On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:54:10 +0300, "Opinicus"
wrote:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/butterflychicken.html

This is one of those "Now why didn't I think of that?" things. I love roast
chicken but the Julia Child method of hovering over the bird like some
guardian angel never appealed to me.

Butterflying turns the bird into a more or less two-dimensional mass whose
cooking is easy to manage. This method didn't exist 50-30 years ago so far
as I can tell.

Who invented it and when in the last two decades?


Spatchcock - a chicken butterflied by removing the back bone - is an old
term. It can be dated back to the 18th century.

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, by Francis Grose (1731-1791)
First published in 1785, reprinted in 1811. This is from the 1811
edition (courtesy of Project Gutenberg)

SPATCH COCK. [Abbreviation of DISPATCH COCK.] A hen just
killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned,
split, and broiled: an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion.