Roast Chicken

Dress, clean, stuff, and truss a chicken. Place on its back on rack in a dripping-pan. rub entire surface with salt, and spread breast and legs with three tablespoons butter, rubbed until creamy and mixed with two tablespoons flour. Dredge bottom of pan with flour. Place in a hot oven, and when flour is well browned, reduce the heat, then baste. Continue basting every ten minutes until chicken is cooked. For basting, use one-fourth cup butter, melted in two-thirds cup boiling water, and after this is gone, use fat in pan, and when necessary to prevent flour burning, add one cup boiling water. During cooking, turn chicken frequently, that it may brown evenly. If a thick crust is desired, dredge bird with flour two or three times during cooking. If a glazed surface is preferred, spread bird with butter, omitting flour, and do not dredge during baking. When breast meat is tender, bird is sufficiently cooked. A four-pound chicken requires about one and one-half hours.

Stuffing I

1 cup cracker crumbs 1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup boiling water Salt and Pepper

Powdered sage, summer savory, or marjoram

Melt butter in water, and pour over crackers, to which seasonings have been added.

Stuffing II

1 cup cracker crumbs 1/4 cup melted butter Sage or Poultry Seasoning

Salt

Pepper

1 cup scalded milk

Make same as Stuffing I.

Gravy

Pour off liquid in pan in which chicken has been roasted. From liquid skim off four tablespoons fat; return fat to pan, and brown with four tablespoons flour; add two cups stock in which giblets, neck, and tips of wings have been cooked. Cook five minutes, season with salt and pepper, then strain. The remaining fat may be used, in place of butter, for frying potatoes, or for basting when roasting another chicken.

For Giblet Gravy, add to the above, giblets (heart, liver, and gizzard) finely chopped.

Braised Chicken

Dress, clean, and truss a four-pound fowl. Try out two slices fat salt pork cut one-fourth inch thick; remove scraps, and add to fat five slices carrot cut in small cubes, one-half sliced onion, two sprigs thyme, one sprig parsley, and one bay leaf, then cook ten minutes; add two tablespoons butter, and fry fowl, turning often until surface is well browned. Place on trivet in a deep pan, pour over fat, and add two cups boiling water or Chicken Stock. Cover, and bake in slow oven until tender, basting often, and adding more water if needed. Serve with a sauce made from stock in pan, first straining and removing the fat.

Chicken Fricassee

Dress, clean, and cut up a fowl. Put in a kettle, cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until tender, adding salt to water when chicken is about half done. Remove from water, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and saute in butter or pork fat. Arrange chicken on pieces of dry toast placed on a hot platter, having wings and second joints opposite each other, breast in centre of platter, and drumsticks crossed just below second joints. Pour around White or Brown Sauce. Reduce stock to two cups, strain, and remove the fat. Melt three tablespoons butter, add four tablespoons flour, and pour on gradually one and one-half cups stock. Just before serving, add one-half cup cream, and salt and pepper to taste; or make a sauce by browning butter and flour and adding two cups stock, then seasoning with salt and pepper.

Fowls, which are always made tender by long cooking, are frequently utilized in this way. If chickens are employed, they are sauted without previous boiling, and allowed to simmer fifteen to twenty minutes in the sauce.