Instructions: Brine the hens: Dissolve the salt in about 2 quarts cold water in a small, clean bucket or large bowl. Add the hens breast side down; refrigerate 2 to 3 hours. Remove, rinse thoroughly, pat dry , and prick skin all over breast and legs with point of paring knife.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Butterfly the hens: Remove the backbone with kitchen shears; flatten he birds, breast side up with palm of hand. Loosen the skin around leg/thighs of hens and along breastbone to expose meat. Generously sprinkle exposed meat with salt, pepper, and herb of choice. Melt the margarine and mix in the peach preserves
*I used peach because I had some handy. Apricot or other preserves can be used. Add spices (I added white pepper and basil)

Rub the hens with about 2 tablespoons margarine, softened. Brush hens with margarine and preserves mixture. Put the hens on a rack on top of a roasting pan or jelly roll pan . Roast hens 20 to 25 minutes until nicely browned (I roasted 30 minutes). Turn oven from bake to broil and broil 5 minutes or until nicely browned.

Lous Notes: These were quite delicious! This was an experiment based on an Illustrated. This dish combines their suggestions for brining the hens to greatly enhance the flavor and butter flying them to "solve many of the problems with roasting a whole hen." The brining seemed to work well. The meat was very tasty and there was no trace of salt left. Removing the backs was a bit messy, but worked ok. The glaze was taken from an apricot-glazed

One of the benefits to removing the backs is the shorter cooking time. I roasted them a bit longer than the recipe recommended (30 minutes). Still, my husband said they could have cooked a bit longer, but I was afraid of their drying out. I used peach preserves because I had just that amount left from a jar my friend Cyn made from Hill Country peaches. Servings - one hen each if the hens are small or hearty appetites. Larger hens or smaller appetites could make do on one hen for two.

The article has other recommendations for stuffing and more details on roasting game hens. 8/97

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