What's your favorite meat bird?

[okie2]

just dressed 4 of my 5 Cornish baked one today they were only 9 weeks old and dressed out at 7 lbs each.
was not pleased with the tenderness of it though a little tough.
but feed to weight and time you can't beat them.
another complaint I have is they eat like pigs so fat they lay down and eat 24 hours a day.
my RR and Barred rocks get out and scratch around all over the yard.

 

[mstricer]

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A little tough due to they should be processed at 7- 8 weeks, when there at there best.

 

[mstricer]

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So kfacres, how long do those little bittys gota grow before you can process them.
Michele

 

[kfacres]

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So kfacres, how long do those little bittys gota grow before you can process them.
Michele

not quite as long as a DP, but longer than a CX. The bantams are much faster growing than the LF birds are of the same breed.

How about this: 10-12 weeks I would reccomend being the earliest... although right now, my 5 month old breeder pullets sure look tasty... can't wait to get some more babies from them pretty quick like and get some fresh chicken again... IF they ever start laying...

Did i mention the Cornish are a slow maturing breed?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm a bit of a foodie, as I imagine are many who grow their own meat.

My favorite? The roosters of any straight run order.

Other than chicken, Pheasant is my favorite.

If you want to raise a chicken that looks, cooks and tastes like grocery store chicken - it has to be Cornish/Rocks.
That said, I can't raise enough for the economy of scale to make them as cost effective as buying from the store. I only have room most of the time for about 50 meat birds and by the time I pay for everything, I can buy an organic, free range processed bird at
Whole Foods Market(probably from a local amish farm) for what it costs me in time and money to get them to that point.

I've been fairly pleased with pastured Freedom Rangers for flavor but due to space constraints I may not raise any more to concentrate on the following.

For something different in taste, I've only processed 5 so far but, I think I'm really going to like my DP Black Penedesencas.
Free range cocks in Spain get to 2.2 Kg (just under 5 lbs.) at 11 weeks. Mine take a couple weeks more.
According to experts in Spain the cock of the Penedès have physical, microbiological and organoleptic qualitative differences with respect to other cocks and have a different flavor.
At the market in Catalonia the roosters are sold dressed with the head and feet intact so people know what they're getting and why they're paying so much more. Usually in the neighborhood of $8 per pound.
For Christmas they fatten the roosters about 3 weeks longer.
There's a huge annual two day fair the weekend before Christmas named for the Black Penedesenca (Fira del Gall de Penedes). At the fair they sell 3 to 4 thousand live ducks, turkeys, chickens. The star of the fair is the Black Penedesenca and roosters sell for over $50. People select the rooster they want and next to the stall they butcher it and they take it home for their christmas dinner.
There are also cooking competitions at the fair incorporating the black Pene roosters.
40,000 people attend the fair from all over Europe.

 

[cubalaya]

delawares

 

[Country Parson]

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Did you let the birds sit in the fridge for a few days before cooking them or putting them in the freezer? If not, the toughness you experienced was rigor mortis. It is caused by chemical changes in the muscle tissue which occur after death. The state of rigor usually lasts about 24 hours or until muscle decomposition takes place by acid formation. In a human it takes 48-60 to come out of rigor mortis. Two days in the fridge for a chicken and the body would have gone through the complete cycle. If you eat it (or freeze it) before that, your fighting against the body's natural rigidity. If you did freeze the birds right away, no worries. The process is just delayed. Once you thaw the bird out leave it in the fridge for a few days before eating, and it will naturally finish the process (though I hear the effect isn't as good as if you did it pre-freeze).

BTW, I learned this the hard way.

 

[Anna_MN]

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Did you let the birds sit in the fridge for a few days before cooking them or putting them in the freezer? If not, the toughness you experienced was rigor mortis. It is caused by chemical changes in the muscle tissue which occur after death. The state of rigor usually lasts about 24 hours or until muscle decomposition takes place by acid formation. In a human it takes 48-60 to come out of rigor mortis. Two days in the fridge for a chicken and the body would have gone through the complete cycle. If you eat it (or freeze it) before that, your fighting against the body's natural rigidity. If you did freeze the birds right away, no worries. The process is just delayed. Once you thaw the bird out leave it in the fridge for a few days before eating, and it will naturally finish the process (though I hear the effect isn't as good as if you did it pre-freeze).

BTW, I learned this the hard way.

This is such good information!!! I was wondering how long they sit for. I will have to remember this when I get mine processed.

 

[kfacres]

Actually... I sometimes beg to differ...

From my experience, it doesn't matter how long you let the carcass (of any species rest), toughness is either there, or it isn't.. I couldn't count the number of times I've butchered something in the summer, to take it in the house, rinse it off.. and straight into the freeze it goes. Never to read RM, figuratively speaking.

What people don't understand, especially when they're talking about CX, or meat birds in general... Is that when an animal is allowed to exercise, muscles get used.. The more a muscle gets used, the stringier, and tougher it becomes. Why do you think the loins are the most tender? They're extremely hard to flex, whereas a shoulder on the other hand.. not only is the most used, but it's also got more seam fat, and muscle junctions... Anyways, back to chickens...

What people don't realize, is that the longer they're meat bird is allowed to live, the tougher, stringier, and overall palatability is being compromised. These people preach free ranging, and limited feed... I don't know about you, but I'd much rather eat a fat butterball that didn't move all day, and was constantly full of corn and high protein grain to generate IMF, or Intra Muscular Fat... Which directly leads to flavor, and a positive eating experience... The same for marbling in beef.

It's like comparing veal to deer... What's lean, and most likely better for you? Or what's kept in confinement, not allowed to move, fed crazy fatty diets.. and taste like heaven, in a fork cutting experience??

 

[WillieBoy]

Where i live their is a strong market for older tougher laying hens and meat birds.I get 10 bucks a bird for my 3 yr old black sex links and most of my clients want them alive and kicking, which i love....

Amazingly, my same clients want big , big CX meaties, 12-15 lbs, any many request the whole unbuthered birds.My biggest CX meatie was over 17 lbs, like a dang turkey..! Of course when you take a chance on selling a meatie at that age and weight, its not uncommon to find them dead.My clients are from distant shores (and have moved to America) and i sell as many as i can provide.For myself i much perfer the 3-5 lb range of CX meatie and if i do a older hen, it's all day in the slow cooker.
Having worked at a chicken farm the last five yrs, i'd have to say it does make a difference if a meatie rest a couple days in the fridge when it comes to tenderness in eating.Though a bird that has had much exercise will be tougher, but isn't bad if cooked in the slow cooker all day.You just have to learn to work with what you have.Once you've dealt with older laying hens and meaties long enough, you learn what works best...