How NOT to produce a meat bird!

[spook]

Crock pot. Makes the toughest meat tender!

 

[pkeeler]

I thought cornish x rock hybrids do not breed true. So, if you bred the offspring to a dorking, how can you know what you got?

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

So sorry...I have a freezer full of tough meat birds too but I think mine was because of what I fed them (protein % too low - only thing I can think of). I've tried brining, buttermilk, crockpot, etc. and they are not good. Only method that makes them edible is the pressure cooker.

How about chicken sausage?

 

[Buster]

Question: Did you process any of the original crosses between the Cornish and the Dorking? If so, how did they turn out as far as weight and feeding?

 

[smith2]

Chicken sausage is really good. Chicken jerky would probably be really good, too. I have had several birds so tough it was unbelievable. I have canned tough meat before with really good results. I use it all winter in casseroles and in pot pies.

 

[kstaven]

Quote:
I've done tons of the cornish dorking cross and they where all good . Nothing in what I normally do has changed but the cross out on this group.

Brining, buttermilk and aging isn't going to help this bunch.

Dogs are going to be eating chicken dinners for some time at this point.

 

[kstaven]

Quote:
You are referring to the commercial/hatchery stock meat birds. I work with my own stock and breed them up so I know exactly what I am getting.

 

[Buster]

Quote:
I've done tons of the cornish dorking cross and they where all good . Nothing in what I normally do has changed but the cross out on this group.

Brining, buttermilk and aging isn't going to help this bunch.

Dogs are going to be eating chicken dinners for some time at this point.

Thanks. I have a red laced white cornish cockerel that I plan on putting on DW's layer flock (Speckled Sussex, Orps, and Marans). I am hoping that these crosses will give me some decent birds. I know that they won't be HUGE like the hatchery Cornish crosses but I am going to experiment and see what I get.

 

[dancingbear]

Maybe pressure can? I've never had even the oldest bird (of mine, anyway) not get tender either in the crock pot or pressure canning, BUT, once upon a time...

When I was much younger, I was sharing a house in California with a friend, and we found whole chickens really, really cheap at a discount grocery. Being very broke, we jumped on this. They weren't very big, and a sign posted on the case said they were Rhode Island Reds. My friend said they must've walked all the way from Rhode Island, because they were so tough.

We boiled those birds all day long and half the night, they never did become anything edible. The texture was similar to truck tire. You could barely cut it with a sharp knife, much less chew the stuff. Rubber chickens they remained, no matter what.

You have my sympathy. My first trial cross, Brahma roo, Cornish hen, didn't turn out well. (I'll try C roo, B hen, later, just to see if that works better.) Pretty birds, but small. Only 10 of them, so not a huge feed loss. Some are pullets, too, so I'll just keep them for layers. The young roos are mostly not very big, only a couple even seem worth the trouble, but if I gotta kill it, I'm gonna eat it! Or if that's not possible, I have dogs and cats who'll like it.

Maybe you could saw the larger pieces of meat off the bones, and dry it for doggie chew toys. I bet they'd love it. Or run it through a grinder and cook it in a crock pot with brown rice for the dogs. I did that with venison trimmings, for mine, they scarfed it down.

 

[kstaven]

Nothing around here goes to waste jenny. The dogs will enjoy the benefits of the experiment.