CHAPTER XII.

VOLAILLES-POULTRY.

235. Poulet rôti (Roasted Fowl).

When it is drawn and trussed put a piece of fat bacon upon the back of the fowl, and roast it at a moderate fire; when done it should be of a very light brown (more golden than brown). Be careful not to put any water or butter to it, as I have seen many cooks do; butter gives a greasy taste to roasts of all kinds, and water takes away all taste. When it is ready put some vinegar on a dish, some watercress around it, and lay the fowl in the middle.

236. Fricassée de poulet.

It is a wrong way generally adopted by cooks to carve a fowl for a fricassée, which ought to be perfectly white. Truss the fowl as if for roasting, it will look much better.

Put six ounces of fresh butter in a pan on a moderate fire, mix with it two table-spoonfuls of flour; add a pint of hot water, and move it about with a wooden spoon until thickish. When it begins to boil, salt and pepper it, add a bay-leaf, a small bit of lemon-peel,

and the fowl. Cover the pan, and let the fowl boil slowly for an hour, then turn it on the other side, and place around it thirty very small onions and a few mushrooms, if you have any. After another hour's slow boiling, put the fowl on a dish and keep it warm; then set the pan on a brisk fire, take off the lid and let the sauce boil quickly until it is thick enough. Take the pan off the fire, and when the sauce stops boiling add to it a liaison (see No. 66), which you mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon, and pour it upon the fowl.

You may cut a lemon in slices and decorate the dish with it.

A little grated nutmeg put at the same time with the onions greatly improves the taste.

If some mushrooms are to be added they should be previously thrown in hot water and carefully wiped, else the sauce would be of a dirty-looking grey.

237. Poulet au vin blanc (Fowl with White Wine). Carve the fowl and throw it in a quart of boiling water, with thyme, a bay-leaf, and parsley tied together, one clove, a large onion, some salt and pepper, and put it on a moderate fire. Cover the pan. Let the fowl boil for half an hour, then add six ounces of fresh butter, four ounces of bacon, a tumbler of white Burgundy wine, and a table-spoonful of flour; turn about with a wooden spoon, to mix the flour with the sauce. Cover the pan, and let the fowl boil for three-quarters of an hour. Take the bits of fowl out of the pan and put them on a dish. Remove the seasonings, and put in their stead three or four truffles cut in slices. Let

them boil in the

pan off the fire.

sauce for two minutes, and take the

Add a liaison to the sauce (see No.

66), and pour it upon the fowl.

238. Poulet à la Marengo.

Carve the fowl, and put it in a pan with three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, some salt and pepper, thyme, a bay-leaf, and parsley, tied together, and a handful of mushrooms. Cover the pan and put it on a slow fire, with red charcoal on the top, until the fowl is done; then put two ounces of butter in another pan, with a table-spoonful of flour; mix well. Add two wineglasses of water, and as much sherry. (If you have any broth use it instead of water.) Turn about with a wooden spoon. Dish the fowl, pour into the pan the sauce which you have just prepared with sherry, broth, and flour; mix well with a wooden spoon, to incorporate the oil in the sauce, and pour it upon the fowl.

239. Poulet à la minute.

Carve a fowl, and put it in a frying-pan, with six ounces of butter, on a brisk fire. When the bits are of a nice colour, turn them on the other side with a fork; cover the fire, salt and pepper the fowl, add a tumbler of water, and let it boil quickly for a quarter of an hour. Chop together some parsley, tarragon, shalots, and gherkins; add them to the sauce. the whole boil for two minutes, and serve.

Let

This way is particularly good for young fowls,

which are generally too lean to be roasted.

240. Poulet en daube.

See Bœuf à l'étuvée, No. 287, page 113.

241. Poulet en gibelotte.

See Lapin en gibelotte, No. 208.

242. Poulet à l'estragon.

When the fowl is drawn, put inside some fresh butter, salt, and chopped tarragon. Truss the fowl, and put it in a pan with a pint of water, four large onions, four carrots cut in slices, two cloves, six ounces of fat bacon cut in dice, a bay-leaf, a little thyme and parsley, and four branches of tarragon without leaves. Cover the pan, and set it on a moderate fire; let the fowl boil slowly for an hour, then turn it on the other side. After another hour dish the fowl; pass the sauce into another pan through a fine sieve, and let it boil very fast, to get thicker; add a few tender branches of tarragon with their leaves, put them around the fowl, and pour the sauce upon them.

243. Poule au pôt (Boiled Fowl).

Truss the fowl as if for roasting, and put it in a pot with four large onions having cloves stuck in them, two carrots, and a turnip cut through the middle, a bay-leaf, salt and pepper. Cover the fowl over with

quick fire until it boils;

cold water, and put it on a skim the water and reduce the fire, so as to let the fowl boil slowly for two hours (three if it is an old fowl).

There are two ways of serving a Poule-au-pôt ; either with a sauce aux câpres (see No. 37), or with its own broth; if you choose the last, put three ounces of butter in a pan with a table-spoonful of flour, mix it with a wooden spoon, and when it is of a light brown pour upon it a tumbler of the broth in which the hen was boiled; add to it two small gherkins cut in slices, and pour this sauce upon the hen.

The remainder of the broth may be used for a soup, if you add two table-spoonfuls of gravy (from a roast) and boil some rice along with it.

244. Poularde au céleri (Fowl with Celery).

Put six ounces of butter, a fowl, and six ounces of raw ham or bacon into a pan on a quick fire; let the fowl take colour; add half a tumbler of water, two large onions, two carrots, thyme, a bay-leaf and parsley tied together; salt and pepper. Cover the pan, and let the fowl boil slowly for an hour; turn it on the other side. After another hour take the vegetables out of the pan. Cut some celery in bits about as long as a finger, and throw them into boiling water rather highly salted, and let them boil in it until they begin to soften. Drain them in a sieve and put them around the hen, and let them boil with it for a quarter of an hour without putting the lid on the pan, for the water that comes out of the celery must evaporate immediately.