Chicken Little

“ The next day one of them died, and the left one hadn’t any chicken companion. And then, what do you think? A hen mother who had only one chicken, deserted that and went to roost; and this one little black chicken tried to make friends with the sisterless little white chicken. ”

“ For a long time the amount of chickens brought in by "the boys" puzzled me. They had little or no money, and chickens were always high-priced. I had often noticed that the men in the wards were busy preparing fish-hooks, and yet, though they often "went fishing," they brought no fish to be cooked. One day the mystery was fully solved. An irate old lady called upon Dr. McAllister, holding at the end of a string a fine, large chicken, and vociferously proclaiming her wrongs. ”

“ Remove from the chicken every bit of fat and skin. Cut the best portions of the meat into dice with a sharp knife. Chopping is apt to make it ragged and uneven in appearance. Cut the celery in like manner, and set both aside in a cool place, when you have strewed a little salt over the chicken. To the boiling water add the corn-starch, and boil fast until it thickens well. Then stir in the chicken-essence, skimmed from the top of the cold liquor in which the fowls were boiled. ”

“ Suddenly I heard a wild shriek, and, parting my curtains, saw the porter dashing down the aisle with Poky Pry clanging distractedly to his kinky black head. She had crept out of her basket and made her way to the berth above the one he was making, to watch him. When he straightened up she evidently thought his wooly hair some new variety of mouse and she made a spring for it.
“Tell Chicken Little, Kitty has kept me from being lonesome and is a great comfort. Uncle Joseph keeps asking questions about Chicken Little. His girls are all boys and grown up. ”

“ Procure four very young spring chickens, not trussed, cut off the feet below the joints, break the bone in each leg, then cut an incision in the thigh of the chicken and turn the legs into it, cut the chickens open down the back-bone, and beat them flat, fry five minutes in butter in a sauté-pan, season with a little pepper and salt, egg and bread-crumb them all over, lay them on a gridiron over a moderate fire, and broil a nice light-brown colour ”

“ Cut up the remains of two roast chickens, which put into a saucepan with a pint of consommé (stock, Art. 1) , some branches of parsley, inclosing a clove, a clove of garlic, two bay-leaves, salt, and white pepper, a very little thyme, and tie all together. Boil one hour, and strain. Put two ounces of butter in another saucepan, a tablespoonful of flour, a teaspoonful of corn-starch, mix thoroughly together, and add the liquid in which the remains of the chicken were broiled. Stir with a spoon until boiling, reduce one quarter, pour in two wineglasses of cream and one wineglass of sherry. ”

“ Clean and prepare two chickens, cut up in pieces. Cut half a pound of bacon in small pieces, and put on the fire, in a saucepan, for about five minutes; add your chicken, and, when colored on one side, turn over on the other. When done, pour off all the grease in your saucepan, moisten your chicken with half a pint of Spanish sauce (Art. 80) and a claret-glass of white wine. Peel two dozen little onions, put them in a frying-pan with a little lard, and, when colored, add them to your chicken a moment before serving, with a pinch of pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a dozen mushrooms cut in quarters. ”

“ Another precaution necessary to be taken with early chicken, even after they have attained some size, is to avoid letting them run in the grass whilst it is wet with dew, otherwise they are very apt to get chilled, and die with cramp. When hens are cooped care must be taken to supply them with gravel and a little mortar rubbish, or broken oyster shells,—the first being required for the digestion of the food, the second to furnish the materials of the bones of the growing chicken. ”

“ It was a chicken! a most beautiful yellow chicken, with bright black eyes and a little sharp beak, and,—oh! what was this? Why! why! the chicken’s head came off, and the chicken’s body was all full of sugar-plums!
“Oh! oh! oh!” cried little Hal. “Mammy! Mammy! come and look at dis chicken! He can spit his head out!” ”

“ A smart fire is better than a slow one; but they must be tended closely. Slices of bread, buttered, salted, and peppered, put into the stomach (not the crop) are excellent.
Chickens should boil about an hour. If old, they should {54} boil longer. In as little water as will cook them. Chicken-broth made like mutton-broth.
FRICASSEED CHICKEN, BROWN.
Singe the chickens; cut them in pieces; pepper, salt, and flour them; fry them in fresh butter, till they are very brown: take the chickens out, and make a good gravy, into which put sweet herbs (marjoram or sage) according to your taste ”

“ In half an hour Jane was established. My enthusiasm waned a bit the next day when I found all the pigeons in the neighborhood fluttering about the open door, fearlessly perching on the invalid's lap and shoulders while she fed them high-priced rice and dainty bits of dearly-bought chicken.
I dispersed the pigeons with a flap of my apron and with forced mildness protested. "I'm obliged to ask you to be less generous. The price of rice is higher than those pigeons can fly and, as for chicken, it's about ten sen a feather. There's abundant food for you ”

“ I think he looked on Ukridge as an amiable lunatic, and was content to rough it a little in order to enjoy the privilege of observing his movements. He made no complaints of the food. When a man has supported life for a number of years on incessant army beef, the monotony of daily chicken and eggs scarcely strikes him. ”

“ Your family might prefer it with a little less ginger—but then again, maybe they'll love it this strong. 1 chicken, cut in serving pieces 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon flour 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1/2 cup rose wine 1/2 cup soy sauce 1/2 cup oil 1/4 cup water Preheat oven to 350oF. Place chicken in single layer, skin side up, in shallow baking pan. In a mixing bowl combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. ”

“ Great care should be taken that the very young chicks do not run about the wet ground or on damp grass, as this is the most prominent and fatal cause of disease. While under the coop with their mother, a shallow pan or plate of water should be supplied to the chicks, as in a deeper vessel they are liable to drench themselves and take cold, or possibly to get drowned.
CHICKEN OR FOWL SALAD. 931. INGREDIENTS.—The remains of cold roast or boiled chicken, 2 lettuces, a little endive, 1 cucumber, a few slices of boiled beetroot, salad-dressing No. ”

“ Why must the youth of the land adopt those hideous imitations of foreign clothes? The flower-like children wear on their heads the grotesque combinations of muslin and chicken feathers they called hats? There are miles of ancient moats around the city, filled with lotus, the great pink-and-white blos [Pg 199] soms giving joy to the eye as its roots gave food for the body. Slowly these stretches of loveliness were being turned into dreary levels of sand for the roadbed of a trolley. Even now the quiet of the city was broken by the clang of the street-car gong. ”

“ Things were not going well on our model chicken farm. Little accidents marred the harmony of life in the fowl-run. On one occasion a hen—not Aunt Elizabeth, I am sorry to say,—fell into a pot of tar, and came out an unspeakable object. Ukridge put his spare pair of tennis shoes in the incubator to dry them, and permanently spoiled the future of half-a-dozen eggs which happened to have got there first. Chickens kept straying into the wrong coops, where they got badly pecked by the residents. Edwin slew a couple of Wyandottes, and was only saved from execution by the tears of Mrs. ”

“ After the chickens are cleaned and trussed fold them in a nice white cloth, put them in a large stew-pan and cover them with boiling water; boil them gently, and skim carefully as long as any scum rises; let them simmer slowly as that will make them plump and white, while fast boiling will make them dark and lose flavor. When done lay them on a hot dish, and pour celery, oyster, or egg sauce over them. Serve some also in a boat, as it keeps hot longer than when poured over the fowls. Boiled tongue or ham should be served with boiled chicken. ”

“ Take off the scum as fast as it rises. Take them up and carve them in the usual way. Put part of the water in which they were boiled into a spider or stew-pan. For two chickens rub a piece of butter as large as an egg, and a spoonful of flour together, and stir into the water as it boils up. Add some salt, and a gill of cream, or milk. Lay in the pieces of chicken, cover the pan close, and stew them gently eight or ten minutes. Parsley cut fine is a decided improvement. ”

“ The younger the bird, the milder the flavor. A game hen, which is five weeks old, will have the mildest flavor of all. A broiler, at seven weeks, will still have a quite mild and delicate flavor; a roaster, on the other hand, is usually about five weeks older than a broiler and it will have a much more pronounced "chickeny" flavor. (Frank and I enjoy chicken at all ages, but if we had to choose on flavor alone, we'd most often go for the roasters.) For a really strong, chickeny flavor, see if you can find fowl or spent hens or stewing hens. ”

“ Beat ten eggs very light, add to them a quart of rich milk, with a quarter of a pound of butter melted, and some pepper and salt; stir in as much flour as will make a thin good batter; take four young chickens, and after cleaning them nicely, cut off the legs, wings, &c. put them all in a sauce pan, with some salt and water, and a bundle of thyme and parsley, boil them till nearly done, then take the chicken from the water and put it in the batter, pour it in a deep dish, and bake it; send nice white gravy in a boat. ”

“ I am called Chicken Hawk, and Hen Hawk, also, though I don't deserve either of those names. There are members of our family, and oh, what a lot of us there are—as numerous as the Woodpeckers—who do drop down into the barnyards and right before the farmer's eyes carry off a Chicken. Red Squirrels, to my notion, are more appetizing than Chickens; so are Mice, Frogs, Centipedes, Snakes, and Worms. A bird once in a while I like for variety, and between you and me, if I am hungry, I pick up a chicken now and then, that has strayed outside the barnyard. ”

“ In a few hours they are able to run about and follow their parent; they do not require to be fed in the nest like most birds, but pick up the food which their mother shows them; and repose at night huddled up beneath her wings. The chicken during its development in the egg is nourished by the yolk, and the remaining portion of the yolk passes into its body previous to its leaving the shell, being designed for its first nourishment ”

“ The young chicken, a short time after it leaves the egg, knows how to take care of itself nearly as well as the young mound-bird. It can run after its mother, use its eyes, pick up food, and answer the call of the old hen ”

“ Gentleman seated on Treasury Bench, with deeply-bayed shirt-front, and head closely bent over copy of Bill, "of a motherly hen gathering its brood under its wings, and trying to make things comfortable all round. Sometimes, when one of the brood grows a trifle importunate, the motherly expression on the expansive face sharpens, and the chicken is pecked at. ”

“ In a young chicken, it will be smooth and unmarred; in an old one, it will be rough and probably darker in color. If the feet have been left on, they too will serve to indicate the age. The feet of a young chicken are smooth and soft; whereas, those of an old bird are rough, hard, and scaly. The claws of a young one are short and sharp; but as the bird grows older they grow stronger and become blunt and marred with use. The spur, which is a projection just above the foot on the back of each leg, is small in the young chicken, and increases in size as the age increases. ”

“ Then he took off the cover and tipped the pail gently over in the middle of the kitchen table and out came ten of the fluffiest, downiest little chickens that any of them had ever seen.
"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the children delightedly. "Are they really ours? Where did you get them?"
"They are power-house chickens," papa replied, smiling at their enthusiasm—"hatched right in the engine room!" ”

“ When the chickens are all out and dry, the hen would naturally come off and take them to where she could find them suitable food, such as eggs of ants, gentles, and small germinating seeds. The best food that can be given young chickens for the first week is custard, made of equal proportions of egg and milk, beaten up together, and just set by the fire. They should always be allowed from the very first plenty of green food, lettuces running to seed, dandelions, or onion tops chopped very fine. Rice boiled in milk, and with a little freshly-ground meal, is very good. ”

“ Betty and Dot and Peggy loved [62] to help feed the chickens. Every morning after breakfast Mrs. White would come out into the yard with a big pan of corn-meal mush and Mary would follow with a smaller pan of bread crumbs. Then both mother and little girl would call, "Chick, chick, chick! Chick, chick, chick! Chick, chick, chick!" as if they were singing the same tune over and over. At this, such a hurry and scurry as there would be!
It seemed as if every fowl on the farm heard the call and was coming. There were big hens and little hens, brown hens, black hens, white hens, and speckled hens. ”