Butterflying is a way of preparing meat, fish, or poultry for cooking by cutting it almost in two, but leaving the two parts connected; it is then often boned and flattened. For poultry, it is also called spatchcocking.
Video Butterflying
Etymology
"Butterfly" comes from the resemblance of the cut to the wings of a butterfly.
"Spatchcock" comes from "dispatch cock", that is, a fowl that is dispatched quickly, and is first attested in 1785.
Maps Butterflying
Red Meat
In butchery, butterflying transforms a thick, compact piece of meat into a thinner, larger one. The meat is laid out on a cutting board and cut in half parallel to the board almost all the way to the other, leaving a small "hinge", which is used to fold the meat out like a book. This technique is often used as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, pounding out the meat with a meat mallet to make it thinner.
For leg of lamb, it is generally followed by boning.
Common uses of this technique include creating thin cutlets from chicken breasts for dishes such as chicken piccata, or rendering lamb leg roasts suitable for making roulades. It can also be a first step to dicing chicken or slicing it into strips. Because the butterflying technique results in a thinner piece of meat or poultry, it allows for quicker cooking times and often more even cooking.
Poultry
Poultry is often butterflied. Spatchcocking is butterflying and also removing the backbone and possibly the sternum. Removing the sternum allows the bird to be flattened more fully. This is popular for grilling or roasting. Butterflying makes poultry easier to grill or pan-broil.
Fish
A butterfly fillet of fish is a double fillet, with the backbone and other bones removed by splitting the fish down the back or the belly.
Other
Butterflying shrimp or lobster tail involves cutting the hard top side, without cutting all the way down to the other, softer side.
See also
- Accordion cut
References
External links
- Food Network picture demo on butterflying a chicken
- How to spatchcock a chicken, cookthink.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
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