Bummer!!!! Wife and kids did not like the chicken dinner

[Bossroo]

I may be missing something here... When one brines a chicken as is recomended here to make a chicken tender... what percent moisture does it then contain, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% ? Or does one really know for sure? I must be missing the boat here too. 4 broilers on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper??? maybe 4 meatbird chicks but 4 broilers ??? 4 bantoms at 6 weeks maybe, but one of my Cornish X will cover the entire page. If the broilers are that crowded , how do they get to find their way to the feeder to eat then be able to turn around to find their way to the water fountain? Also, how would they eliminate their own body heat? It is a proven scientific fact that overcrowding of all poultry leads to canibalism. Starvation + dehydration + heat exhaustion + canibalism= not a wholesome looking packaged product. I may be wrong but, I would think that those conditions would be counterproductive to growth of a young bird to then ever be marketable to a discriminating housewife.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
When they are talking about % of brine they are talking about salt water or broth that is injected into commercial chickens.

Brining a home raised bird means they are soaking the bird in salt water; it's two different things.

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I believe this was just a bit of an exaggeration to make a point.

 

[greyfields]

People confuse 'juicy' and 'tender' in their mouth. The lack of muscle activity helps with 'tenderness'. The brine adds to moisture content, meaning even for people who could the poop out of their chicken to over to 160F will still get reasonable chicken out of it. It's dumbed-down meat, it's insipid, boring and fake. And hell, if you can sell heavy salt water at the $/lb of chicken, you'd be getting rich, too.

I've worked the barns as a teenager for broiler operations. The body heat makes them very warm and there are constant exhaust fans blowing the rancid air outside. The feeders are in long rows down the barn. I believe no bird has to be able to move more than 5' to get to a feeder. The feeders are autofilling and they keep them in 24 hour daylight with lights so that they never stop eating. 42 days after they hit the floor in there, an 18 wheeler pulls up and takes them all. It's just a sea of heads moving past eachother, since they can just squeeze around and never really 'move'. That's why the thighs are so light in a commercial chicken compared to ours, which get exercise. Since the muscles need oxygen to work, the myoglobin content increases and thus we have dark meat.

There really just aren't adjectives to describe it. It's truly horrific and I'm ashamed this sort of industrial farming has not been banned... and never will be, because Food.Inc is making billions off it, feeding us terrible food... and 98% of people don't even realize it (I take 98% becuase that is the percentage of birds industrially farmed birds versus alternative/organic).

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
I believe this was just a bit of an exaggeration to make a point.

I wish it was. Typicall stocking rates are around 80 lbs of chicken / square yard, so that's 8 lbs of chicken per square foot. So you have around 2 chickens per square foot, which makes my estimate off by a factor of 2.

However, stocking rates of twice that are not unhread of if you believe google.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
I believe this was just a bit of an exaggeration to make a point.

I wish it was. Typicall stocking rates are around 80 lbs of chicken / square yard, so that's 8 lbs of chicken per square foot. So you have around 2 chickens per square foot, which makes my estimate off by a factor of 2.

However, stocking rates of twice that are not unhread of if you believe google.

Gees!!! I really had no idea the birds were treated so badly!!! That's so sad!!!

 

[HennyPennies2007]

Hey Al

I always told ya the only good rooster was a dead rooster... Now you've proved that even dead the things are worthless!! Lol...,

BAWK BAWK!!

 

[austinchicken]

Quote:
I agree, as I said earlier, but wanted to add my experience with aging. I've eaten quite a few older birds over the years, and even with aging about 5 days, an old bird is pretty tough. Better to crock pot them than to fry them and end up with rubber chicken.

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Brining doesn't really help with toughness, but it keeps the moisture in the bird, so it doesn't dry out. The older the bird, the longer it has to be cooked, so keeping the meat moist is important. Even a tender bird will become tough if it dries out. Water follows salt. Brining gets salt into the meat tissues. That keeps moisture in the meat, instead of the salt applied externally to the bird drawing moisture out. Stringiness is less noticeable if the meat doesn't dry out, as well.

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My birds all free-range. (real free-range, not legal-term fake free-range) and young birds are still tender. They do have a firmer texture, but are far from tough. Texture is also influenced by breed. Some are just better eating than others, i.e., Malay fighting cock vs. Barred Rock, Delaware, Buckeye, etc. Those tall, skinny birds bred for fighting just aren't going to be as tender as others, even when young. Even those cook up ok in the crock pot, though.

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I'm guessing the family just didn't like that 6 month old rubber chicken. They'd probably like a young bird just fine, or the older ones when brined, and slow cooked. I don't think I could ever get used to 6 month old fryers, and I eat a lot of old birds.

I use my older, crock-pot cooked birds to make enchiladas, tamales, burritos, casseroles, BBQ sandwiches, all kinds of things. Not "just for soup", as I've often seen suggested. I can only eat so much soup. Not enough to use up my excess roos every year.

Thanks for clarifying/expounding on the points I was trying to make, dancingbear. I was in kind of a hurry when I typed that and was going to come back and add to it, but you did all the work for me!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

% brine has to do with how much salt to how much water in the solution. Recipes for brining no doubt vary in percentage. If I weren't lazy, I'd give you a formula to use to figure it out.