Bresse Chickens

[juststruttin]

Here are the few that we did find:





Sorry these aren't better shots of the birds, I wish I had commandeered the camera!

Wonderful wonderful pictures!! THank you for sharing these photos of your trip.

I suspect that you don't see any live Bresse for sale because that protects the stock and helps to keep them exclusive.

I have started leaving on the heads of my birds until the point of putting them in the pan. IT is strictly a matter of convenience as seeing the head "wigs me out" and generally makes me feel uncomfortable. Legs come off asap, as they too make me uncomforable still on the bird. In the pictures above, I don't see any leggs. . . or are they just hidden by the layout of the display??

Actually, from the photos it looks like they were selling Bresse

 

[Arielle]

"There were also a lot of stands selling live birds of many varieties, but surprising to us, not that many were offering Bresse"

Meant to write Many, not any-- typo

 

[bayocum]

tbird9,
So cool, thanks for sharing. I'm not that surprised by your statement about your birds tasting better. When you go to the official Bresse website, you can see that the standards may be strict, but it felt to me more "commercial" than artisanal. That's ok, but not what we shoot for. Thanks again, really great pictures and information.
-Brice @ SF

 

[tbird9]

tbird9,
So cool, thanks for sharing. I'm not that surprised by your statement about your birds tasting better. When you go to the official Bresse website, you can see that the standards may be strict, but it felt to me more "commercial" than artisanal. That's ok, but not what we shoot for. Thanks again, really great pictures and information.
-Brice @ SF

I'm glad folks are finding it useful. I wanted to share one more bit. The books we got from the tourist office were in French, so we haven't been able to read them, but there was an English version of this brochure:


Inside it has descriptions of the different ways they can be finished. Again sorry for the blurry photos, I'd scan it if I could. I copied out the main paragraph for each one below the photos. The bolding is my emphasis.

Bresse Poultry
Firm and Flavorful

I am either male or female and I come from the "Gauloise de Bresse" breed. I'm fed on corn, wheat, and cereals grown exclusively in Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (10m2 per chicken): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live for four months at least. After that, to complete my fattening, I eat and rest for ten days or so in my coop. I come eviscerated or oven-ready and I weigh at least 1.2kg.


Bresse Poulard
My flesh is tender and juicy, my skin is thin and pearly.

I come from a female chick. I'm fed on corn, wheat and cereals coming exclusively from Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (10m2 per poulard): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live five months at least. I haven't laid any eggs. After living in the open air, to complete my fattening, I eat and rest for four weeks in my coop. I come eviscerated or rolled and I weigh at least 1.8kg.


Bresse Capon
My flesh is very soft and marbled, my skin is thin and pearly.

I come from a male chick of "Gauloise de Bresse". I'm fed on corn, wheat and cereals coming exclusively from Bresse and dairy products (skimmed milk, buttermilk, etc.). My menu is supplemented by the food I find in my vast meadows (20m2 per capon): larvae, worms and insects and also grass. I live eight months at least. I'm caponised (castrated) for Easter. To complete my fattening, I eat and rest for four weeks in my coop. I come eviscerated and must be rolled. I weigh at least 3kg.

The stuff written in the red boxes is just a repeat of what's in the paragraph for each and the smaller text on the left side is a list of all the proper seals and labels that each type is required to be sold with. For example the capon one says:

I cannot be sold without the following identification marks:
-a ring on my left leg showing the name and address of my breeder
-a seal fixed on the base of my neck showing the name of the slaughter operators
-a special Bresse Capon label
-a Bresse capon seal

The cooked bird that we bought still had the leg band and seal attached and even when I ordered a Bresse dish in a restaurant it came with the leg band still attached. Good little souvenirs. They have definitely got their marketing efforts dialed in.

 

[Darkangael]

Wonderful wonderful pictures!! THank you for sharing these photos of your trip.

I suspect that you don't see any live Bresse for sale because that protects the stock and helps to keep them exclusive.

I have started leaving on the heads of my birds until the point of putting them in the pan. IT is strictly a matter of convenience as seeing the head "wigs me out" and generally makes me feel uncomfortable. Legs come off asap, as they too make me uncomforable still on the bird. In the pictures above, I don't see any leggs. . . or are they just hidden by the layout of the display??

Look closer on either side of the head the legs are there.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THank you-- my monitor is very dark and hides much that is shadowed.

I have tried to figure out how to lighten my monitor, but no luck-- I'm missing out on good stuff.

 

[juststruttin]

Hi All-

I last posted on this thread back in June, there sure has been an uptick in activity since then! My husband and I have been raising this breed since January 2012. We started out with 4 breeding pairs/trios from GF. We were total beginners with hatching and breeding, so it has been a bumpy ride at times, but we have finally built up a pretty good flock in the limited space we have at the moment.

I want to weigh in with our experience on some of the questions that I've seen come up in the thread, but first I want to share some photos from our trip to France last September. I would have posted them earlier, but I had mislaid the memory card and only just rediscovered it the other day.

We did get to visit the Bresse region, but only had about a day and a half there, so didn't see as much as we would have liked. We stayed in the town of St. Germain-du-Bois where the Museum of Agricultural History is located and then visited the ancient poultry/farmer's market in the town of Louhans (http://www.bresse-bourguignonne.com/discovery.../fairs-and-markets-2-73.htm.)

This is in Paris:


The market sign in Louhans:


Stand selling roasted Bresse:

The writing is hard to see, the case on the left has larger birds for 26 euros each and the one on the right has smaller ones for 18 euros each. We bought one of the smaller ones to eat for lunch. It was good, but didn't blow me away. Honestly, the ones we have raised and roasted here have been better!



Other side of the stand selling raw birds with the heads still attached:





There were also a lot of stands selling live birds of many varieties, but surprising to us, not that many were offering Bresse










Here are the few that we did find:





Sorry these aren't better shots of the birds, I wish I had commandeered the camera!

We also found this one in the supermarket in St Germain-du-Bois:

Not sure if that is 8.90 euros per kg or for the whole bird. Anyway, much cheaper than the 17 euros per kg for the bird in the Paris market.

The tourist office in Louhans had some good books and brochures that we picked up, including one with a list of Bresse producers that you could visit to buy directly from the farm, but we didn't have any luck with that. We drove around trying to find a couple to no avail and the one we did find was closed. Oh well, maybe it's a seasonal thing. We would definitely like to go back with more time to spend in just the Bresse region.

Great photos. thanks for sharing

 

[Darkangael]

THank you-- my monitor is very dark and hides much that is shadowed.

I have tried to figure out how to lighten my monitor, but no luck-- I'm missing out on good stuff.

Every monitor has a brightness or gamma setting depending on your monitor you can set it either via software from video card or via buttons on the front or top of your monitor.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Ok-- I see symbols. One is a sun-- how do I access it?? I see other buttons to the right to push . . .

Func button puts on light over each of the symbols but I don't underatnd how to change anything or activate it. The other 2 buttons to push are recall up and recall down.

It is greek to me. lol

 

[Arielle]

Idid it. THe key was to hold the button. First made screne very dark, which helped me figure out how to make it light. Needed to use the moon symbol as well.

I can see the feet!!!!!