Gumbo

Ingredients

• 1 tender, fat chicken, nearly grown
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 2 thick slices ham
• 2 onions
• 6 large ripe tomatoes
• 1/2 large pod mild red pepper
• 1 teaspoon thyme and parsley mixed
• 1 pint okra
• 3 quarts water

Instructions

1. Cut a tender, fat chicken, nearly grown, into joints and season well with salt and pepper.
2. Fry for ten minutes in the fat from half a pound of bacon, with two thick slices of ham.
3. Then add two onions chopped fine, six large ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped, adding with them their juice, half a large pod of mild red pepper cut small, a teaspoonful of minced thyme and parsley mixed, and a pint of tender sliced okra, stemmed and cut lengthwise.
4. Cook altogether, watching all the time and stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until everything is well-browned.
5. Then add three quarts fresh-boiled water, on the full boil. Set the pot where it will barely simmer and cook an hour longer, taking the same pains against scorching.
6. Cook the rice to eat with the gumbo separately — it must never be cooked in the pot. Wash it until the water runs clear from it, drain it, then toss it into a wide kettle of water on the bubbling boil and cook for twenty minutes. The water must be salted to taste.
7. Drain the rice in a collander, and set it after draining in the oven for a minute. The grains should stand out separate, but be very tender.
8. Rice thus cooked, and served with plenty of butter, is excellent as a vegetable.