to paste, bringing it to
full cooking with water poured little by little. The flour is used to
keep the sauce together and give it color, but care must be taken not to
burn it, because in that case the sauce would have an unpleasant taste
and a black, instead of a reddish color. The addition of dried
mushrooms, previously softened in the water and slightly boiled in the
sauce will add greatly to its taste.

As has been said the sauce can well be used to season spaghetti or
risotto. The stewed veal can be served with some vegetable.

40

CHICKEN BONED AND STUFFED

(Pollo dissossato ripieno)

To remove the bones from a chicken the following instructions will be
found useful.

Wash and singe the fowl: take off the head and legs, and remove the
tendons. When a fowl is to be boned it is not drawn. The work of boning
is not difficult, but it requires practice. The skin must not be broken.
Use a small pointed knife cut the skin down the full length of the back;
then, beginning at the neck, carefully scrape the meat away from the
bone, keeping the knife close to the bone. When the joints of the wings
and legs are met, break them back and proceed to free the meat from the
carcass. When one side is free, turn the fowl and do the same on the
other side. The skin is drawn tightly over the breast-bone, and care
must be used to detach it without piercing the skin. When the meat is
free from the carcass, remove the bones from the legs and wings, turning
the meat down or inside out, as the bones are exposed, and using care
not to break the skin at the joints. The end bones of the wing cannot be
removed, and the whole end joint may be cut off or left as it is.

Now that the fowl is boned make the following stuffing, regulating the
quantity on the size of the chicken. Chop half a pound or more, of lean
veal, and grind it afterwards, so that it may make a paste. Add a large
piece of bread crumb soaked in broth, a tablespoon of grated cheese,
three yolks of egg, salt, pepper and, if desired, just a taste of
nutmeg. Finally mix also one or two slices of ham and tongue, cut in
small pieces. Stuff the boned chicken with this filling, sew up the
opening, wrap it tightly in a cloth and put to cook in water on a low
fire. When taken from the water, remove the wrapping and brown it, first
with butter, then in a sauce made in the following way: Break all the
bones that have been extracted from the chicken, the head and neck
included, an