What's your favorite meat bird?

[cornish20]

The arsenic people.... have you ever ate an apple, or drank apple juice?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You won't find arsenic on the label of feed sold in 50 lb. bags cause it's not in there.

The formulas used in large commercial operations are proprietary and mixed in their own mills and if they find it cost effective for their purposes to add arsenic, they will.

http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/20...n-additive-to-poultry-feed-as-the-result.html

I stand corrected. The bill by the Maryland General Assembly to ban arsenic in chicken feed did NOT pass this year.

 

[cubalaya]

southern states quality control person assured me that there was no traceable amounts of arsenic in their feeds. thanks vegans for trying to get me to worry about something that is bogus. as far as grocery store chicken, will not be buying much of that.

 

[Taylor]

I love making fried chicken and biscuits for the family every now and again. the best chicken i have ever eat is a Barred Rock. tender, succulent meat you have ever tasted and the pieces are very well sized for eating, and their legs aren't too tendony as other breeds, just moist tender drumsticks, fall of the bone good! now thats a good piece of chicken!

 

[Country Parson]

Quote:
Kfacres, I don't disagree with you, but we are really talking about different things. Toughness in meat (or lack thereof) can be caused by at least three things:

(1) Age of meat. A 24wk old bird will naturally be tougher than an 8wk old bird.

(2) Movement of bird when alive: Personally, I don't think this is a factor with the CornishX because it doesnt really matter how big their pen is, they will just sit by the feeder all day long anyway. But in theory, I agree.

(3) Rigor mortis: eating or freezing a bird before it goes through this cycle. This makes a difference. True, it won't undo the toughness of categoy #1 or #2, but it will significanty compound the problem if your already dealing with tough meat because of those reasons.

Speaking of corn, in the last four weeks of my CornishX's short life they receive 1/2 grower and 1/2 cracked corn. Last week almost nothing but cracked corn. This adds a nice layer of fat on the bird. I know many want the exact opposite, but personally this type of natural fat is much more healthy for us than our processed modern alternatives and very flavorful.

 

[harryritter]

My favorite meat bird so far is the Kosher King

 

[Bossroo]

Since I discovered the joys of supplementing the 20% protein commercial feed with 1/2 cracked corn for 2 weeks to increase intramuscular fat deposits then butchering my birds at 35 days of age, then resting the birds for at least 24 hours before cooking for the most TENDER and TASTY ( with a capital "T" ) feast of a Cornish Game Hen

... the CornishX is by far the best choice.

All animals go through rigor mortis starting a few hours after death for about 24 hours, then the muscles start to relax and become tender. During this time the meat is very tough. After rigor mortis passes the meat becomes more tender untill the point of muscle fiber, fat, and organ decomposition . Toughness of meat is a function of the amount of muscular activity and increasing with age during the animal's lifetime.

 

[scooter147]

Quote:
There is a local farmers market where I live and one guy brings all of his "spent" hens to the market and he sells them at $4 a pop to "clients from distant shores". He said if he brings 50 they are gone most of the time before he can get them out of the truck and into his stand. I asked him one day what they do with them all. He said they told him them make stock out of them and use the meat for chicken salad, dumplings etc.