Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

Way back in time I remember my mom would render chicken fat and use it in her baking recipes. I'm not sure for what cakes, I was just a lil snipe then. She would collect and save it from the store chickens she purchased. When there was enough, she would render it.
She also would purchase pork fat and render her own lard. Nowadays everyone tries to avoid fats.

I remember my mom saving the grease from the chicken or bacon that was fried, and then using it to cook other meat or stuff in it for flavoring. Then everyone else I seen after I grew up and left home just always went to the store and bought bottles of the vegetable oil, or fried in butter or margarine. I still use real butter sometimes to fry a few thing's in. There's no margarine in this house!

 

[cactusrota]

Have you tried eating one of the NN/Breese mixed one's yet? Are they less greasy than the pure Breese one's?

Edit:
I had to google search to find out what schmaltz was. I wonder how Indian Frybread would taste fried in some of that?

I've only processed a couple that were from a Bresse rooster over NN hens. Those offspring didn't take on any of the Bresse meat attributes at all. They were also smaller. I'm finding that crossing a NN or standard breed rooster over Bresse hens makes bigger/heavier offspring and so far I only have a few pullets from one crossing like that.. I don't plan on processing those pullets, I plan on breeding them. So I'm hoping to get some extra cockerels from putting the splash boy over the Bresse hens this time so I can process some and see how they turn out.

I first saw mention on schmaltz in a facebook group and had to google it myself. Tried it and found out I love it! I do have some home rendered lard and bacon grease, too, but the schmaltz is really more of a universal flavor. You can use it for sweet stuff too. And it makes things more "non stick", cleanup is way easier than with vegetable oils.

 

[cactusrota]

@cactusrota
Good post and thanks on the heads up about the fat. I would not eat them, but my curiosity was about why the FRENCH just the meat from these. BTW, the French make some FINE Pastries, and they don't skimp on the BUTTER whatsoever.

That's probably why the French value the Bresse so much, then. They like their food greasy! hahaha!

 

[BlueBaby]

I've only processed a couple that were from a Bresse rooster over NN hens. Those offspring didn't take on any of the Bresse meat attributes at all. They were also smaller. I'm finding that crossing a NN or standard breed rooster over Bresse hens makes bigger/heavier offspring and so far I only have a few pullets from one crossing like that.. I don't plan on processing those pullets, I plan on breeding them. So I'm hoping to get some extra cockerels from putting the splash boy over the Bresse hens this time so I can process some and see how they turn out.

I first saw mention on schmaltz in a facebook group and had to google it myself. Tried it and found out I love it! I do have some home rendered lard and bacon grease, too, but the schmaltz is really more of a universal flavor. You can use it for sweet stuff too. And it makes things more "non stick", cleanup is way easier than with vegetable oils.

Interesting to know that there is a difference in the meat. So, those NN chicks that I got from you was your blue NN roo over the White Breese hen's then? I know that you said that the 2nd batch of the Breese eggs were from the Breese pen that you added 2 of the White NN hen's to. I got 1 NN pullet from that batch.

 

[BlueBaby]

That's probably why the French value the Bresse so much, then. They like their food greasy! hahaha!

Maybe they use that French Bread to sop up that grease?

 

[cactusrota]

Interesting to know that there is a difference in the meat. So, those NN chicks that I got from you was your blue NN roo over the White Breese hen's then? I know that you said that the 2nd batch of the Breese eggs were from the Breese pen that you added 2 of the White NN hen's to. I got 1 NN pullet from that batch.

Yeah, for a while there I had the Bresse hens in the main mixed flock with the NN roo because the pen they are in now WAS the "bachelor pad" full of young cockerels. Once I was down to just a couple Bresse roosters in there I moved the hens in with them for a while, then added the two white NN hens for a few weeks, then took the NN's back out again.
So birds from like a Jan-Feb hatch would be Bresse hens under the blue NN, March until July would be under Bresse roos.

 

[Suzyqschickens]

So I finally cracked my huge egg! It was only a double yolker. But this am I had another huge egg so we had scrambled eggs thought I’d share the pic

 

[DesertChic]

So the Dorking meat is that good, huh?

Yeah! We were really surprised. The Dorking I butchered was 6 weeks older than the NN I butchered, but the meat was far more tender, finely textured and succulent. I don't know how else to describe it. And he wasn't even from my best Dorking rooster and hen breeding, but just a trial run with my weakest birds so I could familiarize myself more with their genetics. I haven't butchered my NN/Dorking mix yet so I don't know how the one will effect the other...except for making a really pretty rooster with a really silly crow. He sounds like a wannabe opera singer gargling while trying to sing. My husband and I crack up at him.

 

[DesertChic]

I remember my mom saving the grease from the chicken or bacon that was fried, and then using it to cook other meat or stuff in it for flavoring. Then everyone else I seen after I grew up and left home just always went to the store and bought bottles of the vegetable oil, or fried in butter or margarine. I still use real butter sometimes to fry a few thing's in. There's no margarine in this house!

Oooh....I always render fat for cooking! Duck fat is the absolute best. I love cooking potatoes in duck fat. YUM!

I use saturated fats in nearly all of my cooking. Ghee and butter from grass-fed only cows, extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, bacon fat, duck fat, chicken fat, and beef tallow. The mantra of using only vegetable oils for cooking is not based on what's actually healthy for humans, but what increases the company bank accounts for the producers of those items. Stick with what nature mandates. That's how we evolved.

 

[DesertChic]

That's probably why the French value the Bresse so much, then. They like their food greasy! hahaha!

Actually, if you look into the celebration of the Bresse in France, it's got as much to do with how their raised and fed as it does with their genetics. Yes, they've been genetically bred with certain qualities, but if you sampled Bresse from America and Bresse from France they would have noticeable differences in taste and texture.

In France, the Bresse are free-ranged on select pasture that is rotated, allowing 3 months rest for fresh pasture to grow before a flock is introduced. At a certain age the Bresse are then brought into large pens and fed a combination of corn, cranberries and buttermilk exclusively for about three weeks before processing. Keeping them confined and feeding them that specific diet (allegedly) results in more tender, sweeter and more flavorful meat.