Home-grown cornishX tastes better, but WHY?

[comp6512]

Is it the cheap feed the factory feeds their chickens?
Is it the antibiotics?
Is it the cramped conditions?
Is it the filth?

I mean if I bought a hundred of cornishX chicks, and the factory bought a hundred, from the same place... I raised mine in the backyard and they raised theirs in ... where ever - what is the real reason home-grown taste better?

This is not a hypothetical question. I am seriously thinking of getting some meaties, but just need a nudge...

Oh, the one on the avatar is not cornish X, it's one of my buff orpintons (my first luv

)

 

[Buster52]

Any bird raised the way it is supposed to be raised (outside on grass) is going to taste better than had it been raised in a barn and only given feed.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

It's all about the age... what they eat... and how much they exercise.

Those three factors are key to taste.

Most commercial producers process at 42 days many backyard producers process at 56 and up.

Most commercial producers feed them a commercial ration only and many backyard producers let them eat grass, bugs, seeds, ect.

Most commercial producers have so many birds in one barn that they get no exercise and backyard producers give them plenty and sometimes too much.

 

[comp6512]

Ok, thanks guys

So far I'm gathering that because backyard cornishX excersice, I imagine their meat gets more blood through muscle, therefore tastes better. Makes sense.

I'm not sure how many bugs they can find in my "lawn" backyard...... hmm

 

[kman]

Quote:
that is really true, have worked at the processing plants(as a contracted electrician will not go back thou money is good all work their is time and a half not worth it to me) and the birds have been cramped up so long most do not even know how flap their wing or even run, all they can do is go around in a circle and walk a small distance. as far as the inside of one of the house they are put in, dirty is not the word for those floors(better put on good rubber boots and roll your pants leg up poop is deep) this has just been my experience with the few places i have come in contact with( the same company on both), that is why i think home grown birds taste better, i guess once you have saw these things for yourself it really puts a bad taste in your mouth quite littlerly for a long time it kinda chured my stomach to see fried chicken on a buffet, but i got over that now i just dont eat any of it.

 

[Salt and Light]

I prefer thinking it the processing rather than the raising that makes the difference. Store chickens are saturated in brine solution which must dilute the meat.

 

[feetsoup]

About antibiotics - the antibiotics themselves aren't what is bad; I don't imagine they affect the meat much if at all. The problem is why they are given constant antibiotics: they pretty much live in a cloud of their own filth. They sleep in their own crap and there's fecal dust all over everything, in their food, water, lungs... and thus they would all quickly die were it not for the constant antibiotics they are fed. And you better believe that affects their taste. And then there's the unsanitary ways they process them... any big meat processing plant regularly get fecal matter and intestinal contents on the meat, but with poultry, things are made even worse because they all soak together in a chill tank and all that crap basically get marinated into the meat

I don't imagine chicken crap adds anything good to the flavor.

That's why I haven't eaten chicken in years, and I can't WAIT to get my own meaties!

 

[Ibicella]

Good nutrition, exercise, environment, rest, genetics, and good health make a big difference in our bodies. In fact, it's EVERYTHING to them. We pretty much literally are how we live. This goes for every animal on Earth.

Factory raised chickens are filthy, sick, stressed, and poorly fed and raised because commercial factory farms simply don't have the ability to devote the time or care, or give a darn about the birds that we BYC'ers do. It's just impossible to be able to meet the demand of market and be able to take that kind of time and money that's required to create homegrown quality meat.

Salt and Light also brought up a very good point that processing DOES make a big difference in the taste of the birds. How the bird dies, is bled, and the meat is cared for and prepared means worlds to the taste and texture. You can really ruin the meat of a choice bird just by how you handle it at processing time.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Quote:
Lets not get carried away with the unproven sensationalism.

Oh never mind..................................

 

[feetsoup]

I don't think it's a question of inability to care at that scale - Joel Salatin raises tens of thousands of birds and manages to care. The industrial model is just a poor production model, plain and simple, one that lends itself to not caring. It persists because it helps corporations, not farmers or chickens, and corporations has the money to keep it going.