Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — RELIABLE RECIPES. [ARTICLE]

RELIABLE RECIPES.

Cbeam of CAULiFOWEn.— Take some white cauliflowers, wick off the green leaves, divide in flowerets, wash and parboil in salted water for ten minutes; drain and put into a saucepan with four ounces of butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg; cover, and let simmer slowly until thoroughly done; then rub through a colander, and mix with two quarts of veal broth, thicken with four ounces of flour cooked in butter; stir and boil ten minutes, skim and press through a very fine sieve; return to the stewpan, stir steadily until boiling hot; add a pint or more of boiling cream, two ounces of fine butter, and a tablespoonful of sugar; mix well without boiling, and pour into a soup tureen over small round crusts of bread slightly fried in butter, and small flowerets of cauliflower kept for the purpose.—[Deliee. How to Stew a Ciiicken Properly. —This is the way in which a chicken should be stewed: Cut it in pieces a suitable size for serving before placing it in the pot. Separate the thigh, leg andwing joints, divide the breast into not less than four compact pieces, and separate the neck, back, etc. Place the gizzard, heart,, wings and drum sticks in the bottom of the pot or kettle, then put in the neck, back and other bony pieces, reserving the second joints and breast for the top. Use a pint of boiling water for each fullgrown fowl, cover closely, and after it has stewed a quarter of an hour, add a tablespoonful each of flour and butter stirred to a smooth paste, with a little water, to each pint of liquor used in the ' stewing kettle. Keep the kettle simmering unceasingly until the fowl is tender, which can be ascertained by examining the pieces on top. If these pieces are founds to be sufficiently cooked those beneath, will be also, as in placing the pieces in* the pot or kettle those requiring thegreatest amount of cooking were put at the bottom, so they would be subjected to the greatest heat. When the fowl has stewed until perfectly tender, drain; into a bowl all the liquor or broth from, the stewing kettle, and set the kettle with the pieces of chicken undisturbed in it upon the stove where it will keep, warm. If the broth is too oily, skim, from it a portion of the grease, then add a spoonful of flour, stirred to a smooth; paste with a spoonful of sweet cream or milk, and season sharply with salt and’, pepper, as this broth or gravy must season the entire fowl. After seasoning thegravy pour it over the chicken in the kettle and simmer gently for about ten minutes, then serve chicken and gravytogether on the same platter. A chicken one year old will stew an hour, and; each year added to the age of a fowl necessitates an additional hour’s stewing. Pursuing essentially the same recipe, the stew can be varied by adding oysters,, mushrooms, truffles, celery, parsley, etc.,, or by using less water and more cream or milk, and also by browning the pieces of the chicken in the skillet, either before or after they are stewed. By these slight and seemingly unimportant variations plain stewed chicken can be converted' into chicken sauce, chicken fricassee, chicken marengo, and so on, until a. dozen or more different dishes known by fanciful foreign names can be manufac* tured from one innocent chicken.