Buttered Chickens
Take two or three chickens according to the size of your dish, scald, skin, and split them down the back, and cut them in four quarters; lay them in milk and water for half an hour, then take as much water as will cover them; put them down in a sauce- pan, and when the water boils, put in your chickens with a little parsley, an onion, some cloves and a little salt; let them boil a quarter of an hour, then take them out of the water, and take a little of the sauce and liquor, a quarter of a pound of butter; then grate a little nutmeg and a little pounded lemon- peel ; add to it three spoonfuls of sweet cream, two yolks of eggs mixed with butter ; put in your chickens, and give them a boil together ; season it to your taste ; you must garnish it with a little lemon-peel.
The New Practice of Cookery, Patry, Baking, and Preserving, Donat and Hudson, Edinburgh 1804
This works in a large Dutch Oven with Cornish Game hens if you want to be fancy. Cut the backbone from the game hens but no need to quarter them any further, and invert them on a cutting board so that they are breast up, then push down on the breast to break the ribcage so they lie flat. This is called spatchcocking, and is a great way to get birds to fit into a Dutch Oven, and to keep the bird(s) moist if you were going to bake/roast them. So IF you find a recipe that reads something like, "First, spatchcock your bird" that's what is meant. Then simply follow the directions. This is also good for small game birds like woodcock, pheasant, dove, and quail. This boiling recipe was likely more popular when every chicken was "free range" or if one was being frugal and eating a few "laying hens" that were past their laying years (it IS from a Scottish cookbook, so waste not want not, eh?)
LD
