1747 Scottish Fried Chicken
Scottish Fried Chicken- Recipe Reel here.
Long before fried chicken became one of the defining foods of the American South, versions of fried chicken were already being cooked in Britain.
One of the earliest published recipes appears in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, first published in London in 1747. The book became one of the most influential English-language cookbooks of its time and was written in a deliberately practical style for everyday cooks.
Glasse’s recipe, called “To marinate Chickens,” is surprisingly recognizable today. Chicken is soaked for several hours in vinegar with salt, pepper, bay leaf, and cloves. It is then dipped in a thick batter made with wine, flour, egg yolks, melted butter, nutmeg, and parsley before being fried in a generous amount of hog’s lard until browned. The finished chicken is served with fried parsley and lemon.
That combination of tangy marinade, rich batter, and hot fat produces something that feels both very old and very familiar.
Did fried chicken come from Scotland?
The story is more complicated than saying one culture “invented” fried chicken.
Food historians often point to a Scottish tradition of frying chicken and other meats in fat, in contrast with English cooking traditions that more commonly baked or boiled chicken. Scottish and Scots-Irish settlers carried frying traditions with them to North America. At the same time, West African cooks brought deep knowledge of frying, seasoning, and highly flavored foodways to the American South.
The fried chicken that eventually became identified with Southern American cooking developed through that meeting of traditions.
Enslaved West Africans and their descendants played an especially important role in transforming fried chicken into the highly seasoned dish we recognize today. Smithsonian sources note that enslaved cooks incorporated their own spices and frying techniques, and that African food traditions already included deep-fried proteins, fritters, and other fried foods.
So rather than a single origin story, Southern fried chicken is better understood as a culinary convergence: European frying traditions meeting West African seasoning, technique, and food knowledge in the American South.
Glasse’s 1747 recipe gives us a fascinating look at one branch of that story before the modern Southern version fully developed.
What makes the 1747 version different?
There is no buttermilk. No seasoned flour dredge. And no breadcrumb coating.
Instead, the chicken is first marinated in vinegar and spices, then coated in a wet batter made with wine, flour, egg yolks, and butter.
The vinegar gives the meat a subtle tang and helps cut through the richness of the lard. The wine loosens the batter and adds flavor, while the egg yolks and melted butter make the coating richer and more substantial.
The result is not a thin, delicate crust. It is a crisp, slightly thicker batter surrounding juicy, tangy chicken.
And nearly 280 years later, it is still seriously good fried chicken.
1747 Hannah Glasse–Style Fried Chicken
Serves 4–6
Chicken
1 whole chicken, about 3½–4 lb, cut into 8 pieces
or about 3 lb bone-in chicken thighs, wings, and drumsticks
Marinade
1½ cups vinegar, preferably cider or white wine vinegar
1½ tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
4 whole cloves
2 green onions, roughly chopped
Juice of ½ lemon
The green onion and lemon are a later adaptation; the surviving printed recipe specifically calls for just vinegar, pepper, salt, bay leaf, and cloves.
Batter
1½ cups all-purpose flour
About 1-2 cups dry white wine
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp melted butter
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
For frying
2–3 lb rendered pork lard, enough for about 2-3 inches of fat in a heavy pot
Fresh parsley sprigs
Lemon wedges
Directions
Place the chicken in a large bowl or shallow dish. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, cloves, green onion, and lemon juice. Turn the chicken so everything is coated, cover, and refrigerate for 3–4 hours.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat it lightly dry. Let it sit at room temperature for about 20–30 minutes while you prepare the batter.
In a bowl, combine the flour with about ¾ cup of the wine. Whisk until smooth, then add more wine gradually until you have a thick batter similar to pancake batter. Whisk in the egg yolks, melted butter, nutmeg, parsley, salt, and pepper.
Heat the lard in a Dutch oven or deep, heavy pot to about 340–350°F.
Dip each piece of chicken directly into the batter, coating it completely. Let the excess drip off for a few seconds.
Carefully lower the chicken into the hot lard. Do not overcrowd the pot. Fry in batches, turning occasionally, until the crust is deeply golden and the chicken is cooked through.
Depending on the size of the pieces, this will generally take about 12–18 minutes. Dark meat should reach at least 165°F internally, though thighs are especially good around 175°F.
Transfer the cooked chicken to a wire rack and immediately season with a small pinch of salt.
Once all the chicken is finished, carefully fry a few sprigs of fresh parsley in the hot lard for several seconds until crisp. Drain on paper towel.
Pile the chicken onto a platter, scatter the fried parsley around it, and serve with plenty of fresh lemon.
A few notes
Use a dry white wine rather than a sweet wine. Something simple and inexpensive is perfect.
Lard is worth using here. It gives the chicken a savory richness that vegetable oil simply does not replicate. If you do not want to use lard, a neutral frying oil will still work, but the flavor will be different.
And unlike modern Southern fried chicken, do not dredge the battered chicken in additional flour afterward. Glasse’s recipe goes directly from the wet batter into the hot lard.