Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[U_Stormcrow]

What about a little smoker to dry meat and give it that flavor? You can get small smokers for a decent price.

I built a 2x2x3 smoker sits on my fire ring. I do smoke sausages for preservation. Have a dehydrator too - I just can't air cure. and as I said above, I do fresh sausage (mostly). The smoker is really good for making chicken "hot dogs" with just a mild smoke, then finish in the oven to temp.

Its better, honestly, for brisket. That is, when I'm not making corned beef. Or canadian bacon, which is just a cured smoked pork loin.

 

[MadGardener]

I've never put mustard in it.

It's pretty much exactly like chicken pot pie -- rich broth, potatoes, carrots, onions, and the dumplings.

My family tradition is to pull the meaty ham bone out before putting the dumplings in and slice the meat at the table. I often pull the meat off the bone and put it back into the broth (another heresy, but I find that the ham on the bone gets cold waiting).

Interesting. Perhaps it's more regional than I thought. That part of my family is from Shamokin. The bot bie I grew up on is made with onion, potatoes, chicken and a touch of mustard in gravy. The dumplings are wide strips. The mustard sounds weird but I swear I delish in the right quantity.

Hub's family from eastern NC has a very similar recipe they call pot pie. I've seen it called chicken pastry as well.

Hijacking complete, time to eat!

 

[3KillerBs]

Interesting. Perhaps it's more regional than I thought. That part of my family is from Shamokin. The bot bie I grew up on is made with onion, potatoes, chicken and a touch of mustard in gravy. The dumplings are wide strips. The mustard sounds weird but I swear I delish in the right quantity.

Hub's family from eastern NC has a very similar recipe they call pot pie. I've seen it called chicken pastry as well.

Hijacking complete, time to eat!

We're from Western PA with Mom's family where the recipe comes from being from Uniontown and the Maryland panhandle.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Ham and mustard is classic - and the quantity is quite small. There is mustard (powder) in the recipe for the hot dogs I make from chicken, too.

 

[NanaK]

I... had not considered that.
and if you had ever had my "dumplings", you would understand why.

If you don't make good dumplings, make chicken and rice. Chicken fat makes the broth very good!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If you don't make good dumplings, make chicken and rice. Chicken fat makes the broth very good!

We actually use chicken stock from the bones and bits of our own chickens. Waste not, want little. But mostly, I don't raise fatty chickens.

and I make rice all the time. White rice, yellow rice, brown rice, dirty rice, sushi rice, curry rice, fried rice...

 

[U_Stormcrow]

A few pics of some of the birds I discussed earlier this week.

"Ugly", the volumetrically huge, Brahma mama male who - nevertheless - weighs a mere 6.3# at roughly one year of age. and I rechecked records, the papa was not as heavy as I thought I remembered. That's why we keep records - the brain is an unreliable instrument.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This tiny, too dark hen with patterning was an early hope in the project last year. Somehow, she weighs 4.7# At this point, she's probably the best of my near misses.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This was the other high hopes girl from last year's hatches. Again, Brahma mama. Physically, she occupies more volume than the bird above, barely, but its all feathers. 4.2#

I prefer this "level" of red for my soils (for all that I took photos in areas more grey than orange), but her patterning is almost completely washed out and I worry at hints of more grey than black in her fluff.

 

[MysteryChicken]

This was the other high hopes girl from last year's hatches. Again, Brahma mama. Physically, she occupies more volume than the bird above, barely, but its all feathers. 4.2#

I prefer this "level" of red for my soils (for all that I took photos in areas more grey than orange), but her patterning is almost completely washed out and I worry at hints of more grey than black in her fluff.

View attachment 3115943

You want Red Wheaten, to Red Columbian females?