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Broiled Chicken
Split the chicken down the back and remove the backbone. If the chicken be very young and tender--and only such are suitable for broiling--remove the breast-bone before cooking, or cut the bone through the middle, lengthwise and crosswise from the inside, without cutting into the meat. In serving, divide through the breast from the neck down, and serve half to each person; or if a smaller portion be desired, divide each half crosswise through the breast, leaving the wing on one part and the leg on the other. If the chicken be large, break the joints of the legs, thighs, and wings, without breaking through the skin; cut the tendons on the thighs from the inside, cut the membrane on the inside of the collar-bone and wing-joint, and remove the breast-bone. This may all be done before cooking, and will not injure the appearance of the outside.
In serving, separate the legs and wings at the joints, then separate the breast from the lower part, and divide the breast lengthwise and crosswise. Carving-scissors are convenient for cutting any kind of broiled game or poultry.
Instructions for cutting up a chicken before it is cooked so that it can be divided neatly at the table afterwards. This is the modern spatchcock, and the reasoning behind it has not changed at all.
- Broiled means grilledBroiling here is cooking over or under direct fierce heat, not baking. The bird is split down the back, the backbone taken out, and laid flat to cook on both sides — exactly what is now called spatchcocking or butterflying.
- Why the bones come outTaking out the breastbone and cracking the leg, thigh and wing joints lets the bird lie flat and stops it curling as the flesh tightens in the heat, so it cooks evenly and comes off the fire in one piece. The mechanism is the same today and so is the method.
- Cut from the insideThe instruction to cut the tendons on the thighs and the membrane inside the collar-bone from the inside, without breaking the skin, is the whole craft of the page. All the work is hidden and the outside arrives looking untouched.
- Only young birdsThe warning that only a very young and tender bird will broil has quietly expired. Nearly every chicken in a shop is now a young bird killed at a few weeks, so the distinction being drawn here — between a broiler, a roaster and a boiling fowl — no longer appears at the counter, and it is the old fowl needing hours of stewing that has become hard to find.
- Half eachThe page serves half a bird to a person, or a quarter where a smaller portion is wanted. Birds sold now are markedly larger than the ones these portions assume, so a quarter is the realistic helping and a half is a great deal of food.
- Carving scissorsThe page recommends them for any broiled game or poultry and it is right. Poultry shears cost very little, cut cleanly through the small bones this method leaves behind, and do in a second what a knife does badly.
The reason any of this detail exists is that the bird was divided in the dining room, in front of the people about to eat it. A carver working at the table could not be seen wrestling with a joint, so the kitchen did the structural work in advance, and the page is explicit that doing so will not injure the appearance of the outside. That one clause describes the entire arrangement of a formal table: the preparation concealed, the performance public, and a book like this needed because the performance could go wrong in front of everybody. It is also a glimpse of the household’s equipment. The writer expects a fire or a gridiron for broiling, a sharp knife, and a pair of carving scissors kept for the purpose, and she assumes the person reading is the one who will be holding them while the guests watch.