skin colors and processing

[cybercat]

I was wondering if anyone has done any comparision on the differnet skin colors of chickens and how they process. It is always said white feathered birds are easier than dark but what about skin color. Is a white skiined chicken easier than say a yellow or black cskinned chicken? Anyone know????

 

[chicklips]

It depends on what you/your client is willing to eat. Here in the US we tend to go for the white/yellow skinned birds. Other places such as China eat the black skinned birds. The white birds to me seem to be easier to process because they can be "cleaned up" better than the darker skinned birds.

 

[dancingbear]

I've found that if the feathers are well developed, so you don't have a lot of pin feathers, it doesn't really matter what color they are. If scalded properly, the feathers come out just as nice and clean from a black feathered bird as they do on a white feathered bird. The last ones I did came out so nice, you wouldn't have known they'd had black feathers, unless you looked really close and found a speck of pigment. I don't care to eat feathers, of any color, so I pluck mine really well anyway.

 

[cybercat]

Now that is interesting Dancingbear. I wonder who started the myth of the feather color then. I bet it was the comercial people trying to sell more chickens. If all that matters is the chick have full feather development then processing early would not make sense. Which again on the Breeds one does not process as early as one does on the Xs. I guess timing on feathers is just as important as timing on age or weight. You would not want to process a chicken right at or after moult but would wait longer for feathers to fully grow in.

Now does skin color make it easier or harder? I guess that since feathers do not skin will not either. So why the big thing about color????? Yellow is better than white, white is better than yellow, black is medicinal(this would depend on feed), see where I am going. Is one better than the other for processing. Is it all hype from the big guys trying to sell thier products. That is why I was looking for personal facts on it.

 

[dancingbear]

I think it's just a combination of hype, old wives' tales, and urban myths. Except...I know black skinned chickens are used in Chinese medicine, and maybe there is something in the pigment that has an effect. Or some other substance or combination of substances in that breed. I couldn't say. As an herbalist, I'm awestruck by the intricacy of Chinese herbalism, so far be it from me to dismiss black skinned birds as medicine. Chinese herbalists understand synergistic effects better than anyone else I've ever encountered.

As for plucking, I don't always manage to time the feathers right. Last fall I butchered some extra roos right after molt, there were the most gawd-awful pinfeathers, they took forever to pluck. These last ones were so easy to pluck, and came out cleaner than any I've done before, so know I know it can happen.

I've eaten plenty of birds with dark pigment spots, from feathers, in the skin. You can't taste it, and it's not noticeable after it's cooked. But people are funny, and they get grossed out about things that don't really matter. If you are selling your birds commercially, you may very well have customers who would freak out about pigment spots. The kind of gel-goo that's often present when you pull out a feather, is there on white feathered birds, too, but you don't notice it because it isn't black, like it is with a dark feathered bird.

I don't think there's any difference in flavor between a white skinned bird and a yellow one.

With milk cows, some breeds convert beta carotene to vitamin A better than others. They have whiter cream, because vitamin A is colorless. The others have a yellow tint to the cream, because beta carotene has color. The butter from that cream is a stronger yellow, as well. The same thing may be going on with different breeds of chicken, some convert the beta carotene, some do not. Those that do not, would have yellow skin.