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.