The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1866-01-04
Cooking an Old Hen.

!
man, who is something Of a wag withal
discourses as follows on the above men.
toned feat in culinary science
AS we had occasion few days ago
to state the age at which a chicken passes
from chicken to hen hood, and alluded to
the difficulty of making an old fowl ten
der some obligation to say that there is a
method of doing even this.
The French do it any way. Wonder
full people those French are, in the cook
ing line.
With us it is an eternal roast and boil.
And the thing can't be done in that way.
Our people seem to have an adherence
of "messes," and the consequence is we
contrive to make the largest quantity of
meat do the least possible service in the
way of feeding hungry appetite. Put
an old hen, or an old cock either, as to
that matter, into the pot or down to the
fire for the prescribed length of time, and
it becomes tougher and harder. We pre-
sumo there can be no doubt of that; if
there is try it and you'll surely find it so.
But there are other ways of making her
not only more wholesome, but more ten
der, palatable and valuable.
Take, for example, what the French
call pot-aufeu We haven't anything
just like it in this country and so we
don't exactly know what to call it. 1t
really means spot on the fire." At any
rate it is the solace of Frenchman and
is familiar to ever French woman who
knows the first thing about cooking in all
classes of society from the highest to the
lowest. Here the old hen is the prin-
cipal ingredient She adds not only
strength but flavor But she isn't thrown
in whole, to be boiled for dear life as we
cook that venerable bird. She is cut up
into small joints and simmered for a long
time, hours together, till her flesh be-
comes soft and tender, and leaves the
bones and turns to pulp. Now the de-
licacy of favor Of this delicious dish is
due to the old hen, and it isn't merely
what forms it as it is brought upon our
tables, but every part goes in, such as the
neck, the head, the gizzard, the liver
heart and the feet. And it is Mt the poor,
who are obliged to be economical, in
France, that eat and revel in this DISH
1t is the easy classes who live on their
incomes as well. This "pot on the fire"
in French kitchen is the receptacle for
almost everything that is eatable. such as
broken bones of all kinds, cheap bits
of coarse beef cut up in little square
pieces, some carrots, turnips, leeks and
potatoes, and if it is spring when peas
are in the pod, dozen pods, run through
and strung together by needle and
thread are put in to give favor, aud tax
en- out before the pot au-feu is served up.
1t is soup, but for all that it is dish
fit for king, and for a farmer too as that
matter, and how vastly superior in every
respect to bit of coarse stringy beef,
considerable part of which will perhaps
be wasted.
Now if there is any one who don't Ike
soups, because they are " nothing but
spoon vittles," there is another way to
serve up an old hen so that she shall
manifest, to mortal palate, all the deli
cacy and tenderness of youth. Just cut
her up into joints, taking care to go by
the joints so that you don't get in any
splinters of bones. Pick up all the bits
of meat you have in the house, bones too
If there is any meat on them, any odd
pieces of ham or bacon, leg or shoulder
of mutton and slice of salt pork, and
cut few slices of fat bacon and some
bread. Take an earthen vessel with an
earthcn cover, with bit ola hole in it
the cover, we mean, and put a layer of
bread at the bottom of this vessel, then
layer of bacon, and then fill in with all
the scraps and joints you happen to have,
they must be sweet and clean of course,
till the vessel is full. Then fill up the
hollows and cracks between with water,
and tie down the lid Put it at night in
very warm, not hot oven, and let it stay
till morning. Take it out at your leisure
and put it in cool place, and when per-
fectfy cold, you'll eat it with gusto,
either for breakfast, luncheon, dinner, or
supper, and you'll find it not only tender,
but juicy, and dclicately favored and
highly nutritious. The water that you
put in will have turned into jelly, and
the whole will cut like red veined mar
ble There is no way in the world you
can cook an old fowl so economically or
so splendidly. We should like to sit down
with you to that dish.
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