Eating Different Skin Colors

[fishkiller]

While researching what kind of dual purpose birds i want to get i keep seeing that white skin is considered a detriment. I would like to know if there is a large difference in eating quality. Is it only noticeable when preparing the chicken with the skin on? Or does it also affect the flavor of the meat. Is it just a cosmetic thing?

 

[mourninglory]

Don't know if skin colour really matters as far as taste. I have enjoyed light yellow/pinkish skin birds as well as the darker silkie (almost black). The meat also seemed to taste the same. Close your eyes and try the light meat of a similiar sized bird and the blue meat of the silky. I could not taste a difference. Of course looking at it and knowing was another story.

 

[greyfields]

This has always puzzled me as well. White skinned table birds are the norm in England, whereas yellow skinned is in the US. All I was able to find is "consumer preference" as being the reason for it. So, it makes no difference... it's just we are conditioned to expect a chicken to look one way, and when it doesn't, our first instinct is to think something is wrong. Have you ever shown someone your pullet eggs and have them say "gross!"? I have. Supermarkets have trained us to expect uniform food look in a certain manner, and when it doesn't we're most likely to avoid it.

 

[silkiechicken]

Haha, yeah, uniform food... Color is just pigment in the skin, or in the case of silkies, pigment in the connective tissues, flavor of the birds are all the same.

 

[jab91864]

I never really thought about eating any of the silkies... they are so small.

~Julie

 

[greyfields]

I do believe that over feeding of corn can lead the skin to pigment yellow (along with egg yolks). So perhaps with the abundance of corn in the midwest it was decided that meat birds here will be yellow so they don't look tarnhished yellow on the skin.