash of thyme and parsley, one sliced onion, a ​few whole black peppers, a piece of ginger and four cloves. Add the squabs, salt, two tablespoons of wine vinegar, cover and stew until tender. When done, cut them in halves, place them in another saucepan and stand in a warm place. Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add two even tablespoons of flour and a teaspoon of sugar. Blend together until brown, thin with the liquor in which the squabs have stewed, if necessary add beef soup, simmer a while and then strain over the squabs. Let all get thoroughly hot, but it must not bubble. You may add a sliced lemon to the gravy.

Cut in quarters properly dressed squabs. Place in a saucepan with a piece of butter, salt, and stew about half an hour, then dust with two tablespoons of flour, stir, then add two cups of beef soup and simmer until smooth. Take the squabs out, strain the gravy, add to it a quart of green peas, a bit of sugar and a dash of mace. Simmer all a while, then add the squabs and simmer until done. Arrange the squabs on a platter and surround with the peas.

Proceed as with squabs, making an opening in the breast, right under the skin. Mince the gizzards and livers with parsley, add bread crumbs soaked in milk, a piece of butter, a dash of mace and pepper, two eggs, salt and mix thoroughly. Fill the crop and breast with this stuffing, fasten the opening, also the necks, place the birds in a roasting pan with water and butter, dust them with salt, and roast, basting frequently. When done, sprinkle with browned grated crumbs and pour the liquor over them.

Cut properly dressed pigeons in quarters. Place in a saucepan a piece of butter, a sliced onion, two bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, a few juniper berries, six whole black peppers, six allspice and a piece of ginger. Add the pigeons, a bit of wine vinegar, cover and stew. Then take them out and put them in another saucepan, strain the liquor over them, thicken with three tablespoons of flour creamed with a piece of butter, and simmer until the gravy is smooth and thick. You may add a piece of browned sugar.

Place in a saucepan equal parts of vinegar and water, or vinegar and soup, add a piece of lemon rind cut into strips, one whole onion, a sprig of thyme, two or three bay leaves, a few whole black peppers, a few whole allspice, and salt. Simmer, add butter and flour blended together until light brown, a bit of browned sugar and two or three tablespoons of white wine. Simmer a while, then strain over the left-overs of any kind of fowl, which have been cut into small pieces. Heat the meat in this gravy and serve with fried potatoes.