Chicken fat: yellow vs white?

[threesons]

I was sheepishly wondering how the marans taste! I have quite a few in the incubator - blue/black/splash copper, black copper and black tailed buff - and some chocolate/mauve in the mail so I'm sure I'll have a few extra roos. I wonder at what age should they be processed? I definitely think the yellow fat is better tasting and better for stock too!

 

[LindaB220]

Me too

 

[JodyDI]

I'm not sure what age to process them . the roos need to be done earlier than the girls. I think they should not go longer than 15-16 weeks. as I've read. they can start to taste gamey. on the other hand, you can process an old hen for broth, and it will be delightful. BTW I just jarred my broth, first time for my homegrown girls (I was always too scared to do it, squeamish) the broth was VERY chickeny, MMM good. my daughter loves homemade broth, we do 5 lbs every week, she eats most of it. so when she tried this she was overwhelmed with the flavor. as far as eating a young Maran, I'm sure they will be great provided you give them lots of greens and foraging .

 

[TonysChickens]

Interesting note on the fat. I learned from my nutrition class that the fats that harden at a higher temperature tend to be saturated fat thats bad for you. Whereas fats that remain liquid are better fats for you.

Think of the difference between a vegetable oil, it stays liquid in room temperature. Then compare it with fat that hardens are room temperature. The fat tends to be worse for you.

So with this analogy in mind, if one fat hardens at room temperature and the other does not, i would think the non hardened fat is better for you, relatively speaking.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

The idea (and it is really interesting to trace the corporate drive behind it, ie. the Crisco versus lard years) that something like heavily processed vegetable oil is healthier than something like butter, ghee, coconut oil, etc, is definitely being questioned in scientific literature. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...fat-experts-question-saturated-fat-guidelines is an interesting if very light read.

 

[wholehearted]

The idea (and it is really interesting to trace the corporate drive behind it, ie. the Crisco versus lard years) that something like heavily processed vegetable oil is healthier than something like butter, ghee, coconut oil, etc, is definitely being questioned in scientific literature. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...fat-experts-question-saturated-fat-guidelines is an interesting if very light read.

Yes!! Thankfully. the idea that saturated fat is "bad" has really begun to be debunked in recent years. But it will take time for all the anti-fat thinking to go away.

Last time we processed our Freedom Rangers, they had a lot of yellow fat on them. It was tasty and made our stock wonderful! This time, we are going to render it to make schmaltz.

 

[JodyDI]

Something interesting, my homegrown hen even had yellow bones. it was not from anything I put in the broth, nor was it from the yellow fat. ( i know cuz I had another carcass from an organic pastured chicken its bones were white) i do feed them tons of greens, kale, chard, I mean tons!

 

[ellablun]

Well, I had to make account just to answer this question. Reason why grass fed chickens have yellow fat as opposed to grain fed ones is that grass fed ones are filled with beta-carotene - provit A, which is also a pigment which gives carrots their color. So much for the popular claim that there is no difference in nutritional value of grass fed and grain fed animals. This is just one thing that is visual, and deffinitelly something I can use in my undeveloped country to tell if meat is really organic or not.

 

[SIMZ]

I was sheepishly wondering how the marans taste! I have quite a few in the incubator - blue/black/splash copper, black copper and black tailed buff - and some chocolate/mauve in the mail so I'm sure I'll have a few extra roos. I wonder at what age should they be processed? I definitely think the yellow fat is better tasting and better for stock too!

They're yummy! We eat our extras. The best time to process them is around 16-18 weeks.

 

[Double Kindness]

I have been comparing different feeds and I found one I like for my laying flock, it is soy free, non gmo organic with greens in it, I like how it smells and their egg quality and yolks got better. It might translate well into my meat birds being dp chickens and muscovy ducks.

I also got white bresse and caponizing equipment to get the famed best meat. I heard marans have more dark meat?