At what age can I kill my roosters for the pot?

[chayla]

Sort of like putting it in a light brine... I guess. Something to keep in mind anyway. Thanks. : )

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there chayla,

I have been researching recipes for old roosters as I have way too many of them. Luckily mine are Dorkings so they are dual-purpose birds. They have wonderful broad breast & very white meat. They were the favourite chicken for eating in Victorian times as they have a very long back & therefore sat well on a plate for carving neatly at the table...!!

Here are some recipes for Coq au Vin, a great French dish :-

http://www.france-property-and-information.com/coq-au-vin.htm

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/51614-coq-au-vin/

I can remember my grandmother cooking her old chickens by part-stewing them & then roasting them to get a crispy skin. She would boil them with a piece of boiling bacon (ie salted & smoked), vegetables & herbs, then she drained it & dried it. It was then put in an oven tray with a whole load of partially cooked peeled potatoes & parsnips; all this was basted frequently with the bacon/chicken fat from the top of the stock pot. I can remember her saying that you had to boil the bird & bacon very, very slowly (the water should barely bubble). I just remember everything tasting wonderful. You first had a soup made from the stock & vegetables (pureed into the stock), then the roast chicken, parsnips & potatoes plus other vegetables if she had them (Savoy Cabbage was her & my favourite, along with carrots). If it was Christmas lunch you had slices of the boiled bacon as well. The following day she made wonderful chicken & bacon pies. Sometimes she would make dumplings & reheat the stock with pieces of the meats in it. She cooked all this on a black-leaded old range cooker.

Here are more recipes plus advice on how to tenderise them.

http://www.helium.com/knowledge/42322-recipes-drunken-citrus-chicken

http://sunstoneherbfarm.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/favorite-rooster-recipes/

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

Hope this helps! Good Luck!

Hattie

 

[chayla]

Ohhhh.... thank you... these sound lovely. I will be trying these, but how old is an old chook, and will these work with roosters? At the moment I want to keep the hens and just use the roosters.

 

[cw]

how old are your roosters now?

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Quote:
In France, Italy, Mexico no rooster, or old hen is too old to eat! You just need to cook it for longer at a lower heat. The realy old, old ones generally are used for soup with the meat cooked till it falls off the bones. My boys are from 6 months to 4 years old. Now the 4 yr olds I would expect to be very tough but the 8 month olds & the 18month ones will be much less so. The important thing is that after you have dispatched them they should rest in the fridge for 3 days before you freeze them -- this tenderises the meat. I would do this even if I was going to marinade them before cooking.

I have some ideas about tenderising my birds so I will do some experiments using marinades containing fresh papaya or pineapple, as well as garlic & wine, vinegar & citrus fruit as all of these are known to make the meat tender. I will leave them soaking overnight.

Hattie

 

[dancingbear]

Hattie, your grandmother's recipe sounds divine. I'll definately be trying this one! The chicken and bacon pie sounds good too, and this year I have my own home-cured bacon, from our own home-raised pigs.

Chayla, another thing you can do with birds in the 20-30 week old range, is fillet the breasts and thighs, and cut them in strips to bread and fry. Those will still be tender for quite some time after the rest has become tough. Then you can cook the rest in the crock pot until the meat starts fall off the bones. Remove all the bones, and use the meat in any dish you'd used cooked meat in. Enchiladas, chicken salad, stir fry, whatever. Or you can debone most of the bird, (I'd do this with the ones 1 y.o. or older) and pressure can the meat. Use the carcass with the remaining meat to make wonderful stock, and there will be a little meat from the carcass too, after you take all the bones out. The stock will make terrific soup, sauces, or gravy. I freeze my broth from crock-potting my old birds, and use it instead of buying inferior canned or boxed broth or stock. It's richer, darker, full of flavor, and has no MSG or hydrolyzed protein, and only has the amount of salt that you add.

 

[varikia]

I have an 8 month old austalorp rooster is it to old to kill for meat

 

[Elke Beck]

There is a book, How to Eat Cock, that has recipes for cooking older birds. Yeah, the title is rude, but the recipes are good.