With the barbeque season being in full flow, I spent some time in Tesco looking for somthing out of the ordinary to incinerate. While browsing in the meat aisle I came across a poussin, but no ordinary one, it was a Spatchcock Poussin.

It was the first time I'd come across such a beast, for those not in the know it resembles a chicken that has been thrown under an industrial press then had a wooden skewer rammed through it.

Apart from the obvious question ('Why bother?'), I also started wondering about 'Spatchcock'. Why such an unusual term for a squashed bird? Is it a verb (I Spatchcock, you Spatchcock, he/she Spatchcocks?) and if so can you Spatchcock anything at all or does it have to be a particular kind of bird? And where does the word come from? Was there a Mr or Mrs Spatchcock who spent hours trying various ways to deform a chicken? Or who perhaps stumbled across the method by accident, maybe reversing the Ford out of the garage and running over the family's pet rooster?

Any theories, suggestions, etc about the origins, or indeed why anyone would want to do this in the first place, would be welcome.

PS the Spatchcock Poussin barbequed up very nicely.

Yours in a flattened state
SF

The American Heratage Dictionary has this to say sf:


SPATCHCOCK
n. A dressed and split chicken for roasting or broiling on a spit.
tr.v. To prepare (a dressed chicken) for grilling by splitting open.
To introduce or interpose, especially in a labored or unsuitable manner: "Some
excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan
music" (Alan Rich).

I guess the third bit confirms your musings about the unusual state to find a bird in.

Incidentally, what sort of size are we talking?

I've always found poussin to be very small and fiddley for a relatively poor yield of meat.

I found this:

1785, A classical of the vulgar tongue, - Francis Gross, editor
'Spatch cock, abbreviation of dispatch cock, an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion. It is a hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split and broiled.'

Maybe when you have 'sudden' guests, you just rush out into the yard with your shovel and flatten the nearest unwary chook. It would cook quicker as well in its pancaked state.

Ask TE - she may well be accustomed to this type of entertaining.

Incidentally, what sort of size are we talking?

I've always found poussin to be very small and fiddley for a relatively poor yield of meat.

I'm talking 'large poussin', enough to satisfy two moderately hungry adults, but for the larger appetite you'd probably need a whole one to yourself. They were quite keenly priced at £2.09 each and two for £3, so I took advantage of the special offer and bought two, one of which was cooked and saved in the fridge for a meal tonight.

By the way, I'm quite excited by the example you gave of the alternative use of the verb 'to spatchcock'

To introduce or interpose, especially in a labored or unsuitable manner: "Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music" (Alan Rich).

and I'm wondering if we could sometimes use it on the board, eg: " I wish she'd stop spatchcocking my thread..." etc.

and I'm wondering if we could sometimes use it on the board, eg: " I wish she'd stop spatchcocking my thread..." etc.

Frequently! :glare:

So if someone spatchcocks a thread, can we immediately skin, split and broil them? :w00t:

Can we flatten them with a shovel first?

Apropos of nothing can I mention another unusual 's-word' that sprang to mind? Spavin.

I once worked in an IT department, and one of our more difficult customers was a lady by the name of Janet Spavin. She was quite a thrusting businesswoman, but very difficult to deal with, mainly because she had totally fixed ideas and wouldn't listen to a POV that was at variance with her own. This made her unpopular with the IT staff and members of her own department.

If someone was heading off to a meeting and had a look of foreboding about them, nine times out of ten you could tell why ('Who's the meeting with?' 'SPAVIN!')

One of the programmers,who came from a farming family, mentioned that a spavin was a festering sore found on the leg of a horse, and it was taken up as being strangely appropriate for Janet ('Spavin by name, Spavin by nature')

We even took to using it as a verb (V trans., to spavin, to block a reasonable line of development by interposing one's own fixed opinions, to treat one's own opinions as immutable and beyond criticism,etc)

Many times things would be spavined, and not just by Ms Spavin herself, anybody in theory could be capable of spavining.

So, again, this could apply to the messageboard, even though it's not a universally known expression, if I use it you will know what I mean, if a thread is spavined you'll be able to spot it.

I suppose it would be possible to both Spatchcock and spavin a discussion at the same time, but as far as I know there isn't a single term for that particular brand of double whammy.

Couldn't find a shovel, but I like this idea

http://www.ilquen.it/forums/upfiles/smiley/amon.gif

I suppose it would be possible to both Spatchcock and spavin a discussion at the same time, but as far as I know there isn't a single term for that particular brand of double whammy.

I can think of one :bag:

I can think of one :bag:
You typed the words right outta my mouth:shutup:

May I submit 'spatchock'? A spavin is an affliction of the hock and the two words combine rather nicely.

And it's very satisfying to spit out, with the emphasis on the 'tch'. Spatchock.

God, I sound like Arthur Marshall :laugh:

spatchock looks too much like spatchcock with a typo, for my liking, but you go ahead dear. :huh:

Snatchcock? A predatory forum user.

Snatchcock? A predatory forum user.

I quite like this one, it also suggests a c***/kn*b which fits in nicely.

I quite like this one, it also suggests a c***/kn*b which fits in nicely.
Do you think Haydon could find a smiley for it?

I quite like this one, it also suggests a c***/kn*b which fits in nicely.

That's what I meant, but I'm too much of a lady to use words like that.http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/FenellaFinkelstein/smiley/glasses15.gif

How about a cock-avin. Or is that a bit saucy?

I like them both SF...and I know who will be guilty of BOTH right out of the gate...:sly:

I love this thread...it's got me thinking about a few words we use at work that don't actually exist but have come about by circumstance and the occasional typo and stuck.

Many of us find it hard to call refugees refugees following a typo during and incident one day. The typo was 'REGUGEES' - the offender jokingly said that it was because the refugees were from Georgia so he substituted the 'F' for a 'G' ...this led to the obvious variations on a theme but the word 'Regugees' has stuck and we find ourselves using it all the time without thinking when it comes to anything to do with refugees.

FAWGI is shorthand for an event that was a 'False alarm with good intent' and is sometimes shortened to FAGI...I think both these words are quirky and as such I like them.

Of course the Southern Colonies have ALL sorts of words that are not in any dictionary...unless it's the 'Dixie Dictionary' ore 'The Redneck Dictionary'. The one that gets hubby's cousins from Wisconsin and my step-dad who is from Denver, Co is 'fixin', as in "I'm fixin' to go sit down' or 'I'm fixin' to beat the hell outta you!'

Being a Missi-isianian (combination msgirl/louisiana girl), we have a word that means 'a little something extra' or just something added on. It's 'lanniappe', pronounced 'lanyap'. I say it quite a bit and people up here just look like I'm a little off...:huh:

ok so this is my "4th thread a guest is reading" foray ...


I'm surprised (or not) that I didn't contribute in this the first time round ... anyhoo ... what I wouldn't give for somone "spatchcocking" someone elses thread right now (except mine of course!).

So SF now that barbie season is upon us again (and I've had about three so far this year ... can't get enough of 'em!) will you be putting a spatchcock up for the burn? or are they not on special offer any more? .. or have I entirely missed the point of this thread?! (quite possibily!) :mellow:

ok, 4th subject and I was the last 'contributor' before Dol's little posting game!! Just a little laniappe info...:laugh:

Spatchcocking is still the 4th choice of those on-line at the moment!

when i read the title of this thread for some reason, I thought it was smutty......

then I did Jen's game and googles spatchcock goes.............

this is what I got back.......

Chopper Heimlich Manoever
Nurse Chopper shows you want to do if your spatchcock goes down the wrong hole

how I laughed.............good job noone else is in the office :laugh: :laugh: