What's "Spatchcock" in French?

[bleudauvergne]

Today we decided we'd book a conference room on the sly and each bring something. We smuggled a bottle of wine in a box that once contained binding spirals (wine's allowed, we just don't want to look like we're having a great time, that's all, people would get jelous). Jacqueline made a lovely terrine d'aubergines with a tomato coulis. Rita contributed a tablecloth and a jar of rabit confit maison. I slathered leftover mushroom soup on toasts painted with jest a little bit of duck fat and salt and then topped them with lettuce and braised carrots and called it a "sandwich" (very bad idea hatched at 06h30 this morning but that's ok because I'm American.) Someone brought 6 servings of fromage blanc. Someone else a bottle of water and a large chocolate bar. Someone else, leftover eclairs which she'd carefully sliced and presented. In short, lunch.

They talked and I listened, politics, the office, until the topic turned to food.

First they ranted and raved about their teenage sons eating them out of house and home! I could not believe this conversation because it is exactly the one that has taken place here on e-gullet in the past couple of days.

"you fill the fridge on Monday and it's empty by Wednesday!"

"Pasta. Pasta is the answer."

"the girls, they eat much less".

(strangely they attribute this to "control" and not the growth factor)

Then it goes to Jacqueline's terrine.

Then, the whine. I'm cooking the same thing over and over again, I have no ideas.

I speak. When I speak, people usually listen because I'm usually silent.

"I have an idea. Take a chicken. A good chicken fermier. Push tarragon, parsley, and sage under its skin, slather the outside with butter and garlic, and put it on the broche. "

"I usually add cheese to my herbs. Stuff it nice and full"

"Oh you can stuff just about anything under the skin, sausage, it's wonderful."

"Under the skin? What? What do you mean?" (lady with no ideas)

"Well you have to not be afraid to touch a chicken..." (laughter.)

"My husband and I used to do this a lot when we were first married. But what we'd do is cut it, and flatten it, and cook it like that." (she's got her hands together and spread, palms down, to show.)

"Yes, to cut and flatten is good".

"I'm going to do that, tonight, yes."

I'm thinking, 'these women are spatchcockers, they are'.

But is there a term for this in French? A cooking term?

Please advise.

[gingerly]

could it really be

Poulet à la crapaudine

?!

http://daniel.coutanceau.free.fr/gastronomie.html

[slkinsey]

To spatchcock: fendre pour griller

Spatchcocked: fendu pour griller

Maybe?

[bleudauvergne]

Is there one word? I mean, can I say "that paticular word" and mean spatchcock? - A verb is what I'm after. If the term is buried in names of dishes or some kind of description you give to a butcher, so be it. But when discussing, isn't there a verb for this action?

[Jonathan Day]

could it really be?  Poulet à la crapaudine

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Tout à fait. That's what it is.

"En crapaudine" because the chicken is flattened to look like a toad -- un crapaud -- some say like a toad that's been run over on the highway.

[Jonathan Day]

By the way, I don't think there's a single verb that corresponds to "spatchcock". One recipe for pigeonneaux en crapaudine tells you to "ouvrir en crapaudine", i.e. open them in the form of a toad. Here's another example, from Cuisine A-Z:

Demandez à votre volailler de préparer le poulet en crapaudine : il va lui fendre tout le long du dos et l'aplatir (en écrasant légèrement la poitrine, ce qui lui donnera la forme d'un crapaud).

I.e. "ask your poultry seller to prepare the chicken en crapaudine. He's going to cut it along the backbone (fendre tout le long du dos) and flatten it (aplatir), pressing down on the breast, giving it the form of a toad."

[kerriar]

I'm not sure whether this can be applied to a chicken but when I tell my butcher that I want a gigot split open and boned for the barbacue, he describes the end result as "en papillon" (trans: as a butterfly) using the words as if they had general accceptance. Perhaps this applies only to lamb - I've never asked him to split a chicken.

BTW - he's Irish and runs one of the best and most popular butcher's shops in Brussels - Jack O'Shea's on rue Le Titian (near Schumann).

[GG Mora]

We've never been above neologizing in the past...why chicken out now? If a spatchcocked chicken is poulet en crapaudine then the verb that gets you there should be crapauder, non?

Je crapaude

Tu crapaudes

Il crapaude

Nous crapaudons

Vous crapaudez

Ils crapaudent

Edited to fix rusty French verb conjugations; with thanks to Busboy and follonica2 and apologies to all. But you knew what I meant.

Edited September 17, 2004 by GG Mora (log)

[Busboy]

We've never been above neologizing in the past...why chicken out now? If a spatchcocked chicken is poulet en crapaudine then the verb that gets you there should be crapauder, non?

Je crapaude

Tu crapaude

Il crapaude

Nous crapaudons

Vous crapaudez

Ils crapaudons

←

That should be tu crapaudes. I refuse to allow any more irregular verbs into the French language, no matter how small their irregularity.

[follonica2]

That should be tu crapaudes.  I refuse to allow any more irregular verbs into the French language, no matter how small their irregularity.

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Shouldn't the 3rd person plural be "ils crapaudent"?

Edited September 17, 2004 by follonica2 (log)

[Rachel Perlow]

Forget the French language aspect, I think the coolest thing about the original post was how Lucy got a bunch of work friends/associates together to have a nice civilized meal at lunch time.

Turning a conference room into a dining room with the addition of a tablecloth, sharing some homemade food, a bottle of wine and conversation not centered around work, was a stroke of genius. You should try to make it a weekly or monthly thing. The anticipation of its appointed day should make it an even more enjoyable experience.

[Bux]

I'm told there is no verb "to toad" a chicken, or any other bird. We do use "butterfly" in English, as a verb to describe the butchering process that splits and flattens a piece of meat, but I don't think it is used in French as a verb. We could lead by inventing words, but I doubt we'll be followed. The French Academy doesn't have all that much success.

[GG Mora]

I'm told there is no verb "to toad" a chicken, or any other bird. We do use "butterfly" in English, as a verb to describe the butchering process that splits and flattens a piece of meat, but I don't think it is used in French as a verb. We could lead by inventing words, but I doubt we'll be followed. The French Academy doesn't have all that much success.

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Heavens, Bux, I was just poking a little fun.

[Bux]

Heavens, Bux, I was just poking a little fun.

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And I was just poking the eye of the French Academy. We all know the chef is going to order the line cook by saying "spatchcockez le poulet."

[therese]

And I was just poking the eye of the French Academy. We all know the chef is going to order the line cook by saying "spatchcockez le poulet."

Seems like the chef's more likely to use the familiar in this instance.

[Bux]

Seems like the chef's more likely to use the familiar in this instance.

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In which case, English may not be the unlikely source of the familiar. I continue to find more and more evidence of the American influence discussed in another thread. Not all of the evidence is good, or as well translated as it could be, but not all of it is as bad as one might have expected a few generations ago. The current chef at Goumaud worked at Daniel in NYC as I just learned because someone who knew him there just bumped into him on the street. Ten years ago a stint in NY would have been worthless on a cuisinier's resume, today it's as credible an experience, if not more so, than places in France.

[Ptipois]

I think "spatchcock" really means "en crapaudine", but I doubt this has anything to do with the verb "crapauder" which, er, does not exist according to my Larousse. "Crapahuter" or "crapauter" (verbs with toadish origins) sounds more like it: this means creeping with difficulty, on all fours or bent forward, as one who proceeds through a forest under very low branches. Dressing a chicken or any fowl en crapaudine doesn't only mean flattening it, it also means pushing the ends of the drumsticks into slits made in the sides of the bird. This gives the chicken roughly the look of a toad with its elbows sticking up.

Butterflying a piece of meat, for instance a leg of lamb may be expressed as "ouvrir en portefeuille" (wallet-like), or "ouvrir à plat" ("retirez-moi l'os s'il vous plaît et ouvrez-moi le gigot à plat, c'est pour griller": that shoud usually do it).

[Bux]

Pigeon en crapaudine au piment d'Espelette was on the menu last night at Chiberta. It was brought to the table rosé and was excellent. I'll give a full and mixed report on the restaurant elsewhere, but I just wanted to note that it was hard to overlook after this thread. Of course pigeon will always get my attention, especially in Europe. The pigeon was not only butterflied, but pretty much boned in this case. Only some small thigh bones remained in the flattened bird.

[John Talbott]

I was looking over my wife Colette's shoulder in the kitchen last night and what did I see but the New York Times of July 21, 2004 p D3 "At my Table" by Nigella Lawson about "Spatchcock The Chicken: Cut the Cake. Ah summer!"

She says "I am a great believer in butterflying the chicken (what we in Britain call spatchcocking)."

Farther on "Butterfly chicken by....(cut to avoid copyright problems)...cut along both sides of backbone.....open it like a book....flatten it.

So I guess it's a Britishism.

And of course it's no longer free on line so if you want the article you have to pay $2.95 to the old Gray Lady.