Transformers

Left Overs: How to Transform them into Palatable and Wholesome Dishes, with many New and Valuable Recipes, by Mrs. Sara Tyson Rorer (1898).

Indian Hash. Chop fine sufficient cold-roasted duck, chicken or turkey to make one pint. cut a good-sized onion in very thin slices. Pare, core, and chop fine one apple. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, add the apple and the onion; toss until brown, then ad not more than an eighth of a teaspoonful of powdered mace, a half teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of curry powder, a tablespoonful of flour, a teaspoonful of sugar; mix and add a half pint of stock or water; now add the meat, stir constantly until smoking hot, then stand over hot water, covering closely for twenty minutes. Add two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice and serve in a border of rice.

Mock Terrapin or a la Newburg. Pieces of cold-roasted chicken, turkey or duck may be used for making terrapin or a la Newburg. Cut the meat into pieces of fairly good size; measure and to each pint of this allow a half pint of sauce; rub together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour. Rub to a smooth paste the hard-boiled yolks of three eggs; add to the butter and flour a gill and a half (three-quarters of a cup) of milk; stir until smoking hot. Do not let the mixture boil; then add this a little at a time to the yolks of the eggs, rubbing until you have a perfectly smooth golden sauce; press this through a sieve. Before beginning the sauce, sprinkle the chicken with four tablespoonfuls of sherry or Madeira, the latter preferable. Add the chicken to the sauce, stir until each piece is thoroughly covered; add a half teaspoonful of salt, just a drop of extract of nutmeg or a grating of nutmeg, an eight of a spoon of white pepper (black pepper, of course, may be used); cover and stand over hot water, stirring occasionally until the mixture is smoking hot.

Chicken Cutlets. Chop cold cooked chicken or turkey very fine; to each pint allow a half can of mushrooms chopped fine. Put one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour into a saucepan, mix, and add a half pint of chicken stock. When smooth and thick take from the fire, add the yolks of two eggs, the chicken and mushrooms, a teaspoonful of salt, quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper, a teaspoonful of onion juice, a grating of nutmeg, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley; stir over the fire for a moment turn out to cool; when cold form into cutlet-shaped croquettes, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat. these may be served plain, with a garnish of peas, or they may be served with sauce Bechamel.

(Mrs. Rorer was the doyenne of the Philadelphia Cooking School and a widely recognized culinary expert during the last few decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th. A list of her cookbooks available online in various formats is here).