The Saturday Sip: January 14th, 2023
Your inspirational etiquette tip, Emily Post quote and an Emily Post Cookbook recipe to start your weekend off right!
The Tip
Emily had particular ideas about whether or not to state your relationship to someone when introducing them, apparently labeling someone as “my friend” ran the risk of alienating or insulting others who didn’t get such a distinction. Today we are much more casual about it. Stating your relationship not only provides more information but can give those being introduced some low-hanging conversational fruit to pick. Let’s say Ashley is going to introduce her fiance Charlie and her friend from work Annie. “Charlie, this Annie Forrester, my friend from work. Annie, this is my fiance Charlie Strand.” They can follow up with something like, “Great to meet you, Charlie, are you getting excited about the wedding?” or “Annie, it’s so nice to put a face to the name. What do you think of the project you and Ashley are working on?”
The Recipe
In her biography of Emily Post, Emily Post Daughter of The Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners, author Laura Claridge writes that when creating her famous character of Mrs. Three-In-One for the 2nd (1927) edition of Etiquette, Emily practiced serving dinner with only a “kitchen helper” and served Chicken Hash to her guests. Emily’s 1951 cookbook has a few recipes for poultry hash so we chose the simple Chicken Hash with Herbs for today’s recipe.
Pg 148 Emily Post’s Cookbook, 1951
Chicken Hash With Herbs
Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
4 or 5 shallots, chopped
5 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup white wine (optional)
2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tsp each friend tarragon and thyme
3/4 cup cream
Directions
In a good-sized skillet, lightly brown the shallots in 3 Tbsp of butter, add the chicken, salt, and pepper, and stir. Reduce flame [heat] and stir from time to time to prevent sticking while keeping the chicken hot.
In a saucepan, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp butter, blend in the flour [to create a roux,] add the stock, or if you have some white wine add 1/3 cup of that and 2/3 cup of stock, and the herbs. Stir and bring to a boil. When sauce has thickened, add it to the hash in the skillet.
Add the cream, stir, and serve when all is hot.
The Quote
That’s it for the Saturday Sip! We hope you enjoyed a little etiquette inspiration for the weekend. Let us know if you try Emily’s Chicken Hash with Herbs! Keep an eye out for Monday’s podcast drop.
Until then, cheers!
Lizzie and Dan
Seems like a variation of Chicken a la King, sans the bread pastry. I bet it's delicious.
This recipe looks delicious, I'm going to try it!