Chicken Croquettes

One pint of milk or cream. Two table-spoonfuls of butter. Four table-spoonfuls of flour. One tea-spoonful of salt. One-half tea-spoonful of pepper. One tea-spoonful of celery salt.

Stir the butter and flour to a paste. Heat the milk to boiling, and stir in the paste; add the seasoning, and cook three minutes, stirring all the time. When this sauce is ready, take it from the fire, and add

One egg.

Two-thirds of a pint of chicken. One tea-spoonful of lemon juice. A few drops of onion juice.

Chop the chicken quite fine, and beat the egg well before mixing these ingredients in. When the whole has been well stirred, spread the mixture on a platter to cool. When cold enough to handle, form it into rolls by taking a spoonful in the hand at a time and shaping it ; roll each croquette in fine bread-crumbs or cracker dust, dip it in beaten egg, then in the dust again, and fry one minute in smoking hot fat, using a frying-basket if you have one. Drain well and serve hot. Many cooks prefer to cut the chicken meat in dice size and not chop it; if this is done, use less of the sauce, else the croquettes will be difficult to shape. Mushrooms, boiled rice or veal may be mixed with the chicken meat. In rolling any kind of croquettes, if the mixture is too soft to handle easily, stir in fine cracker dust to stiffen it, but never add any uncooked material, like flour or corn starch, nor even the dried bread-crumbs used in - rolling, as these will make the croquettes too stiff.

Chicken Pie, No. I

Clean, singe and cut up two small chickens, the same as for a fricassee. Place them in a kettle, and add hot water enough to cover. Put the cover on the kettle, and stew 6lowly until the chicken is tender, adding a little more water, if needed. Take the following for the crust :

One quart of flour.

One large table-spoonful of lard.

One tea-spoonful of salt.

Two tea-spoonfuls of baking powder.

Milk to moisten.

Stir the salt and baking powder thoroughly into the flour, add the lard, rubbing it well into the flour, and use milk enough to make a dough. Flour the baking-board, and roll out the crust a quarter of an inch thick. Line the sides of a deep baking dish with crust; put in part of the chicken, and season with salt and pepper ; then add the rest of the chicken, and season the same way. Put in the dish two cupfuls of the broth in which the chicken was boiled, and cover the top with crust, making in the center of the crust a hole large enough to admit of adding more of the broth, if necessary. Most chicken pie is too dry, therefore the broth should be added plentifully. Bake one hour. Heat what broth remains, add enough flour to thicken it, wetting the flour to a paste with milk, and season with salt and pepper. Send to the table in a gravy dish, to be served with the pie.

Chicken Pie, No. 2

For a dish holding three quarts there will be required two chickens that together will weigh eight pounds. Cut the chickens each in two parts, splitting them down the back and front. Cover them with boiling water, and simmer until tender. If the chickens are a year old, allow at least an hour and a-half of gentle boiling. Let the chickens cool in the water in which they were boiled, remove the skin, and cut them into pieces suitable for serving. Place the meat in the pie dish, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Make a sauce as follows.

Four table-spoonfuls of butter. Four table-spoonfuls of flour. Two slices of carrot.

One-half an onion.

Three pints of the chicken broth.

One sprig of parsley.

One bit of mace.

One bay-leaf.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Put the butter and flour in a sauce-pan, and beat until soft and creamy. Add the vegetables, spice and herbs and the broth, from which all the oil should have been removed ; and heat slowly to boiling point. When boiling, set it where it will simmer slowly for fifteen minutes, add salt and pepper, and strain the sauce over the chicken. Next make the crust for the pie, using

One pint of flour.

One-half table-spoonful of sugar.

One-half table-spoonful of lemon juice.

One cupful of butter.

One-half tea-spoonful of salt.

One egg.

One-quarter of a cupful of ice water.

Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a chopping tray, and chop the butter into the flour until reduced to lumps the size of a walnut. Mix together the beaten egg, lemon juice and water, and add the mixture, a little at a time, to the flour and butter, chopping all the time. When all the mixture is used, sprinkle a moulding board with flour, and turn the paste upon it. Roll the dough out and fold it as for puff paste. Do this three or four times and then set it on the ice to chill before using. Roll out this paste, making it a little larger than the top of the pie dish. Cut a slash in the center of the crust to allow the steam to escape, and lay the crust over the chicken, turning the edge of the crust into the dish. Bake in a moderately hot oven for an hour and a-quarter, and serve hot.