home-reared meat and pre-conditioned pallets

blowin · home-reared meat and pre-conditioned pallets

Not the wooden things . I mean pallets as in "taste buds" .

I have just cooked up one of our favourite dishes -- braised liver & bacon with good thick gravey , mashed spuds and frozen peas . They were like bullets , as it happens , but we couldn't eat the meat either . Had to give it to the dog .
Tainted or contaminated ? Absolutely not . It came from an animal which we had reared ourselves and was probably the finest piece of liver I have ever seen on a plate .
It wasn't sentimentality , either .
The problem was that it actually tasted like what it was ! --- a very real sheep --- and the texture was very distinctive , too . Best way I can describe that is like a light fluffy omlette vs the flat rubbery stuff which some people serve as omlette . Anyway , it was nothing like the supermarket stuff which I have been brought up on and the difference between my expectation and what I actually got in my mouth was , er , quite disconcerting .
There is a similar degree of difference between the various breeds of chicken . I have the occasional longing for a roast like we used to have in the uk ( Tesco Embarassed

) . You get that from a Broiler but not from Light Sussex or RIR's , which are more like turkey meat imho .
There is no particular moral to this ramble . Just thought I'd share it with you Wink

greentree

Nice ramble!

I just killed my first Light Sussex cockeral last night. We plucked and cleaned it and it is now ready for roasting on Sunday.

Not sure what to expect - hope I wont be dissappointed. It was 16 weeks and weighed in (dressed) at 3.5lbs. There seemed to be a nice breast on it.

I'll let ye know what the verdict is!

Mick

blowin

Is that the first of your own chickens , or the first of that particular breed ?

If it is the very first kill then that is a big step to have taken . Good on you Wink

! ( Sorry , that should be " good man yerself " Laughing

) . I know at least 2 farmers who regularly take their stock to the mart or abbatoir but cannot bring themselves to kill their own birds .
As an aside - they seem to think I don't mind doing the deed so they offloaded 15 cockerels on me . I do kill things when I have to ( or want that roast badly enough Laughing

) but I still prefer to avoid it . The consequence is that the few p/b hens we once had have been bonked morning and night by a gang of these invaders so I have no idea what might hatch out of their eggs . They will almost certainly be very pretty and about the size of budgeriegars , which is not a lot of use to me ! Better to put the cocks into the pot before anyone is daft enough to name them Wink

.
But back to topic -- we found that LS and RIR both had inedibly tough skin when roasted breast side up , even tho we had covered it with bacon for most of the cooking time . Mrs phil says it is great when roasted breast down Wink

.
I'm sure you will find the quality second-to-none . The texture and flavour will be quite an experience if you haven't had it before Wink

greentree

Thanks for that!

I've been keeping chickens for about four years now but this is the first time I've raised some meat birds. One of the LS hens went broody and she hatched 5 chicks. At heart I'm a nature lover and hate killing anything but feel that I am much closer to our source of food this way.

So yesterday was the first time I'd killed a bird. I bought one of those wall mountable dispatchers which makes the job much easier. Today, I killed his brother and it was much easier second time around. I learned to go very easy on the breast while plucking so not to tear the skin!

I'll let you know how the meal is on Sunday! A new experience for us anyway!

Mick

wayland

Wall mounted dispatchers!. I shall be rearing our own meat birds this year and although I have killed many birds over the years I struggled with a young Maran cock recently Confused

Clearly not the man I was Crying or Very sad

So what about these dispatchers? Any recommendations please?

greentree

Camile

Hello,

We've 3 roosters to dispatch tomorrow .... and I hate doing it too ... but it has to be done because they are wrecking the ladies ...

there will be another 2 or 3 next week too ...

I found choping the head off the best for me ... one blow and you know they are off ..

I find the taste wonderfull ... especially on the dark meat ... and the breast are usually big enough, but nothing compare to a broiler ...

and I'll follow mister Phil advices by doing a few broiler this year ... for jointing more than anything else ...

Camile

blowin