just wondering... WARNING contains armchair intellectualism

[v.cyr]

Right now I think people in the US prefer white meat . . . don't know when that trend changed.

because the cornishx( with its greater ratio of white meat, and relatively flavorless dark meat) takeover of the commercial broiler market has taught us to prefer white meat over dark... you see the preferences start to shift in the 50s and 60s...

 

[ambrose]

I wonder if ducks having one foot in the domestic world and one in the wild keeps them from being quite as an entrenched barnyard fixture in our mind.
As far as I know there are no longer wild chickens, or at least none around here. (though i guess there must have been at some point, they came from Indonesia (Java) or something, right?).

 

[RaeRae2]

I just watched a cooking show the other night where they were using different types of eggs. They had some duck eggs and said that you have to be careful cooking with duck eggs because they have a very rich flavor and can be overpowering in dishes and pastries.

So maybe chicken eggs may be less in quantity but they are more popular because they have a milder flavor that is easier to use and cook with?

 

[larkflying]

And duck eggs have tough shells -- although you'd think they'd break less and be easier to handle.

If you are used to free range, fresh chicken eggs -- ducks fed on grass and layer pellets produce eggs very similar. They are actually best in baking. If the ducks have access to fish then I've heard the eggs have stronger taste. If all you are used to is the store eggs, then duck eggs would be a shock! : )

 

[v.cyr]

I just watched a cooking show the other night where they were using different types of eggs. They had some duck eggs and said that you have to be careful cooking with duck eggs because they have a very rich flavor and can be overpowering in dishes and pastries.

So maybe chicken eggs may be less in quantity but they are more popular because they have a milder flavor that is easier to use and cook with?

the preference towards the flavor of chicken eggs would be more an effect of chickens becoming more common a farm bird than ducks though, rather than the cause, wouldn't it...I imagine most people would consider chicken eggs "bland" or "dull" flavored, if ducks had somehow managed to claim the top spot...

 

[v.cyr]

If all you are used to is the store eggs, then duck eggs would be a shock! : )

people used to store eggs find even farm fresh chicken eggs a shock...

 

[grawg]

Quote: I think that is a pretty good point in favor of chickens. As I've yet to process chicken or duck, this never crossed my mind.

 

[v.cyr]

true, but IIRC, duck and other waterfowl feathers had more value to earlier civilizations too... the down was a much better insulator, and the primary feathers were valued for arrow fletching (goose was the best for that, and the most sought after, but duck feathers were generally considered superior fletchings to chicken)... also, the rendered greases from duck were valuable... It seems to me that these and other factors might have been able to outweigh the disadvantage of more difficult plucking

 

[larkflying]

So maybe the easier to pluck chickens became more popular after the industrial revolution -- when the grease and feathers would have not been needed as much, and speed mattered more? That is a good point about the added benefits of goose / duck feathers. They do still use goose down in some things I think . . .

 

[silkiechicken]

I would also wonder if prior to the advent of barn lighting and specalized laying breeds, if ducks in the past were seasonal layers more so than chickens. We have ducks laying 300+ eggs a year, but we also have chickens weighing 8 lbs in 8 weeks or less. When these animals were being utalized in the past, did the 300+ duck eggs a year breeds exist? The 8lbs or more chickens didn't exist till the last 40-60 years with specific breeding programs.