The Perdue Chicken Cookbook

past their prime are good pureed in cream soups. When thickening such

recipes with egg, prevent curdling by stirring a cup of hot soup first into

egg, then back into soup. Also, be careful to keep the soup from boiling

once you've added the egg.

Most soups develop better flavor if you'll store them, covered, in the

refrigerator for a day or two. To seal in the flavor while you're storing

the soup, don't remove the fat that's on top. When you're ready to serve

the soup you can lift the congealed fat off as a sheet. To remove the last

particles of fat, place unscented paper towel on the surface. Draw towel to

one side and remove.

When freezing stock, allow 1/2- to 1-inch head room in containers so soup

can expand. Freeze some in quart-sized or larger containers for use in

soups. Ladle the rest into ice cube trays or muffin cups for adding to

vegetables, sauces, or gravies. Freeze and then transfer frozen stock cubes

to a plastic bag or freezer container and keep frozen until ready to use.

Soup may be stored in the refrigerator two or three days or frozen for

three to four months. When reheating, make sure to bring the broth to a

boil. Soups enriched with eggs are, unfortunately, not good candidates for

reheating; they're apt to curdle.

BASIC CHICKEN STOCK

Makes about 8 cups

If you need to, you can make the following substitutions for the roaster: 1

stewing hen or spent fowl (5-7 pounds); 2 fresh young chickens (2-4 pounds);

or 6 pounds fresh chicken parts, preferably dark meat portions. (As I

mentioned earlier, young chickens will not provide as rich a flavor as the

older birds but the taste will still be good.) Cooking times for meat will

vary from 3 hours for stewing hens or spent fowl, to 1-1/2 hours for 2

smaller birds to slightly less time for parts. In each case, time from

beginning of simmer and return bones to stock for an additional 1/2 hour

after you've removed the meat.

Chicken stock is delicious served as a simple broth with herbs,

shredded or julienne vegetables, slivers of meat, or rice. It also is the

base from which countless other soups are made.

roaster (5-7 pounds)

chicken giblets, except liver

large bay leaf

whole cloves

teaspoon white peppercorns

1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

quarts water or enough to cover chicken generously

cup dry white wine, optional

medium onions, quartered

large carrots, sliced

ribs celery, sliced

leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced, optional

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