Quite often on a Monday night, we go to youngest Daughter's home for family dinner. It is Monday night, because the oldest Grandson works at a restaurant in Armstrong and only has Monday and Tuesdays off.
She texted and said, let's do dinner. I could make a roast. Good, I love roast beef, and all meat, actually. I said yep, and I'll make the usual, my Ceasar salad with my homemade (even the mayonnaise) dressing.
She texted back and asked, please, please, can we cook up a couple of your roosters for dinner. I smiled. We have had our homegrown roosters before, and I know she loved them, as did everyone else (except my other Daughter's Husband, he didn't, weird dude, ya snooze, ya loose). He needs to try again, smiling.
We have an upright freezer in our container. We also have the use of a freezer at other Daughter's home, this is where all our extras go that don't fit in our freezer. Pretty full of garden stuff. So, this youngest Daughter also has a freezer, and I took up about 15 cockerels to store at her place too, had a whole lot of cockerels processed last fall, smiling. Oh ya, my other Daughter told me she thought I was becoming a hoarder when she opened her freezer and saw all the chickens in there
So, she asked if she could pull 2 out and cook them. Given. I told her to not even ask, if she even wants to cook one for her family ever even.
Slow cooked for about 2.5 hours, at 250 and half an hour at 350 for skin browning. Easy peasy.
These are all buff orpington cockerels, processed at 24 weeks. The cochins dressed out to the same weight. There is always 8 - 10 (and sometimes a couple more, depending if some friends come over too) people present for dinner at these family dinners.
Daughter cooked the birds. Everyone ravaged the birds and ate the skin
. I was left with the carcasses. My job to prepare the meat for the serving platter. As usual, these birds are tender as the days are becoming long. Beautiful, tender meat for the family dinner. I can't get over the size of the thighs on these dudes. I would actually say that there is more dark meat than there is the white, not by much, but perhaps a little. I think I will have to do a weigh test when I prepare one for making those chicken pot pies I am going to do this week. I will see what the ratio is, maybe I was just thinking there was more dark meat. Suits us well, we prefer the dark meat anyways.
Two roosters. Eight people. The roosters were 4.8 pounds each. I knew she wanted to have left over chicken to make meals this week with, particularly chicken salad sandwiches. She got her wish. With the gorging that everyone did, and trust me, got some pretty big eaters going on, there was still lots of meat left over for her. I am pleased with my birds that I have raised.
I was even more pleased to hear Daughter ask if she can cook the chickens for dinner. I have always been somewhat worried that because the meat had been homegrown, it may turn people off. I don't know why this worry, but it is there. Nope. Not one little bit. Those birds are welcomed at the family dinner. And......she told me to ensure that I had lots of males to grow this year again for the freezer for the following times. Now ain't that a warm and fuzzy feeling? Praise to the homegrown bird.
She texted and said, let's do dinner. I could make a roast. Good, I love roast beef, and all meat, actually. I said yep, and I'll make the usual, my Ceasar salad with my homemade (even the mayonnaise) dressing.
She texted back and asked, please, please, can we cook up a couple of your roosters for dinner. I smiled. We have had our homegrown roosters before, and I know she loved them, as did everyone else (except my other Daughter's Husband, he didn't, weird dude, ya snooze, ya loose). He needs to try again, smiling.
We have an upright freezer in our container. We also have the use of a freezer at other Daughter's home, this is where all our extras go that don't fit in our freezer. Pretty full of garden stuff. So, this youngest Daughter also has a freezer, and I took up about 15 cockerels to store at her place too, had a whole lot of cockerels processed last fall, smiling. Oh ya, my other Daughter told me she thought I was becoming a hoarder when she opened her freezer and saw all the chickens in there
So, she asked if she could pull 2 out and cook them. Given. I told her to not even ask, if she even wants to cook one for her family ever even.
Slow cooked for about 2.5 hours, at 250 and half an hour at 350 for skin browning. Easy peasy.
These are all buff orpington cockerels, processed at 24 weeks. The cochins dressed out to the same weight. There is always 8 - 10 (and sometimes a couple more, depending if some friends come over too) people present for dinner at these family dinners.
Daughter cooked the birds. Everyone ravaged the birds and ate the skin
. I was left with the carcasses. My job to prepare the meat for the serving platter. As usual, these birds are tender as the days are becoming long. Beautiful, tender meat for the family dinner. I can't get over the size of the thighs on these dudes. I would actually say that there is more dark meat than there is the white, not by much, but perhaps a little. I think I will have to do a weigh test when I prepare one for making those chicken pot pies I am going to do this week. I will see what the ratio is, maybe I was just thinking there was more dark meat. Suits us well, we prefer the dark meat anyways.Two roosters. Eight people. The roosters were 4.8 pounds each. I knew she wanted to have left over chicken to make meals this week with, particularly chicken salad sandwiches. She got her wish. With the gorging that everyone did, and trust me, got some pretty big eaters going on, there was still lots of meat left over for her. I am pleased with my birds that I have raised.
I was even more pleased to hear Daughter ask if she can cook the chickens for dinner. I have always been somewhat worried that because the meat had been homegrown, it may turn people off. I don't know why this worry, but it is there. Nope. Not one little bit. Those birds are welcomed at the family dinner. And......she told me to ensure that I had lots of males to grow this year again for the freezer for the following times. Now ain't that a warm and fuzzy feeling? Praise to the homegrown bird.
