SC - Apicius and Fried Chicken

[david friedman]

In a message dated 9/1/98 7:35:28 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
PhlipinA at aol.com writes:

>  secondly, if Chicken Fricassee is as wildly variant
>  across the Southern states as it appears to be? Those of you with a
Southern
>  background, please give the area you're from with your variants, and you
>  Yanks, please name your sources as well. Your grandmother's cook or
neighbor
>  counts.

When we were having this chat I sent two recipes from wildly variant cook
books.  Neither of which clicks with my memory of fricassee.  I am from
Georgia, my mother is from Louisiana, and my Grandmother was  from Alabama.
What we called Fricassee sounds more like what Phlip describes than what I got
from either of those cookbooks.

My Fricassee

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. chicken cut into frying pieces
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp each black pepper, red pepper, paprika
2 TBS Lard, shortening, or oil
2 cups chicken stock
2 TBS butter 
2 TBS cold water
2 TBS corn starch
1 cup sliced mushrooms

Clean and dry chicken.  Mix flour, salt, pepper, and paprika in a bag, and
shake the chicken to coat.  Brown a few pieces at a time at medium temp.  When
all are golden brown and crispy, remove the chicken and add the stock to the
pot and increase the heat.  In a separate pan brown the mushrooms in the
butter.  Add to the pot.  Return the chicken to the pot. Mix the corn starch
and cold water to form a thin paste, and stir into the pot to thicken.  Remove
from the pot and serve over cat-head biscuits or rice. 

Mordonna
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================