Minces were quite popular in nineteenth-century American cooking. I often had minced chicken and turkey and sometimes lamb on toast as a child, and I always loved the simple, soothing flavor of those dishes. If you haven’t got cream sauce on hand, just use cream and let it cook down a little.

　　

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter

　　2 or 3 button mushrooms or cremini, finely chopped

　　1 scallion, finely chopped

　　1 tablespoon Madeira

　　3/4–1 cup cooked chicken, cut into very small pieces—i.e., minced

　　Salt and freshly ground pepper

　　1/4 cup Cream Sauce (page 164), or 2 tablespoons heavy cream

　　1 slice good white bread or English muffin, toasted

　　A sprinkling of tarragon, fresh or dried

　　

Step 1

Melt the butter in a small pan, and add the mushrooms and scallion. Cook gently for about 5 minutes, to soften. Splash in the Madeira, and cook down until syrupy.

　　

Step 2

Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and heat through, stirring in enough of the cream sauce to bind the chicken or use heavy cream. Spoon everything over toast, and sprinkle a little tarragon on top.

　　

Step 3

I like to surround my mince with a green vegetable, such as asparagus or peas when in season.

　　

Variations

Step 4

This mince is good made with the remains of a holiday turkey, and if you have some chestnuts left over, by all means use a couple of them, roughly chopped, in place of the mushrooms.

　　

Step 5

Another accompaniment I tried recently was some young milkweed pods, their tender leaves and buds still closed. I steamed them for about 8 minutes, then bathed them in sweet butter and a few drops of lemon. It made for an early-summer treat, just right with an old-fashioned New England mince.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.