Civil War Recipe:

FRICASSEE CHICKEN

Original Recipe:

Cut up two chickens, very neatly, put them in a saucepan with several slices of pork, with pepper and salt; let them boil until quite tender, then lay them out in a dish; take a table-spoonful of flour and a piece of butter as big as an egg, roll them together until they are well mingled; put it in the saucepan with the gravy, add a cup of cream, put the chicken back, and let it simmer together until it is done to a rich, light brown; lay some toasted crackers in a deep dish, and pour it on.

Source:

Collins, Anna Maria; The Great Western Cook Book, Table Receipts, Adapted to Western Housewifery. New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1857.

Modern Day Adaptation:

None, recipe followed exactly. Don't worry about cutting the chickens neatly, as you can see from the photo the double cooking process renders the meat so tender it simply falls apart in pieces. The sort of "toasted crackers" called for here are probably items of a thickness not commercially available today, resembling nothing so much as sea-biscuit or hardtack. Substitute saltines, crackers of your choosing, or toasted bread.

Results:

The dish, while eminently edible, is bland to a degree almost impossible to overstate. Salt and pepper added at table helps to a degree, and the cream adds richness, but the modern cook should feel free to add herbs and spices of any sort favored by the family. We added the lemon slices purely for photographic purposes but the flavor proved to be a welcome addition as well.