The 18th Century Fried Chicken Nathan Bailey's 1736 cookbook Dictionarium Domesticum

I saw this recipe on Reddit and it struck a note. The end result came out expected but is certainly was a lot different from our experience of fried chicken. Tasted a bit sour with the vinegar and white wine but over all a good change.

All credits to this wonderful youtube video by Jas. Townsend. I followed the recipe changing verjus to distilled vinegar

The 18th Century Fried Chicken Nathan Bailey's 1736 cookbook Dictionarium Domesticum

Jane Jojo

Nathan Bailey’s fried Chicken from the 1736 cookbook Dictionarium Domesticum

3.50 from 10 votes

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 3 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine english

Servings 8 servings

Calories 727 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Marinade

• ▢ 2 lemons large
• ▢ 2 - 3 tablespoons vinegar
• ▢ salt as needed
• ▢ pepper as needed
• ▢ 2 Cloves
• ▢ 2 bay leaves
• ▢ 2 - 3 spring onions stems chopped
• ▢ 2 Shallots
• ▢ 1 kilogram chicken boneless

Batter

• ▢ 2 cups flour
• ▢ 3 egg yolks
• ▢ ½ cup white wine

For Frying

• ▢ 2 - 3 cups vegetable oil

Garnish

• ▢ parsley

Instructions

 

• Prep the ingredients
  
• 
• Chop the spring onions and shallots, extract the lemon juice, grind the cloves, pepper and bring them all together in a large bowl for marination. Add vinegar too.
  
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Add the boneless chicken to the marinade mix for three hours. I used a mallet to soften and even out the chicken. Also kept the skin.
  
• Bring together salt, egg yolks, flour and wine little by little till you achieve a fairly good batter consistency.
  
• 
• In a large enough pan bring the oil to boiling temperature.
• Pat dry the chicken from the marinade and then add it to the batter ensuring it’s thoroughly mixed.
  
• 
• Add to the boiling oil and take them out once its golden brown.
  
• Finally garnish with fried parsley

Notes

Somehow I found it difficult to keep the batter and chicken together during frying. It was kind of peeling of.

Some chicken pieces were thicker and it didn’t cook all the way through. I think its important you mallet the pieces or cut them very thin. This is where the pressure frying technique is important.

 

 

Nutrition

Serving: 285gCalories: 727kcalCarbohydrates: 77gProtein: 36gFat: 29gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 6gMonounsaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 314mgSodium: 133mgPotassium: 533mgFiber: 4gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 584IUVitamin C: 48mgCalcium: 196mgIron: 7mg

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