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The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) written by Mrs. F.L. Gillette

M >> Mrs. F.L. Gillette >> The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887)




These recipes were obtained from an old colored cook, who was famous
for his fine dressing for fowls, fish and meats, and his advice was,
_always_ soak stale bread in _cold_ liquid, either milk or water, when
_used_ for stuffings or for puddings, as they were much lighter. Hot
liquid makes them heavy.


BOILED TURKEY.

Prepare as you would for baking or roasting; fill with an oyster
stuffing, made as the above. Tie the legs and wings close to the body,
place in salted boiling water with the breast downward; skim it often
and boil about two hours, but not till the skin breaks. Serve with
oyster or celery sauce. Boil a nicely pickled piece of salt pork, and
serve at table a thin slice to each plate. Some prefer bacon or ham
instead of pork.

Some roll the turkey in a cloth dipped in flour. If the liquor is to
be used afterwards for soup, the cloth imparts an unpleasant flavor.
The liquor can be saved and made into a nice soup for the next day's
dinner, by adding the same seasoning as for chicken soup.


TURKEY SCALLOP.

Pick the meat from the bones of cold turkey and chop it fine. Put a
layer of bread crumbs on the bottom of a buttered dish, moisten them
with a little milk, then put in a layer of turkey with some of the
filling, and cut small pieces of butter over the top; sprinkle with
pepper and salt; then another layer of bread crumbs, and so on until
the dish is nearly full; add a little hot water to the gravy left from
the turkey and pour over it; then take two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of
milk, one of melted butter, a little salt and cracker crumbs as much
as will make it thick enough to spread on with a knife; put bits of
butter over it, and cover with a plate. Bake three-quarters of an
hour. Ten minutes before serving, remove the plate and let it brown.


TURKEY HASHED.

Cut the remnants of turkey from a previous dinner into pieces of equal
size. Boil the bones in a quart of water, until the quart is reduced
to a pint; then take out the bones, and to the liquor in which they
were boiled add turkey gravy, if you have any, or white stock, or a
small piece of butter with salt and pepper; let the liquor thus
prepared boil up once; then put in the pieces of turkey, dredge in a
little flour, give it one boil-up, and serve in a hot dish.


TURKEY WARMED OVER.

Pieces of cold turkey or chicken may be warmed up with a little butter
in a frying pan; place it on a warm platter, surround it with pieces
of small thick slices of bread or biscuit halved, first dipping them
in hot salted water; then place the platter in a warm oven with the
door open. Have already made the following gravy to pour over all:--

Into the frying pan put a large spoonful of butter, one or two cupfuls
of milk, and any gravy that may be left over. Bring it to a boil; then
add sufficient flour, wet in a little cold milk or water, to make it
the consistency of cream. Season with salt, pepper and add a little of
the dark meat chopped _very_ fine. Let the sauce cook a few moments,
then pour over the biscuit and fowl. This will be found a really nice
dish.


BONED TURKEY.

Clean the fowl as usual. With a sharp and pointed knife, begin at the
extremity of the wing, and pass the knife down close to the bone,
cutting all the flesh from the bone, and preserving the skin whole;
run the knife down each side of the breast bone and up the legs,
keeping close to the bone; then split the back half way up, and draw
out the bones; fill the places whence the bones were taken with a
stuffing, restoring the fowl to its natural form, and sew up all the
incisions made in the skin. Lard with two or three rows of slips of
fat bacon on the top, basting often with salt and water, and a little
butter. Some like a glass of port wine in the gravy.

This is a difficult dish to attempt by any but skillful hands. Carve
across in slices, and serve with tomato sauce.


ROAST GOOSE.

The goose should not be more than eight months old, and the fatter the
more tender and juicy the meat. Stuff with the following mixture:
Three pints of bread crumbs, six ounces of butter, or part butter and
part salt pork, one teaspoonful each of sage, black pepper and salt,
one chopped onion. Do not stuff very full, and stitch openings firmly
together to keep flavor in and fat out. Place in a baking pan with a
little water, and baste frequently with salt and water (some add
vinegar); turn often so that the sides and back may be nicely browned.
Bake two hours or more; when done take from the pan, pour off the fat,
and to the brown gravy left add the chopped giblets which have
previously been stewed until tender, together with the water they were
boiled in; thicken with a little flour and butter rubbed together,
bring to a boil and serve, English style.


ROAST CHICKEN.

Pick and draw them, wash out well in two or three waters, adding a
little soda to the last but one to sweeten it, if there is doubt as to
its being fresh. Dry it well with a clean cloth, and fill the crop and
body with a stuffing the same as "Dressing for Fowls." Lay it in a
dripping-pan; put a pint of hot water and a piece of butter in the
dripping-pan, add to it a small tablespoonful of salt, and a small
teaspoonful of pepper; baste frequently, and let it roast quickly,
without scorching; when nearly done, put a piece of butter the size of
a large egg to the water in the pan; when it melts, baste with it,
dredge a little flour over, baste again, and let it finish; half an
hour will roast a full grown chicken, if the fire is right. When done,
take it up.

Having stewed the necks, gizzards, livers and hearts in a very little
water, strain it and mix it hot with the gravy that has dripped from
the fowls, and which must be first skimmed. Thicken it with a little
browned flour, add to it the livers, hearts and gizzards chopped
small. Or, put the giblets in the pan with the chicken and let them
roast. Send the fowls to the table with the gravy in a boat. Cranberry
sauce should accompany them, or any tart sauce.


BOILED CHICKEN.

Clean, wash and stuff, as for roasting. Baste a floured cloth around
each and put into a pot with enough boiling water to cover them well.
The hot water cooks the skin at once and prevents the escape of the
juice. The broth will not be so rich as if the fowls are put on in
cold water, but this is a proof that the meat will be more nutritious
and better flavored. Stew very slowly, for the first half hour
especially. Boil an hour or more, guiding yourself by size and
toughness. Serve with egg, bread or oyster sauce. (See SAUCES.)


STEAMED CHICKEN.

Rub the chicken on the inside with pepper and half a teaspoonful of
salt; place in a steamer in a kettle that will keep it as near the
water as possible, cover and steam an hour and a half; when done, keep
hot while dressing is prepared, then cut up, arrange on the platter,
and serve with the dressing over it.

The dressing is made as follows: Boil one pint of gravy from the
kettle without the fat, add cayenne pepper and half a teaspoonful of
salt; stir a tablespoonful of flour into a quarter of a pint of cream
until smooth and add to the gravy. Cornstarch may be used instead of
the flour, and some cooks add nutmeg or celery salt.


FRICASSEE CHICKEN.

Cut up two young chickens, put them in a stewpan with just enough cold
water to cover them. Cover closely and let them heat very slowly; then
stew them over an hour, or until tender. If they are old chickens they
will require long, slow boiling, often from three to four hours. When
tender, season with salt and pepper, a piece of butter as large as an
egg, and a little celery, if liked. Stir up two tablespoonfuls of
flour in a little water or milk and add to the stew, also two
well-beaten yolks of eggs; let all boil up one minute; arrange the
chicken on a warm platter, pour some of the gravy over it and send the
rest to the table in a boat. The egg should be added to a little of
the cooled gravy before putting with the hot gravy.


STEWED WHOLE SPRING CHICKEN.

Dress a full-grown spring chicken the same as for roasting, seasoning
it with salt and pepper inside and out; then fill the body with
oysters; place it in a tin pail with a close-fitting cover. Set the
pail in a pot of fast-boiling water and cook until the chicken is
tender. Dish up the chicken on a warm dish, then pour the gravy into a
saucepan, put into it a tablespoonful of butter, half a cupful of
cream or rich milk, three hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, some minced
herbs and a tablespoonful of flour. Let all boil up and then pour it
over the chicken. Serve hot.


PICKLED CHICKEN.

Boil four chickens till tender enough for meat to fall from bones; put
meat in a stone jar and pour over it three pints of cold, good cider
vinegar and a pint and a half of the water in which the chickens were
boiled; add spices if preferred, and it will be ready for use in two
days. This is a popular Sunday evening dish; it is good for luncheon
at any time.


RISSOLES OF CHICKEN.

Mince up finely the remains of a cold chicken together with half the
quantity of lean, cold ham. Mix them well, adding enough white sauce
to moisten them. Now have light paste rolled out until about a quarter
of an inch or a little more in thickness. Cut the paste into pieces,
one inch by two in size, and lay a little of the mixture upon the
centres of half of the pieces and cover them with the other halves,
pressing the edges neatly together and forming them into little rolls.
Have your frying pan ready with plenty of boiling hot lard, or other
frying medium, and fry until they become a golden-brown color. A
minute or two will be sufficient for this. Then drain them well and
serve immediately on a napkin.


CHICKEN PATTIES.

Mince up fine cold chicken, either roasted or boiled. Season it with
pepper and salt, and a little minced parsley and onion. Moisten it
with chicken gravy or cream sauce, fill scalloped shells that are
lined with pastry with the mixture, and sprinkle bread crumbs over the
tops. Put two or three tiny pieces of butter over each, and bake brown
in a hot oven.


TO BROIL CHICKEN.

After dressing and washing the chickens as previously directed, split
them open through the backbone; frog them by cutting the cords under
the wings and laying the wings out flat; cut the sinews under the
second joint of the leg and turn the leg down; press down the
breast-bone without breaking it.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, lay it upon the gridiron with
the inside first to the fire; put the gridiron over a slow fire, and
place a tin sheet and weight upon the chicken, to keep it flat; let it
broil ten minutes, then turn and proceed in the same manner with the
other side.

The chicken should be perfectly cooked, but not scorched. A broiled
chicken brought to the table with its wings and legs burnt, and its
breast half cooked, is very disagreeable. To avoid this, the chicken
must be closely watched while broiling, and the fire must be arranged
so that the heat shall be equally dispensed. When the fire is too hot
under any one part of the chicken, put a little ashes on the fire
under that part, that the heat may be reduced.

Dish a broiled chicken on a hot plate, putting a large lump of butter
and a tablespoonful of hot water upon the plate, and turning the
chicken two or three times that it may absorb as much of the butter as
possible. Garnish with parsley. Serve with poached eggs on a separate
dish. It takes from thirty to forty minutes to broil a chicken well.


CHICKEN PIE.

Prepare the chicken as for fricassee. When the chicken is stewed
tender, seasoned, and the gravy thickened, take it from the fire; take
out the largest bones, scrape the meat from the neck and backbone,
throw the bones away; line the sides of a four or six quart
pudding-dish with a rich baking powder or soda biscuit dough, a
quarter of an inch thick; put in part of the chicken, a few lumps of
butter, pepper and salt, if needed, some cold boiled eggs cut in
slices. Add the rest of the chicken and season as before; a few new
potatoes in their season might be added. Pour over the gravy, being
sure to have enough to fill the dish, and cover with a crust a quarter
of an inch thick, made with a hole in the centre the size of a teacup.

Brush over the top with beaten white of egg and bake for half to
three-quarters of an hour. Garnish the top with small bright celery
leaves, neatly arranged in a circle.


FRIED CHICKEN.

Wash and cut up a young chicken, wipe it dry, season with salt and
pepper, dredge it with flour, or dip each piece in beaten egg and then
in cracker crumbs. Have in a frying pan one ounce each of butter and
sweet lard made boiling hot. Lay in the chicken and fry brown on both
sides. Take up, drain it and set aside in a covered dish. Stir into
the gravy left, if not too much, a large tablespoonful of flour, make
it smooth, add a cup of cream or milk, season with salt and pepper,
boil up and pour over the chicken. Some like chopped parsley added to
the gravy. Serve hot.

If the chicken is old, put into a stewpan with a little water and
simmer gently till tender; season with salt and pepper, dip in flour
or cracker crumb and egg, and fry as above. Use the broth the chicken
was cooked in to make the gravy, instead of the cream or milk, or use
an equal quantity of both.


FRIED CHICKEN A LA ITALIENNE.

Make common batter; mix into it a cupful of chopped tomatoes, one
onion chopped, some minced parsley, salt and pepper. Cut up young,
tender chickens, dry them well and dip each piece in the batter; then
fry brown in plenty of butter in a thick-bottomed frying pan. Serve
with tomato sauce.


CHICKEN CROQUETTES. No. 1.

Put a cup of cream or milk in a saucepan, set it over the fire, and
when it boils add a lump of butter as large as an egg, in which has
been mixed a tablespoonful of flour. Let it boil up thick; remove from
the fire, and when cool mix into it a teaspoonful of salt, half a
teaspoonful of pepper, a bit of minced onion or parsley, one cup of
fine bread crumbs, and a pint of finely-chopped cooked chicken, either
roasted or boiled. Lastly, beat up two eggs and work in with the
whole. Flour your hands and make into small, round, flat cakes; dip in
egg and bread crumbs and fry like fish cakes in butter and good sweet
lard mixed, or like fried cakes in plenty of hot lard. Take them up
with a skimmer and lay them on brown paper to free them from the
grease. Serve hot.


CHICKEN CROQUETTES. No. 2.

Take any kind of fresh meat or fowl, chop very fine, add an equal
quantity of smoothly mashed potatoes, mix, and season with butter,
salt, black pepper, a little prepared mustard, and a little cayenne
pepper; make into cakes, dip in egg and bread crumbs and fry a light
brown. A nice relish for tea.


TO FRY CROQUETTES.

Beat up two eggs in a deep bowl; roll enough crackers until you have a
cupful of crumbs, or the same of fine stale bread crumbs; spread the
crumbs on a large plate or pie-tin. Have over the fire a kettle
containing two or three inches of boiling lard. As fast as the
croquettes are formed, roll them in the crumbs, then dip them in the
beaten egg, then again roll them in crumbs; drop them in the smoking
hot fat and fry them a light golden brown.


PRESSED CHICKEN.

Clean and cut up your chickens. Stew in just enough water to cover
them. When nearly cooked, season them well with salt and pepper. Let
them stew down until the water is nearly all boiled out, and the meat
drops easily from the bones. Remove the bones and gristle; chop the
meat rather coarsely, then turn it back into the stew-kettle, where
the broth was left (after skimming off all fat), and let it heat
through again. Turn it into a square bread pan, placing a platter on
the top, and a heavy weight on the platter. This, if properly
prepared, will turn out like a mold of jelly and may be sliced in
smooth, even slices. The success of this depends upon not having too
much water; it will not jelly if too weak, or if the water is allowed
to boil away entirely while cooking. A good way to cook old fowls.


CHICKEN LUNCH FOR TRAVELING.

Cut a young chicken down the back; wash and wipe dry; season with salt
and pepper; put in a dripping-pan and bake in a moderate oven
three-quarters of an hour. This is much better for traveling lunch
than when seasoned with butter.

All kinds of poultry and meat can be cooked quicker by adding to the
water in which they are boiled a little vinegar or a piece of lemon.
By the use of a little acid there will be a considerable saving of
fuel, as well as shortening of time. Its action is beneficial on old
tough meats, rendering them quite tender and easy of digestion.
Tainted meats and fowls will lose their bad taste and odor if cooked
in this way, and if not used too freely no taste of it will be
acquired.


POTTED CHICKEN.

Strip the meat from the bones of a cold roast fowl; to every pound of
meat allow a quarter of a pound of butter, salt and cayenne pepper to
taste; one teaspoonful of pounded mace, half a small nutmeg. Cut the
meat into small pieces, pound it well with the butter, sprinkle in the
spices gradually and keep pounding until reduced to a perfectly smooth
paste. Pack it into small jars and cover with clarified butter, about
a quarter of an inch in thickness. Two or three slices of ham minced
and pounded with the above will be an improvement. Keep in a dry
place. A luncheon or breakfast dish.

Old fowls can be made very tender by putting into them, while boiling,
a piece of soda as large as a bean.


SCALLOPED CHICKEN.

Divide a fowl into joints and boil till the meat leaves the bone
readily. Take out the bones and chop the meat as small as dice.
Thicken the water in which the fowl was boiled with flour and season
to taste with butter and salt. Fill a deep dish with alternate layers
of bread crumbs and chicken and slices of cooked potatoes, having
crumbs on top. Pour the gravy over the top and add a few bits of
butter and bake till nicely browned. There should be gravy enough to
moisten the dish. Serve with a garnish of parsley. Tiny new potatoes
are nice in place of sliced ones when in season.


BREADED CHICKEN.

Prepare young chickens as for fricassee by cutting them into pieces.
Dip each piece in beaten egg, then in grated bread crumbs or rolled
cracker; season them with pepper and salt and a little minced parsley.
Place them in a baking pan and put on the top of each piece a lump of
butter, add half of a cupful of hot water; bake slowly, basting often.
When sufficiently cooked take up on a warm platter. Into the pan pour
a cup of cream or rich milk, a cupful of bread crumbs. Stir it well
until cooked, then pour it over the chicken. Serve while hot.


BROILED CHICKEN ON TOAST.

Broil the usual way and when thoroughly done take it up in a square
tin or dripping-pan, butter it well, season with pepper and salt and
set it in the oven for a few minutes. Lay slices of moistened buttered
toast on a platter; take the chicken up over it, add to the gravy in
the pan part of a cupful of cream, if you have it; if not, use milk.
Thicken with a little flour and pour over the chicken.

This is considered most excellent.


CURRY CHICKEN.

Cut up a chicken weighing from a pound and a half to two pounds, as
for fricassee, wash it well, and put it into a stewpan with sufficient
water to cover it; boil it, closely covered, until tender; add a large
teaspoonful of salt, and cook a few minutes longer; then remove from
the fire, take out the chicken, pour the liquor into a bowl, and set
it one side. Now cut up into the stewpan two small onions, and fry
them with a piece of butter as large as an egg; as soon as the onions
are brown, skim them out and put in the chicken; fry for three or four
minutes; next sprinkle over two teaspoonfuls of Curry Powder. Now pour
over the liquor in which the chicken was stewed, stir all well
together, and stew for five minutes longer, then stir into this a
tablespoonful of sifted flour made thin with a little water; lastly,
stir in a beaten yolk of egg, and it is done.

Serve with hot boiled rice laid around on the edge of a platter, and
the chicken curry in the centre.

This makes a handsome side dish, and a fine relish accompanying a full
dinner of roast beef or any roast.

All first-class grocers and druggists keep this "India Curry Powder,"
put up in bottles. Beef, veal, mutton, duck, pigeons, partridges,
rabbits or fresh fish may be substituted for the chicken, if
preferred, and sent to the table with or without a dish of rice.

_To Boil Rice or Curry._--Pick over the rice, a cupful. Wash it
thoroughly in two or three cold waters; then leave it about twenty
minutes in cold water. Put into a stewpan two quarts of water with a
teaspoonful of salt in it; and when it boils, sprinkle in the rice.
Boil it briskly for twenty minutes, keeping the pan covered. Take it
from the fire, and drain off the water. Afterwards set the saucepan
on the back of the stove, with the lid off, to allow the rice to dry
and the grains to separate.

Rice, if properly boiled, should be soft and white, and every grain
stand alone. Serve it hot in a separate dish or served as above, laid
around the chicken curry.


CHICKEN POT-PIE. No. 1.

Cut and joint a large chicken, cover with cold water, and let it boil
gently until tender. Season with salt and pepper, and thicken the
gravy with two tablespoonfuls of flour, mixed smooth with a piece of
butter the size of an egg. Have ready nice light bread-dough, cut with
the top of a wine-glass about a half an inch thick; let them stand
half an hour and rise, then drop these into the boiling gravy. Put the
cover on the pot closely, wrap a cloth around it, in order that no
steam shall escape; and by no means allow the pot to cease boiling.
Boil three-quarters of an hour.


CHICKEN POT-PIE. No. 2.

This style of pot-pie was made more in our grandmother's day than now,
as most cooks consider that cooking crust so long destroys its spongy
lightness, and renders it too hard and dry.

Take a pair of fine fowls, cut them up, wash the pieces, and season
with pepper only. Make a light biscuit dough, and plenty of it, as it
is always much liked by the eaters of pot-pie. Roll out the dough not
very thin, and cut most of it into long squares. Butter the sides of a
pot, and line them with dough nearly to the top. Lay slices of cold
ham at the bottom of the pot, and then the pieces of fowl,
interspersed all through with squares of dough and potatoes, pared and
quartered. Pour in a quart of water. Cover the whole with a lid of
dough, having a slit in the centre, through which the gravy will
bubble up. Boil it steadily for two hours. Half an hour before you
take it up, put in through the hole in the centre of the crust some
bits of butter rolled in flour, to thicken the gravy. When done, put
the pie on a large dish, and pour the gravy over it.

You may intersperse it all through with cold ham.

A pot-pie may be made of ducks, rabbits, squirrels or venison. Also of
beefsteak. A beefsteak, or some porksteaks (the lean only), greatly
improve a chicken pot-pie. If you use no ham, season with salt.

[Illustration: Top left ABIGAIL ADAMS; Top right MARTHA JEFFERSON;
Middle MARTHA WASHINGTON; Bottom left MRS JAMES MONROE; Bottom right
D. P. MADDISON]


CHICKEN STEWED WITH BISCUIT.

Take chickens, and make a fricassee; just before you are ready to dish
it up, have ready two baking-tins of rich soda or baking-powder
biscuits; take them from the oven hot, split them apart by breaking
them with your hands, lay them on a large meat platter, covering it,
then pour the hot chicken stew over all. Send to the table hot. This
is a much better way than boiling this kind of biscuit in the stew, as
you are more sure of its being always light.


CHICKEN DRESSED AS TERRAPIN.

Select young chickens, clean and cut them into pieces; put them into a
stewpan with just _enough_ water to cook them. When tender stir into
it half of a cup of butter and one beaten egg. Season it with salt and
pepper, a teaspoonful of powdered thyme; add two hard-boiled eggs
coarsely minced and a small glass of wine. Boil up once and serve with
jelly.


CHICKEN ROLY-POLY.

One quart of flour, two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar mixed with the
flour, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a teacupful of milk; a
teaspoonful of salt; do not use shortening of any kind, but roll out
the mixture half an inch thick, and on it lay minced chicken, veal or
mutton. The meat must be seasoned with pepper and salt and be free
from gristle. Roll the crust over and over, and put it on a buttered
plate and place in a steamer for half an hour. Serve for breakfast or
lunch, giving a slice to each person with gravy served with it.


CHICKEN TURNOVERS.

Chop cold roast chicken very fine. Put it into a saucepan, place it
over the fire, moisten it with a little water and gravy, or a piece of
butter. Season with salt and pepper; add a small tablespoonful of
sifted flour dissolved in a little water; heat all through and remove
from the fire to become cool. When cooled roll out some plain
pie-crust quite thin, cut out in rounds as large as a saucer; wet the
edge with cold water and put a large spoonful of the minced meat on
one-half of the round; fold the other half over and pinch the edges
well together, then fry them in hot drippings or fat a nice brown.
They may also be cooked in a moderate oven.