I'm really ill with my Hubby!

[adoptedbyachicken]

Here is the deal as I understand it. There are a few factors at work here. Yes the bird needs to have time for the actin and myosin to break down so it is not stringy in texture. Over the years we have come to not believe in our teeth so much it seems, if you have to actually chew on something now it is said to be tough, back then as long as it could be chewed it was not tough. Also with the food safety we are more aware of now meat is cooled quickly and that prolongs the time it takes for the breakdown to occur. This is mostly due to the large numbers or critters we do at a time, and that machines and equipment are used that can cross contaminate. I often hear stories of the chicken for that nights dinner hanging on the back porch for the day, often not plucked or gutted till evening. This will greatly accelerate the breakdown of the meat and is still done in many cultures, that bird will cut with the edge of a fork after cooking even if it only hung for an hour. An ice chilled or even water chilled bird that was gutted right away will hold the muscle structure for a day easy. Then there is the cooking too, anything that seals the bird so that the moisture in it breaks down the muscle in cooking will make it tender too. Sealing it in grease would do that for sure, covered cooking like a roasting pan with the lid on for the first half of a long slow cooking would too, those were common ways to cook then. Now we demand a skinless bird part that can hit the grill of the BBQ hot and dry and still fall apart easy when we are done cooking it in only 10 minutes.

 

[TxChiknRanchers]

 

[beebiz]

I am only 47 years old. But, I remember quite well that my mother and both grandmotheres would come home from church, change clothes, go to the hen yard, grab a rooster, ring its neck (on the spot), dress it, fry it, and then we would have some mighty tasty fried chicken for lunch. And, it wasn't tough or stringy! And, it was the same with the birds that I killed and dressed or helped with right up until I left home at the age of 18.

Some few days ago, I butchered some of my Buff Orpington roos. I skinned them out, put them in some salt water, and let them sit in the refrigerator for 3 days. The fourth day, I decided to cook one of them.

My mouth watered as I put one in a 13 X 9 pan, added just a bit of water, covered it in BBQ sauce, covered the pan with aluminum foil, and put the whole thing in the oven at 275 degrees to cook slow. When the chicken got done, my wife and I fixed our plate and sat down. By now, I wasn't salavating.... I was slobbering!! I got my first bite of chicken and began chewing.... and chewing.... and chewing! Though not like chewing on an innertube, it was definately tougher than the store bought birds! And, definately tougher than my mother's or either of my grandmother's birds!! I wondered why.

I've done some serious and lengthy cogitating about the issue.

I remembered that as I was skinning out the roos, I noticed that there wasn't enough fat on their carcasses to fill up a teaspoon!! And, it didn't come off with the skin either... I checked!! I remembered thinking to myself that moma's and grandmother's birds had a lot more fat on them. But, I quickly dismissed the thought; believeing that mine were "healthier" birds!

As I was reading these posts, my mind was realing. Why are so many of our birds tough????

Then, I remembered that every time my mother and dad comes over to my house and looks at my chickens, they each make comments about how huge my hen yard is and how big my hen house is. The hen yard is 25' X 25', the hen house is 16' X 16', and there are 16 BO's, 6 bantams, 4 call ducks, and 2 Pekins who call it home. It finally dawned that you could have taken at least two of my mother's or either of my grandmother's hen yards and hen houses and set them inside mine! And, you would have has some room left over!! And, they had at least as many, and most times more poultry that I have!!!!

Then, I remembered that lots of times my mother or grandmothers would take a roo that was intended for the Sunday dinner table, fasten him up in a 3 foot by 3 foot (rouughly) cage and feed him all the cracked corn he wanted. They would do this for a couple of weeks before they served them for dinner. I once asked my mother why she did this. She told me that the roo was too skinny and would be tough if she didn't fatten him up a bit.

Finally, I remembered how that in my Agriculture classes in high school I was taught that meat needs fat content to make it tender. I was taught for example that when choosing a steak to make sure I chose one with lots of marbling (lines of fat running through the muscle) in it; because the ones with less marbling would be tough!! Dont' believe what I was taught???? Go buy two steaks.... one with lots of marbling and one with virtually no marbleing (extra lean) and see which is toughest!!

All my cogitation, a phone call to my mother, a phone call to my living grandmother, and reading these posts has led me to these conclusions. First, as adoptedbyachicken pointed out, we've become a society that thinks that if we actually have to chew something.... it must be tough!! Next, and generally speaking, we give our butchering chickens a lot more room for exercise than our parents or grandparents did. Too much exercise equals leaner, stonger muscle and therefore tougher meat! Why do you think the broiler houses have their birds standing "sholder to sholder???" It ain't just a "lack of space" thing!!!!

And, since fat is where most of the taste of chicken (or beef, pork or any other edible animal) comes from, the lesser fat content on our birds makes them not as "tasty!" Don't buy into that one either??? Go to the store and buy a "broiler house" chicken. Before you cook it, pull the skin back and see how much fat there is on it. Then, cook it side by side and in the same manner as you cook one of your chickens. Just cook them in different pans. And, see which one has more "flavor." I guarantee that the "fat" chicken will!!!

So, what do we chicken farmers do?? As I see it, we can either raise fatter chickens that get a much less exercise, raise chickens with a little more fat on them and who get a little less exercise, or.... have good teeth and learn to chew

Just my $1.25 worth (inflation made it go up from $.02)!!

Robert