Lost recipes

tines. (I think that means to get all the organs out. Also, the recipe doesn’t say, but you’re going to want to get the meat off the bones to proceed.) Cut the meat in pieces about two inches square. Put it into a saucepan with half a pound of fat salt pork, chopped fine, a spoonful of pepper, two tablespoons full of salt, and enough boiling water to cover it. Place the saucepan over the fire where the chicken will cook gently until it is tender.”

Then cover it with a crust, like the one from the recipe above, and let the contents cook for another 25 minutes.

I’ve read that it’s important to let a freshly killed chicken rest a day or so before you cook it, so that the meat isn’t tough.

Grand prize winning Southern style chicken pot pie

Now let’s jump ahead about 90 years to the 1981 Advertiser-Journal Cookbook, where Mary Ellen Andrews took the grand prize in the Montgomery Advertiser-Alabama Journal recipe cookbook contest with her chicken pot pie. According to the Advertiser, she was the wife of a minister in Ozark and a mother of two sons when she won, and learned to cook from her mother.

Here’s what you’ll need to make Andrews’ dish:

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped carrot

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup of half-and-half

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

teaspoon pepper

4 cups chopped chicken

Parsley (optional)

Basic pastry

Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in butter or margarine for 10 minutes. Add flour to sauteed mixture, stirring well. Cook one minute, stirring constantly. Combine broth and half-and-half. Gradually stir in broth mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper. Add chicken, stirring well. Pour chicken mixture into a shallow two quart casserole. Top with pastry (again, you could use the recipe from the beginning, or just use a store-bought pastry sheet). Cut slits to allow steam to escape. Decorate with pastry cut-outs if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Garnish with parsley, if desired. This yields six generous servings.

“It’s best when it’s first taken out of the oven, and it smells so good,” Andrews told the Advertiser 43 years ago.

IF YOU TRY IT

If you decide to try one of these lost recipes, please send us a photo and a note on how it went. Send it in an email titled “Lost Recipes” to Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.