When chicken pie or any similar dish is written in a menu as of some particular style, it, of course, carries the implication that there are more ways than one. A very small variation or addition of vegetables, mushrooms or wine may suffice to change the name, It is only necessary to say here that one way by which young chickens, squirrels, rabbits, etc., are partly fried in butter before being covered with a crust, and the gravy in the pan is made rich eggs and and light brown, may be found detailed at No. 209, for pigeon pie, and the following is the other principal method, or country style:
1 large fowl or 2 chickens.
1 slice of fat salt pork-2 ounces.
1 large potato.
1 teaspoonful of minced onion.
1 of black pepper.
1 of salt.
1 pound of pie crust.
2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
A little parsley.
The salt pork is only a seasoning, and may be dispensed with or substituted with butter or the tat of the fowls.
Cut the fowl in 6 pieces if large, first divid- ing it in half through the back and breast, chop each side in three, taking a piece out between the leg and the wing. Cook the gizzard and heart with the fowl, but leave out the liver, which is apt to impart its flavor to the whole dish. Boil the meat till tender, which may take anywhere from 1 hour to 4, according to the kind of fowl. It does not make much difference how old the fowl is if it be boiled accordingly with the seasonings added. It will make the liquor rich as jelly after a while.
Half an hour before taking the fowl from the fire put in the potato, cut in pieces, and after- ward thicken the liquor with flour and water and mix in some chopped parsley.
Turn it into a baking pan, dredge a little more black pepper over the top and a little flour over that, then cover with plain pie paste and bake it 1⁄2 hour.
Whitehead’s Family Cook Book, 1891