The chicken of the past was a rare bird. Literally, at least when it came to the dinner table. When Herbert Hoover promised “a chicken in every pot” should he win, he wasn't so much referring to the innocuous white meat that chicken has become today, but rather the exclusive meal that chicken used to be.  Throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, chicken was rarely on the dinner table, unless an old hen happened to survive long enough to make it to the soup pot...