A Flight of Chickens: A Tasting Workshop

So in my research into various sheep breeds looking for a SCA period fleece type, I also started discussing with people about whether or not different types of sheep tasted differently.  Which made me remember my father telling me as a child about how the chickens in Taiwan changed.  Then of course, I found a paper on the subject. The original chicken type in Taiwan was the Taiwan country chicken (土雞), which he and his brothers loved, but then American broilers were imported to improve meat and egg production and the chicken no longer tasted as good.  However the hybrids of the American and Taiwan chickens tasted better, but not as good as the original.  This started me wondering about different breeds of chicken and how they taste and how that would affect a period medieval dish.  So I talked to a friend and we decided to have a chicken tasting workshop.

This is the general plan:
We are going to poach and taste at least four chickens.

      Our Flight:            (Subject to availability, number of participants, and the shopper’s (me) whim)

1. Commercial chicken
2. Cornish game hen (probably commercial)
3. A free range organic one
4. Silkie chicken (烏骨雞) Black bone chicken

The “Lab Manual”

Hypothesis:     From various anecdotal accounts from people who have raised chickens.  The taste difference will not come so much from the BREED of chicken but from the diet and how the chicken was raised and possibly the age of the bird.  I personally think Cornish Game hen and especially silkies taste differently from Perdue broiler.  Dad remembers a distinct taste and texture difference between Taiwan country chicken, caged chickens from American broiler stock, and crosses between the 2 that were free ranged (this might be due to diet).

Procedure:

1.      Examine/weigh chickens

2.      Label/Tag the chickens

3.      Cook chickens

4.      Chop up chickens.

5.      Examine sample cooking broth,

6.      Combine cooking broth and simmer.

7.      Discuss chickens.

8.      Make the rest of dinner.

9.      Eat dinner with various condiments for chicken.

worksheet
	Control	Cornish Game Hen	Organic Free Range	Silkie Chicken
Raw
Weight
Appearance
Price
Price/lb
Cooked
Cooking Time
Weight
Fat film on broth
Taste of broth
Taste
White Meat
Dark Meat
Texture
White Meat
Dark Meat
Bones
Appearance
Strength/Density

Notes: silkie chickens are really not a good example of any general type of chicken, be it period, modern, Asian, or European.  It's too much of a strange mutation.  However, due to the distinctive appearance, (feathers, black skin bones and flesh).  Even this non poultry expert can easily say this is the chicken Marco Polo was referring to.

Conclusion: (?) Your guess is as good as mine!

Questions to keep in mind while tasting:                            

1. Do the chickens taste different enough that it would affect a "period" dish?            

2. How would we compensate? (cooking time, more/less oil, etc)                      

                                         

3. Does it make a large enough difference?                                 

Different venues:                                           

A&S competition                                           

Feast at a cooking event                                            

Feast at a general event                                              

Obviously there is a difference or else fancy restaurants wouldn’t advertise free-range on the menu.        

Just as obviously we're here to find out why and how. :)                 

                                         

4. Cost effectiveness (Keep the damn receipts and weights to compare per lb)             

5. What types of prep would you use for the various kinds chickens.

6. How would condiments/prep etc affect/mask the taste. 

7. One thing that has been mentioned in my rare breed sheep class is that, we have no idea what shifts and adaptations occur once an animal is taken out of it's native habit and fed a different diet.

 Sources

Colonial Williamsburg Rare Breeds Program http://www.history.org/almanack/life/animals/pr_rare.cfm

Wikipedia on various chicken breeds, the silkie article is actually fairly accurate based on what I was taught about them as a child.

Oklahoma State University’s Livestock Breed Information site.  http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/poultry/  This is my usual go to place information about sheep, so I figured it couldn’t be that far off for chickens.

My pet chicken http://www.mypetchicken.com/.  This website sells small lots of days old chickens mostly to people who want urban or suburban chickens.  But that have a nice website about various chicken breeds.

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens: Care / Feeding / Facilities by Gail Damerow.

http://www.angrin.tlri.gov.tw/INRA/o11.pdf this paper is about Taiwan country chickens.  Some stuff that my Dad said about how chicken tasted different with the importation of American broilers to the Taiwan chicken population started me down this research path.  This paper while not about a period European breed, does show the difficulty the Dr. Lee had in trying to locate a breed/type of chicken that was common in Taiwan in the 70’s.  At the time the article was written that was about 30+ years ago.  This article shows some of the assumptions he had to make in pinpointing a pure breed chicken.  So I’m using it as a guide for some of the pitfalls we can encounter in assuming a chicken that has the same name as a “period” breed or even if it’s found in the same geographic area may be very different from the period version.

The chicken recipe: Gervaise Markham, The English Housewife, ed. Michael R. Best, McGill-Queens University Press, 1986, pg. 79, #51 of cookery

Thanks to my friends on G+ also helped with the chicken search.

And thanks to my friend for passing on information from emails going around the SCA-Authentic Cooks yahoo group.