Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[L-plate chicken mum]

In case anyone wants the background….
https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/12/05/christmas-cake/

 

[kattabelly]

that's a lot of brandy! do you have a preferred recipe? I use Marguerite Pattern's from the 1970s.

I've cobbled together my own by tweaking a few different ones over the years. Originally I think it was something close to the one in "the bible" (ancient copy of the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book which used to be my mum's and also has my granny's handwritten notes, and recipes on scrap paper)

I'd need to dig my notebook out to double check but if I remember correctly it's basically one part cake mix (equal amounts butter/sugar/eggs/flour) to one part dried fruit, plus nuts if you want. Type of sugar (I like a really dark cake), which dried fruit and what spices can all be adjusted to taste. Presoak fruit along with zest & juice of a lemon and an orange plus enough booze to make it liquid enough. Add baking powder if using plain flour.

 

[kattabelly]

Last year I also made a chicken version of the goose blood tart that used to be traditional in what was then Montgomeryshire in Wales. It's similar to a mince pie ("mincemeat" in this context is spiced dried fruits and a few other ingredients - it would've contained actual meat historically but doesn't these days) but with the addition of crumbled or grated blood curd.

 

[Molpet]

I think the idea that chickens will 'pick out the best bits first' is another example of oft-quoted-on-BYC nonsense, at least when applied to real recognizable food and not some ultra-processed slop.

They pick out first what their appetites tell them they most need. If there's not enough for birds lower in the pecking order to get any of X, then there's not enough X in the feed for everybody's needs and the keeper should increase the amount of X until everyone gets as much of it as they want to satisfy their nutritional needs.

Mine must need Styrofoam. Anytime a piece blows in, probably from the highway, they fight each other.
Corn is another. The feed first ingredient is corn, but if I throw corn out they go crazy. I literally had a hen killed. She was trying to get it all and I heard a hubbub behind me. She was flopping and a turkey was after her. By morning she was dead.
I had thrown out about 2 gallons in a 50ft circle.

 

[notabitail]

Mine must need Styrofoam. Anytime a piece blows in, probably from the highway, they fight each other.

In Albis was addicted to that stuff. She would find a way to get to it. I eventually had to move some other stuff around so she couldn't get to the storage area. She even flew over things just to get it.

 

[Perris]

Last year I also made a chicken version of the goose blood tart that used to be traditional in what was then Montgomeryshire in Wales. It's similar to a mince pie ("mincemeat" in this context is spiced dried fruits and a few other ingredients - it would've contained actual meat historically but doesn't these days) but with the addition of crumbled or grated blood curd.

that sounds but I bet it's not And surely wouldn't make it past the door of a commercial kitchen or bakery these days

 

[RoyalChick]

The Christmas cake is in the oven . It might be quite boozy this year, with the fruit pre-soaked in Baileys, and 4 tablespoons of spicy cherry rum in the mix too

I am deeply impressed. But not enough to actually make one myself!
My grandmother made Christmas cake and I do remember feeding the cake in the run up to Christmas.

 

[Perris]

Mine must need Styrofoam. Anytime a piece blows in, probably from the highway, they fight each other.

In Albis was addicted to that stuff. She would find a way to get to it. I eventually had to move some other stuff around so she couldn't get to the storage area. She even flew over things just to get it.

I'm sure I've had this conversation before at least twice in different places. Styrofoam is not toxic; it may be a choking hazard but is harmless otherwise. It is an aromatic plastic that can be digested by some microbes in the microbiome in some animals - notably mealworms, but why not chickens? - so can actually provide nutrients at second hand, like the fibre in our diets (which we do not digest, our microbes do, and then we digest their metabolites).

 

[kattabelly]

that sounds but I bet it's not And surely wouldn't make it past the door of a commercial kitchen or bakery these days

I'll make a few small changes next time, if I can find the notes I made, but yeah it was pretty good. I don't see why it shouldn't - there's a big enough market for black pudding and similar products, and lots of high end restaurants have done all kinds of amazing and creative things with blood as an ingredient.

 

[Perris]

you'll be singing the praises of haggis next...