Bresse Gauloise in USA?

[blackdotte]

The moment Bresse Gauloise are removed from their controlled named area they cease to be Bresse Gauloise, and there can be significant penalties for using the name.
You can not replicate the quality & taste of the birds unless they are reared in their specified area and their specified diet and rearing if followed.
So to all extent & purpose you are wasting your time & money.

 

[burtonjon]

http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Bresse/BRKBresse.html

I think the breed will be of great interest in the US. For families like mine that enjoy producing our own food we would love to have them on our farm. Who is to say that we can't try to replicate the growing practices that the French use. I am sure my bird will not taste the same as it would in some fancy french restaurant being that I am not a chef. But I am sure that it will taste great coming off my Big Green Egg charcoal grill.

 

[stoneunhenged]

I disagree that it is a waste of money to work with Bresse chickens in America.

There is a belief, also first advanced by the French, that a wine from one vineyard tastes different that wine from another vineyard because of terroir, the unique attributes of soil in any given location. This is one of the central principles in a country where the love of food is like a religion and questioning those principles is a form of heresy. Nevertheless, the effect of terroir is probably overstated for wine, and it's almost certainly overstated for chickens. Chickens, unlike grape vines, do not have roots in the soil, and the entire life of a chicken is manipulated by man. From the amount of exercise it gets to the size of the cage it lives in before slaughter to the completely contrived diet Bresse chickens are fed in their last weeks of life; all of these are factors that represent an intervention by man between bird and nature. And, all of these are factors could probably be replicated in the USA. So, I'm not sure I understand how we can pronounce this experiment a failure before it's even undertaken.

I say let's not surrender to terroirists.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
Hahaha!

I would love to follow this experiment. I think that there is the remote possibility that differences in the soil affecting the taste/quality of the feed fed to the chickens could be a stumbling block in recreating this bird, but I doubt most palates would be refined enough to notice the difference.

I would love to see some controlled experiments done with these birds. Say, try to simulate as closely as possible how they are raised, and have another breed that seems similar in size and growth rates raised alongside them in the exact same manner and then have someone taste test the results.

On the flip side, you could also raise the Bresse the same way American meat birds are commonly raised alongside the same "control" breed and see how they compare to the other group.

Oooh, I should have become an Ag professor so I could get paid to run livestock experiments like this!

 

[ultasol]

Yes, but legally they are no longer Bresse Gauloise. Under the apellation controllee system, they are only that if produced in that region. Even elsewhere in France the same breed is no longer Breese Gauloise.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
So, it's basically a brand name? Like...you can make a very high knock-off Coach purse with all the materials sourced from the same suppliers, etc, but if Coach didn't make, it ain't Coach.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Jody has some Pyncheons...

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
So, it's basically a brand name? Like...you can make a very high knock-off Coach purse with all the materials sourced from the same suppliers, etc, but if Coach didn't make, it ain't Coach.

I think that's what it means.

 

[stoneunhenged]

Here's an explanation of the naming of Bresse chickens:

http://www.bressegauloise.co.uk/La-Bresse-Gauloise.php

Whatever you want to call them --Bresse, Gauloise, whatever-- these birds are a distinct breed of chicken. They have unique genetic traits that distinguish them from other breeds.

 

[aveca]

Its the Poulet de bresse? did I spell that right or blue footed chicken, its also the name of the town in france...there are a few breeders in Canada, and one in California that sells exclusivly to four star resturants but does not sell hatching eggs or stock , only the product to market and it fetchs 25.00 per bird..Very good eating..In Italy they have a cucoo maran that runs a close second for flavor.. it is a barred maran...has some of the bloodlines in that Italian region mixed with thier marans. you can search under blue foot chicken also