This section is from the book "The Metropolitan Life Cook Book", by Unknown. Also available from Amazon: The Metropolitan Life Cook Book.
Select a chicken with firm flesh, yellow skin and legs.
Dress, clean, stuff and tie wings and legs close to body of chicken.
Place on its back on a rack in a dripping pan (or on thin slices of salt pork fat or chicken fat in a pan a trifle larger than the chicken). Rub the entire surface with salt and spread legs and breast with 3 tablespoons melted chicken fat or other fat and 3 tablespoons flour. Place in a hot oven and when flour is well browned, reduce the heat and baste every 10 minutes, if not roasted in a self-basting pan.
For basting, take 4 tablespoons of the fat in the pan and mix with i cup boiling water.
A 4-pound chicken requires about 1½ hours.
For the stuffing, use melted chicken fat or other fat.
1 cup cracker or bread
crumbs ¼ cup melted fat
Sage, if liked ¼ teaspoon salt Few grains pepper
1/3 cup milk, scalded 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
2 cups French chestnuts 1/3 cup melted fat
1 cup cracker crumbs ¾ teaspoon salt
Few grains pepper ¾ cup cream
Blanch and shell chestnuts. Cook in boiling salted water until soft. Drain and mash. Add half the fat, salt, pepper and cream. Melt remaining fat, mix with cracker crumbs, then combine mixtures.
2 cups freshly-grated
bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper Sage, if liked 1/3 cup melted fat
1 well-beaten egg 1/3 cup scalded milk
Combine ingredients in order given.
Skim off fat in roasting pan. To each 2 tablespoons fat, add 3 tablespoons flour. Brown the two and add the drippings and enough hot water and cream (half and half) to make it of the right thickness.
Follow directions for roasting chicken.
3 pounds chicken
1 onion
2 cloves
1/6 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup chopped salt pork
fat or other fat 1/3 cup flour
Singe, draw and disjoint a 3-pound chicken. Wash and rinse carefully. Put into a saucepan with 1 quart of water, 1 sliced onion with 2 cloves pressed into it, bay leaf and salt. Simmer slowly until tender. Remove chicken and brown the pieces, dredge generously with the flour, salt and pepper in the salt pork fat or other fat in a frying pan. When the pieces of chicken are nicely browned on both sides, add the water or stock in which the chicken has been cooked. If the gravy is not thick enough, add flour thickening to it. Season to taste. Arrange the browned chicken on a platter. Pour the gravy over it. Surround with a border of boiled rice.
Dress, clean and cut up a fowl, and put it into a stew pan. Cover with boiling water and cook gently until tender. After the first hour of cooking, add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, bit of bay leaf, sprig of parsley, and a slice of onion, if liked. Cook until tender. Remove chicken. Thicken stock with ¼ cup flour mixed with cold water. Place stewed chicken and thicken stock in the serving dish.
Put stewed chicken in a baking dish. Cover with short-cake or baking-powder biscuit dough, and bake until done.
Dip raw chicken, cut into suitable pieces for serving, into melted fat and then into flour mixed with salt and pepper Brown the pieces of chicken in a little fat in a pan. Add enough water to cover the bottom of pan. Cover and bake about 1 ½ hours. Baste occasionally.
2 cups chopped chicken,
cooked ½ teaspoon salt
Few grains cayenne 1 cup thick sauce 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Few drops onion juice Yolk 1 egg
Mix ingredients in order given. Cool, shape into balls, cylinders or any desired shape. Dip in egg, crumbs and egg again. Fry in deep fat.
Select a goose of suitable size for the number to be served. One pound to a person is usually allowed. Dress and clean goose by scrubbing it inside and outside with soda water. Rinse in boiling water and dry; staff and sew up or skewer. Rub with flour, salt and pepper, mixed. Place breast down in a roasting pan. Baste with the drippings; after the first hour, add 1 cupful water. Turn breast one side down in a roasting pan. For an 8-pound goose, allow 4 hours in a slow over. Skim off most of the fat in the pan and make gravy by adding 1 cup white sauce, stirring until well mixed and then adding hot water gradually to make of right consistency.
3 cups bread crumbs ½ cup melted fat 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup apples, pared, cut in eighths, and stewed in a little sugar syrup
Few grains pepper
½ cup soaked, stewed and stoned prunes
½ cup nut meats, broken into pieces, if liked
2 cups mashed potatoes, highly seasoned with salt and pepper
½ cup chopped, parboiled onions 2 tablespoons melted fat
¼ teaspoon sage 2 egg yolks
Mix ingredients in order given.
If potato or bread stuffing is used, arrange red steamed apples around the goose. To steam the apples, place with the skins on in a perforated dish over boiling water. Steam until cooked. Remove and chill. Carefully remove skins, being careful to leave the red pulp nearest the skin on the apple. Scrape skins so as to remove all pulp and return to apples. They should be a beautiful red.
 
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