Tastes Like Chicken: Making a Case for Heritage Chickens as Meat Birds
I REALIZE I’M RAPIDLY HEADING DOWN THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, but I’d like to say a few words on behalf of heritage chickens, specifically, the reasons we are sold on them as meat birds. Nearly every single person I’ve ever talked to about this disagrees with me. Why? Well, once again, I believe it is partly due to context (see Chapter 6). What are you planning to do with your meat birds? Run a business or simply stock your freezer? Is it more important to you to raise the tastiest bird possible or the cheapest bird possible?
I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but if you think you’re going to save money on chicken by raising your own, you’re likely to be disappointed. We are obsessed with cheap food in this country, and the mass-produced, machine-slaughtered, previously frozen chicken is a good example of what we tend to expect from our food supply. Let me be clear: Unless you think your time has no value, and you never buy any feed, ever, for your chickens, you simply cannot compete with the ubiquitous 89¢-per-pound supermarket fowl. This is even more true of turkeys, which are commonly given away shortly before Thanksgiving when you spend a minimum amount on other groceries.
“But wait,” you may argue, “I’m raising Cornish Cross chickens! They will reach slaughter weight in only six or seven weeks! How much can it possibly cost to feed a chicken for a few weeks?” Plenty, if you expect your fast-growing hybrids to reach those weights in the time claimed in the hatchery catalogs. In fact, if they have continuous access to feed, these voracious eaters will do justice to every bit of food they find, provided they don’t actually have to forage for it.
The hatchery catalog hype also doesn’t mention that these birds do best on a high-protein feed specifically formulated for “broilers.” With the exception of turkey feed, broiler feed is just about the most expensive kind of feed you can buy, and believe me, you will need plenty of it in the next six or seven weeks, even for just a few “broilers.” In addition, with the Cornish Cross, depending on how many you raise at a time, you’re likely to lose some now and then, birds that don’t even make it to the ripe old age of six weeks. Why? The birds’ rapid growth rate causes enormous stress on their circulatory systems, and it is not uncommon for them to drop dead of heart failure. For the same reason, some fast-growing hybrids experience severe leg problems during their short lives.
A while back we heard of an old-timer who claimed a rule of thumb about the Cornish Cross was “Butcher ’em or bury ’em.” He was referring to the high mortality rate among Cornish Cross meat birds that are allowed to go on growing well beyond their expected slaughter age, say ten or twelve weeks.
Obviously, if a chicken isn’t likely to live, much less thrive, beyond ten or twelve weeks, you’re not going to be breeding it. And as you know, hybrids are the offspring of genetically dissimilar parents; so even if you could mate two Cornish Cross chickens, the chicks could not be expected to be like their parents. Every time you want to raise more hybrid meat birds, you’re going to have to buy more chicks. Keep in mind that when you buy from a hatchery, the male Cornish Cross chick will probably be the most expensive male chick of any breed.
Speaking of hatchery catalogs, I learned something I’d always wondered about: the origin of the “Rock Cornish Game Hen.” When I was growing up, occasionally we would have these little birds for dinner. I remember thinking they were so exotic compared to the “regular” chicken, and I could have half a bird all to myself! I couldn’t have known that actually this exotic little fowl was a reject bird. The Cornish Cross male attains someone’s idea of an ideal slaughter weight one or two weeks faster than the female. Naturally, in a culture focused on cheap food, time is money with chickens too. So the humble Cornish Cross female chick is, according to the catalog description, raised to about two pounds (live weight) and then slaughtered. Basic math estimates that the chick would then be around two or maybe two and a half weeks old. It’s a relief to know that no one would be wasting any more feed on the slow-growing little things.
Becoming an Informed — or at Least Thoughtful — Consumer
Before raising our own chickens, I’m pretty sure I had never eaten a farm-fresh egg, much less a farm-fresh egg from organically raised, happily free-ranging hens. Frankly, I was skeptical. It’s just an egg, I told myself. How different can one be from another?
Did I mention how ignorant I was back then? You won’t be surprised to learn that I also hadn’t ever eaten (as far as I know — and how would I know?) chicken or turkey raised on a local farm. I had not the foggiest idea what kind of chicken I was buying at the grocery store. In fact, I had no idea what breeds of chicken even existed, assuming there was more than one breed. Are those grocery-store chickens male or female? Did one have a choice when buying chicken? Honestly, does any of this matter?
No matter how many sources I explored in an effort to learn more, none were in favor of raising heritage-breed chickens as meat birds. What we found out about the faster-growing commercial hybrid chickens, not to mention the appalling conditions they typically live in, was motivation enough for us to not only raise our own meat birds, but to specifically choose dual-purpose heritage breeds.
Aside from the difference in the time needed to grow a heritage chicken to slaughter size, we discovered other reasons to appreciate these birds as table fare. One of the most significant, for me, is flavor. Simply by virtue of their longer lives, heritage chickens develop more flavor than the relatively immature Cornish Cross. I mentioned Julia Child’s complaint about the disappearance of the stewing hen from grocery meat counters; she knew that these older birds have much more flavor. Sure, they need to be cooked slowly over a period of time, but oh, the stock that results! Dark golden brown, aromatic, with fantastic gelling power ... there is simply no comparison.
Another noticeable difference is the texture of the meat, particularly if the chicken has been free-ranging or on pasture some of the time. Why is this? Well, that bird has actually been getting some exercise. I have heard — again, I can’t speak from experience here, since we have never raised hybrid meat chickens — that the Cornish Cross has to eat almost constantly in order to keep up with its warp-speed growth rate. It is apparently not inclined to roam very far from its food source, lest it faint from hunger. I would be interested to know what a Cornish Cross chicken would do if it was offered grain mash only twice a day, for fifteen minutes or so, and given access to healthy pasture the rest of the day. I suspect that, once it got used to the idea, it would do just fine, although it would probably not mature quite so quickly.
If you ever have the chance to compare a cooked grocery-store chicken to a heritage chicken that has been raised on pasture, I promise you will notice a big difference in the texture of the meat. Often a customer has reported that one of our free-range chickens or turkeys tasted good but was “a little tough.” Compared to the relatively soft and, to my way of thinking, mushy texture of the grocery-store specimen, it probably did seem that way. However, if you eat a piece of free-range chicken and then a piece of your favorite medium-well-done steak, I think you’ll agree that the chicken is tender after all.
Heritage chicken parts in stockpot.
Commercial Turkey Production in the United States
Did you know that, even with the current popularity of heritage turkeys, over 99 percent of all commercially raised turkeys are Broad Breasted hybrids? In 2007, 7.87 billion (with a “b”) pounds of turkey was produced commercially in the United States, a five percent increase from 2006. You would think, with numbers like this, that the turkey would get a little more respect. Um, no. In 2007, the average price received by turkey growers was a whopping 47.9¢ per pound, an increase of only .5¢ from 2006.
Mexico, where the domesticated turkey had its historical roots, imported over 3.1 million pounds of United States-grown turkey in 2006. We also export turkey to China, Russia, Hong Kong and Canada. I was surprised to learn that Minnesota grows more turkeys than any other state. Another fun fact: Israel consumes more turkey (somewhere around thirty-five pounds per capita in 2005) than any other country. That’s considerably more than we Americans eat; in fact, the United States ranks third in worldwide turkey consumption, averaging a bit over sixteen pounds per capita.