A French Pilou

Adapted from A French Pilou, in The Picayune's Creole Cook Book (1910), preserved in the Open Recipe Archive's Louisiana Creole Kitchen collection and marked public domain. The method is condensed from the original and the quantities are restated in modern units; see the archive record at https://github.com/AdamBouhmad/open-recipe-archive/blob/main/collections/louisiana-creole/recipes/a-french-pilou.md.

1. Boil the fowls according to recipe

2. When done, take out about a pint of the liquor in which it was boiled, and put the rice, which you will have washed well, into the remaining boiling broth

3. Let it cook well for twenty minutes, and then add two tablespoonfuls of butter to the rice

4. Butter the bottom of a dish, and put upon it one-half of the rice, spreading out nicely

5. Lay upon it the chickens, which have been disjointed and buttered

6. Add the remaining chicken broth, pouring over the chicken

7. Then cover the fowls with the other half of the rice

8. Make the top perfectly smooth

9. Spread over it the yolks of two eggs, which have been well beaten

10. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, and dot with little bits of butter here and there

11. Set in the oven, let it brown, and serve hot