To brine or not to brine...rangers...

[greyfields]

They are not tough. Store-bought chicken is just insipid. Your chickens are real. Store bought are fake.

Make your customers aware that store-bought birds are 'marinated' in brine to achieve 20% moisture content. It's why it tastes 'moist' after cooking. It also allows them to sell water at the price per pound of chicken.

So, the biggest thing to overcome is your customers will certainly overcook the birds for the first time. Encourage them to use meat thermometers. In the end, they should come to love your birds for the flavor. The 'toughness' is something you come to crave.

 

[moenmitz]

Thank you Greyfields- I always appreciate your honesty.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I am worried the people who are buying these might not be pleased with them, and thus will not be return customers. Probably needless worry, but I am hoping to cover all my bases.

Can you try cooking a couple before you sell the rest, try one brined, and one not? Then, you can tell your customers the difference, and leave it up to them whether to brine.

Some folks may not want brined birds, due to a sodium restricted diet, or other concerns.

I roast mine in a clay cooker, and they are not tough or dry. I roast them until tender, well past when a thermometer says they're done. The skins browns and caramelizes nicely, which adds flavor. In a clay cooker they stay moist, so longer cooking does not make them tough. That only happens if they dry out. So dryer cooking methods need to be shorter.

 

[greathorse]

I couldn't agree more about the store bought chickens and the poor quality and the pumping they do to to add water and moisture is horrible.

However injecting is in no way related to the brining Brining has no effect on tenderness, has a possible effect on juicyness and the most benefit is the skin is more crisp. The benefit to brining is marginal I do it sometimes. We compete in BBQ cookoffs and most of us there brine hoping to impress the judges with our crisp skin.

It however has nothing to do with injecting and lowering the quality of farm raised birds. Injecting sodium phoshpate and salt which is what many processors do to add weight is another thing entirely

 

[Sabz]

I had 40 cornish X last summer. No brine. Super tender and excellent chicken. They went outside everyday but normally lay down and didn't jump, run much.

Then I had 40 Rosso (which is a mixed meat breed). They spent a lot of time outside but they were AT LEAST 3 times more active than cornish X. No brine. They ARE too rough.

I'm back to 30 Cornich X noew since I was really decived by the Rosso breed.
Then I'll try the Rosso again and brine them, to see the difference.

So.. not sure if the breed makes such a difference, but I assumed that because they were much more active, they were tougher.
Maybe, the more active the chicken, the more the need to brine? Or slow cook at least.