Forget about all those recipes that begin, "preheat oven to 225C"...
This recipe begins, "take one chicken"...
He was very tasty and we thoroughly enjoyed eating him! (And looking forward to another couple of meals worth -- 1.7kg deadweight, so quite respectable size IMO!)
6 comments:
deadweight? the term I've heard is hanging weight (which I supposed is removed of feathers and innards).
Deadweight is the term used for lamb and beef carcasses, so I guess I just assumed it applied here as well? :) But yes, that was removed of feathers and innards -- I weighed him just before I put him in the oven... And, just five minutes ago, I heard little brown cockerel crowing for the first time, so there will be another roast chicken on the cards before long...
So many questions. What happened to poorly hen that got culled at Christmas? Did she get eaten too, or do you not eat them if they are not healthy? Also, I always thought that roosters had to be stewed, not roasted, or they would be very tough--but is that only true of old roosters (and old hens)? Is this one tasty and tender when roasted because he was a young one (cockerel rather than cock)? Is that why the other one will also get eaten soon, because he has started crowing, and they need to be eaten before they go full rooster? Also what do your chickens eat? And do they have any land predators on the island? And do you have to worry about hen harriers?
Hi Jane! Hope all is well with you...
Hen that got culled -- she had no meat on her really -- she hadn't been eating properly. I was going to turn her into stock but Danny took the decision (correctly, because I take too many risks) that we didn't know what was wrong with her, so really shouldn't be eating her. So she got buried.
Re tender vs tough -- in my experience, this is down to age, not gender. The reason why we are culling our extra cockerels for dinner now is because they are starting to fight with Big Boy -- we haven't got enough hens for more than one cockerel -- and we want to cull them before he injures them...
At the moment the chickens are indoors because housing order, so they eat layers pellets and cracked oats mixed with whey, but once the housing order is lifted, they will eat whatever they can find in the garden! Foxes, the major chicken predator, don't exist on Sanday, so that's a big relief not to have to worry about. There are hen harriers here, but fingers crossed they will find other tastier things to eat...! I'm not sure if they would come this close to the house to hunt when there are clearly plenty of little mammals to eat in the fields...
Thanks for the detailed replies, Jessica! I'm well and glad to see you enjoying your life on Sanday so much. I'm plotting (but not yet concretely planning) a possible bicycle trip up there to visit you in a semi-hopefully-not-so-distant summer.
Woo hoo! You are welcome any time -- and cycling here is lovely (compared to Wales) because it is nice and flat! :)
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