The Two Fat Ladies and Spatchcocked Game Hens

Are you all familiar with The Two Fat Ladies? They starred in a BBC cooking program in the late 90's. Their names were Clarissa Dickson Wright (on the right in the photo below) and Jennifer Paterson. The show ran for 4 seasons and several channels picked it up. I think it's now showing on the Cooking Channel.

Here's how someone online described them:
They promoted the use of lard. They looked like men in drag. They were old and badly dressed. They were a bit like bag ladies but with more jewelry. One of them smoked and drank and wore bright red nail varnish and diamond rings as she plunged her fingers into all manner of food. (The other was a recovering alcoholic.) Almost surreally they drove a vintage Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle and sidecar wearing  goggles and old leather bike jackets.
Yes I know, amusing, and spot on, as the British say. Obviously (using lard, for example), their show disregarded health issues. And the animal activists weren't pleased either as these two fat ladies loved meat and game and had no patience with vegetarians. Frankly, I found their show totally entertaining, delivered in their posh accents. There's no denying they both led fascinating lives. You should Google them, just to read about their backgrounds. Here and Here. Fascinating stuff, really. 

Jennifer passed away in 1999 from lung cancer. She did enjoy imbibing and kept smoking and drinking right up to the end; a friend of hers phoned her at the hospital to ask how she was and Jennifer nonchalantly replied:  "I'm dying dear." 
Clarissa, who was twenty years younger than Jennifer, is still going strong and still on the wagon.

During the series, Clarissa made a Mustard/butter Spatchcock Chicken in one show and I could never quite get it out of my mind. She mentioned it was her mother's recipe. They didn't "do" recipes, (although I think a cookbook based on this show was published somewhere along the way) never measured anything that I remember, so I replayed the episode and jotted down ingredients. It's pretty simple to spatchcock a chicken or game hens. If you've never done it, here's a video.





I used two Cornish game hens, didn't use quite so much butter (which melts to the bottom of the pan anyway and merely leaves a nice mustard flavor to the chicken), didn't dot butter on top of the bread, but I did sprinkle some fresh herbs on top so it tasted more like stuffing. This recipe was regarded as a bad influence on the British diet. No doubt it's a bad influence on the rest if us too, so I figured I better post this before January when we'll probably all be on a diet!  

Deviled Spatchcocked Game hens

Ingredients:
1 stick soft butter
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
dash Tabasco
3 Tablespoons dry mustard
3 cups bread crumbs, crusts removed
2 game hens, spatchcocked

Method:
Spread the mustard butter on the chicken, thickly. Top with the soft bread crumbs.
Dot with butter. Bake 375 for 40 minutes.