Delawares from kathyinmo

[finnfur]

@finnfur ... I've noted it takes a long time for the tails to come up on these birds, both the male and the female. I think last year it was like February when some of the cockerels ... who had been pretty much flat across the back ... suddenly had almost squirrel tails.

So noted - Love the new frizzle line

I don't know what I'd do if I were finnfur and had to contend with BEARS.

Now we are getting concrete reports of a Black and also tan Cougar -
So there is more than one. Heard these sketchy reports for about 5 years
but they are getting regular the last few weeks.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Eating one of the cockerels today for our belated thanksgiving. He was a maximum of 30 weeks at processing. You can see the bump on his keel which is why he didn't make the cut. He plucked pretty clean -- no ink spots. Weighed right at 5 lbs with his neck. Seems to have a decent amount of breast, meaty thighs.

 

[finnfur]

Eating one of the cockerels today for our belated thanksgiving. He was a maximum of 30 weeks at processing. You can see the bump on his keel which is why he didn't make the cut. He plucked pretty clean -- no ink spots. Weighed right at 5 lbs with his neck. Seems to have a decent amount of breast, meaty thighs.

Waiting for the TASTE report ?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Waiting for the TASTE report ?  

I brined it to defrost it, then let it dry out in the fridge for a day or so. Then brought irbil almost room temperature, then I rubbed it all over with a stick of butter with lots of spices (curry powder, smoked salt, a bit of chili & dried onion, a bit of poultry seasoning, a bit of pumpkin pie spice, LOTS of salt). Then into the cast iron Dutch oven at a low temperature to start. After an hour I dumped in a bit of white wine, turned up the heat a little. I brought it out of the oven when it was well cooked ...Leg joints starting to separate from the body, and let it sit on the counter in the pot while I did potatoes and gravy.

It smelled GREAT. The pan drippings were pretty much drinkable, even with all the flavors. Meat came right off the bone. My BFF snagged my favorite part ... thigh (liked it enough she took the second thigh home), so I can't compare it to what I normally eat. Dad ate one drumstick last night. Usually we ignore the breast, but I had a breast tender and it was so moist and delicious I ate it first and with my fingers.

no funky flavor from the meat or pan juices. Yes, I realize there are a lot of other flavors floating around in my pot. But I can pick out gamey meat fat pretty well, and there was NONE of that.

 

[finnfur]

I brined it to defrost it, then let it dry out in the fridge for a day or so. Then brought irbil almost room temperature, then I rubbed it all over with a stick of butter with lots of spices (curry powder, smoked salt, a bit of chili & dried onion, a bit of poultry seasoning, a bit of pumpkin pie spice, LOTS of salt). Then into the cast iron Dutch oven at a low temperature to start. After an hour I dumped in a bit of white wine, turned up the heat a little. I brought it out of the oven when it was well cooked ...Leg joints starting to separate from the body, and let it sit on the counter in the pot while I did potatoes and gravy.

It smelled GREAT. The pan drippings were pretty much drinkable, even with all the flavors. Meat came right off the bone. My BFF snagged my favorite part ... thigh (liked it enough she took the second thigh home), so I can't compare it to what I normally eat. Dad ate one drumstick last night. Usually we ignore the breast, but I had a breast tender and it was so moist and delicious I ate it first and with my fingers.

no funky flavor from the meat or pan juices. Yes, I realize there are a lot of other flavors floating around in my pot. But I can pick out gamey meat fat pretty well, and there was NONE of that.

I would say the taste report was good to excellent - But the cook says "bit" of wine so I presume she drank the rest ?
Sure had a great variety of spices in there.
Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I would say the taste report was good to excellent - But the cook says "bit" of wine so I presume she drank the rest ?
Sure had a great variety of spices in there.
Glad you enjoyed it.

Confession: the wine in the pot was from the box of "Refreshing White" in the fridge! We opened a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau to go with the meal ... nice and spicy ... and didn't finish it. Delaware Cockerel doesn't require as much "washing down" as Giant Turkey does, I guess.

Dad says the drumstick was more tender than when I dry roast cocks. Incentive to cull at a more reasonable age, and I'm switching my standard cooking method to the Dutch oven.

I still have a 38 lb turkey brining in the cooler on the back porch. Now I'm not sure if it will defrost before spring. But the rest of the meal is ready.

(I could spit on several vineyards from my kitchen deck, and I have boxed "Refreshing White" in the fridge ...

)

 

[finnfur]

.

(I could spit on several vineyards from my kitchen deck, and I have boxed "Refreshing White" in the fridge ...

)

For shame ! But that reminds me we were eating at a quaint little country village seafood place that had great food. Not fancy and on a little backwater creek.
Atmosphere was very casual and relaxed setting . Paper plate and cups but great food. In middle of our meal this lady starts raisin "H" and " How can you enjoy a good wine when you bring it in a plastic cup". Silence ! The owner walk over and adds" I don't know what difference it makes as that wine that came in a plastic bag boxed."
No more was said. Back to the great food. I guess enjoyment is what you make it.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I got some photos of the cockerels yesterday.

The younger culls that we haven't processed yet. These are all from PapaDel. Culled mostly for wing issues. I don't think the PapaDel birds' chests are as deep as the Mr. Fatty birds'. But they have longer backs. They should probably be processed soon ...




The rest of these guys are in the "Keep Cage," but they all need another going over before breeding season. It's a mix of Mr. Fatty and PapaDel birds in there. There are only supposed to be 6 in there, but there are 10 because I missed a cull the night we packed up the first batch for the butcher, and also because I miscounted (by DOUBLE) the number of Mr. Fatty "keepers" I marked. Le sigh.

This one, I like his overall shape, he reminds me of Mr. Fatty so could use some more length along his back, and in person he is a little "creamy" colored at the moment. He has about the least amount of extra black. I really don't want to breed anything with a visible "brown" color issue. I know Delawares are supposed to show more leg contour than this, but I really like it when a male's chest looks this round. I need to train my eye to see the deep, round chests on the longer, less fluffy, birds.




This one seems to have a longer back, shows more leg, but might not be quite as deep.



Group shot showing 5 of the 10 that are left in the "Keep Cage." The one on the left is the one from Mr. Fatty that we marked earlier as a potential breeder ... he's about to preen under that wing, so has it held out funny and you can't see how long, and deep he is across his bottom line -- I'm still concerned about the color around his neck. The next one over is a younger bird, from PapaDel.




This is the one we marked as the potential breeder ... I don't love his head ... there is something odd about his comb, it doesn't stick up as much as the other birds' combs do, and I'm not sure if it is that, but his head looks a little small, cut off or something. It doesn't help that his neck is so full, so his head looks tiny. But the instructions in the standard say to compare the individual parts of the bird to the whole bird, and this guy's head looks "small" to me, which is wrong for a Delaware. I don't remember it being like that when we first assessed him, but he was all shoulders and keel back then.

 

[finnfur]

First thing I noticed was the head / comb [bottom]
and
Agree like on left third pic down.
But hans on will mean more - pics are always tough to judge

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

When we marked the funny comb bird as a potential breeder he was young enough his comb hadn't started to grow yet. I keep saying: these birds take a long time to show their quality ... or lack thereof.