Chicken Fricassee

Chicken stewed with onion, cloves and sweet herbs in a mushroom sauce.

Take a chicken weighing about three pounds, cut it into pieces and steep these in cold water for an hour. Drain and put them in a large saucepan pan with an onion with three cloves stuck in it, a bunch of sweet herbs, a saltspoonful each of salt and pepper, and one quart of water. When the water boils skim it, move it to the side of the fire and let it simmer for half an hour with the lid partly off. Take out the pieces of fowl, drain and let them cool for a few minutes in cold water. Keep the liquor in which they were cooked. Put three tablespoonfuls each of butter and flour in a stewpan, stir them over the fire until smooth, but not brown; add the broth and the liquor in which a can of mushrooms have been cooked, and simmer for half an hour. Warm the pieces of fowl in half a pint of the sauce in a separate pan. Beat the yolks of four eggs; add one tablespoonful of melted butter and stir the sauce over the fire until thick, but not boiling; strain the gravy and then add the mushrooms. Put the two back pieces of the fowl in the middle of the dish and arrange on them one above the other, first the feet, then the two pieces of neck, and lastly the pinions. Rest the legs and wings against the sides of the square and put the pieces of breast on the top. Arrange the mushrooms round the dish, pour over the sauce, and serve.