Fried Chicken

Source: Martha McCulloch-Williams, 1913

History

"Fried Chicken" in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913) is a bacon-fat, double-dredged version. Two tender young chickens are cut into joints, wiped dry, seasoned with salt and both red and black pepper, then set on ice. A pound of streaky bacon is fried in a deep skillet and taken out crisp; the chicken is rolled in flour, dipped in beaten egg, rolled again, and laid in fat that "must be bubbling hot, but not scorching," then cooked and turned often to a rich brown.

The often-repeated claim that Scottish immigrants originated the technique of frying chicken rests on no primary source. The writer who popularized it offered no evidence for it, a point the food historian Adrian Miller has acknowledged. What the record does support is that African American women were central to this dish's history in the South, documented as noted sellers of poultry, live or cooked, as early as the 1730s — an independent economy built around it.

That matters particularly in this book. McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War; her book's dedication is "to our Mammys," and much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women it does not name. A Southern fried chicken recipe printed under her name in 1913 sits inside that history, not outside it.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Cut into joints two tender young chickens, wipe the pieces dry, season with salt and pepper, red and black, then set on ice.
  2. Fry a pound of streaky bacon in a deep skillet, take out when crisp.
  3. Roll the chicken in flour, dip in beaten egg, then roll again, and lay in the fat, which must be bubbling hot, but not scorching.
  4. Cook, turning often, to a rich brown, take out.
  5. Then pile in a pan, set the pan over another with boiling water in the bottom, and put all in a very hot oven for fifteen minutes. This cooks the chicken through and through without making it hard.
  6. The pieces must not touch in frying, so there will be two skilletfuls.
  7. When all the chicken is fried, and in the oven, dredge in more flour, stir it well through the fat, then add a cup of cream, stirring hard all the time, and letting it barely simmer — boiling curdles it.
  8. Or if you want a full-cream gravy, pour off the fat, stir the cream in double quantity in the skillet to take up the flavors, then pour it in a double boiler.
  9. Add pepper, salt, minced celery, a little onion juice, and one at a time, lumps of butter rolled well in flour.
  10. Cook until thick and rich, and serve in a gravy boat.

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