Roasted Fowls a LA Neapolitaine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fowls
Draw and truss the fowls for roasting.
Cover the breasts with buttered paper and tie them with string.
Set the fowls on a spit, neck to neck, and bind the legs tightly with string.
Set up the fire
Make two banks of charcoal with a gap in between on the hearth.
Put live coals on the charcoal and ignite thoroughly.
Fix one end of the spit in the wall above the gap and rest the other end on a fire-dog with hooks.
Roast and serve
Baste the fowls with butter and turn the spit occasionally.
When the fowls are roasted, dish them and serve with rich brown gravy.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fowls
- Provide the main meat, which cooks through over the open fire on the spit.
- Butter
- Basting fat that adds moisture and helps the skin brown and taste rich.
The step that matters
Turning the spit occasionally while basting. Uneven heat from the coals can scorch one side while leaving the other undercooked. Regular turning exposes all sides to even heat, and basting keeps the surface moist so it browns rather than dries out.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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