• 1 three- to four-pound chicken, or two game hens
• Strong pastry dough for four nine-inch pie crusts
• 4-6 strips thick-cut bacon or Canadian bacon
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp wine vinegar
• 1/8 tsp each cinnamon, mace, powdered ginger and cloves

1. Pre heat oven to 350°.

2. Roll out pastry dough into an oblong about half an inch thick, or, if using game hens, two oblongs.

3. In a bowl, lightly beat the egg, and stir in vinegar and spices.

4. Place the chicken or game hens on the pastry and, with a pastry brush, cover the fowl thoroughly with egg mixture. Place the strips of bacon on the breasts.

5. Snugly fold the pastry around the fowl, crimping the seams together with your fingers. Trim off any excess pastry. With a knife cut several openings in the crust, perhaps in an artistic pattern.

6. Put the fowl in a roasting pan, put it in the oven, and bake for thirty minutes per pound for the chicken, at least an hour for the game hens, or until the meat is cooked through.

7. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a while, and remove pastry before serving.

Serves four to six.

A Boke of Gode Cookery
© 1999 James L. Matterer