Notes on chicken butchery

Yum, homemade pizza!
I used the Penzey's Italian Sausage seasoning and made pork sausage some time ago. It is really delicious on pizza.

We made Chicken Apple Sausage today, using the recipe in the Aidells Sausage Book that I brought with me from the US. The recipe calls for 3.5 pounds of thigh meat and skin. I had to adapt the recipe, because we had two freshly killed roosters to use. Since plucking feathers is a huge pain in the ass, Darin pulls off the skin and feathers, leaving the meaty carcass behind. So, I needed a whole chicken with skin to make the recipe complete. I bought a free-range, corn fed Turks chicken at the supermarket.

First, let me say that I am glad to have the choice to buy a free-range chicken at all. They are typically more expensive, but I think it is worth the cost because I think the factory farming conditions are horrific. There is a recent article about the cost of fresh chicken (factory vs free range vs organic) in the NZ Herald (link here including stupid pun). I bought a "size 16" chicken, which says it weighs a minimum of 1.5 kg. Cost was about $14 or 15 NZ Dollars. Even your factory farmed whole chicken will cost about $8-10 here, which was a real shock. I used to buy whole chickens for about $.50 per pound in San Diego, or about $3-4/bird. And turkeys, they would just give them away at Thanksgiving time if you spent enough money at the supermarket. When I moved to NZ, I stopped eating as much poultry as I used to because of the cost and the realization of the sad reality of factory farms. I like chickens, not just for eating. Which reminds me: vegetarians and vegans, stop using factory farming/animal cruelty as an argument to join your ranks. Factory farming is a reason to seek out and buy free-range meat.

The increased cost in NZ vs the US is not because they raise the chickens longer in NZ. The standards seem to be pretty much equivelant; the chickens are killed at just 6 weeks. To my knowledge, the same variety of fast growing bird is used for factory and free range farming. Our roosters, in contrast, were Barred Rocks age about 6 months.
So, getting past the cost, what else are the differences? Have a look at the photos below.

Above is the meat from one of our roosters, and below is the store-bought chicken.The commercially produced chicken is much lighter, paler in color than our chicken meat. Like the store-bought chicken, the chickens were bled out after killing. When I mentioned the color difference to my coworker who used to own a chicken farm in the Phillipines, she said the chickens get washed in an antibacterial wash. This makes sense, because the chickens need to stay "fresh" on the grocery shelf until purchase or use.

The texture is also very different. I found our chickens much more firm and resistant to the knife. The tendons were tough, and I spent some time teasing out the tendons from the legs. In contrast, the commercially produced chicken was soft throughout. The meat was mushy by comparison, and I found my knife slipping repeatedly into the bones. I don't enjoy cutting up chickens. It's a bit like doing a disection, and I've done plenty of those in my scientist past. But with chicken you get to eat the results and it doesn't smell so bad. I am not easily grossed out, but that third chicken, which was the free range store bought chicken, was looking pretty gross. It just didn't look or feel anything like our backyard chickens. It was weird. I am sure I would have found it completely normal if I hadn't had experience cutting up our chickens.

Since we ground them all together, the relative toughness vs tenderness and flavor of the meat couldn't be determined. Sausage making is much more fun when done as a team, but it takes a good 2-3 hours. We have a hand-crank grinder which is slow, but very user-friendly. Darin really likes to crank it. Or maybe he just likes to see me handling the sausages.We used dried apples that we made using our apple peeler/corer tool and food dephydrator. They are way more delicious than the store bought ones. I was surprised that the amount of dried apple the recipe called for was the equivelant of about 4 or 5 apples, that filled our entire dryer and took about 12-14 hours. The apples are in season now, and I am a huge fan of the Jazz apple. This is a NZ variety that costs a bit more due to the royalties that get paid to the developers. I would love to plant one of the trees but they are not available except to commercial growers. Drat!

H1N1 in New Zealand

(Picture above taken from Terrierman's Daily Dose)

News of the "swine flu" broke in Auckland last Sunday, with wild speculation about some sick students who recently returned from Mexico. Monday morning, I rode the train into the city to work, as usual. The train was more packed than usual. As I stood up to get off at my stop, I heard a woman standing in front of me yell "oh my god!" but the rest of the train was quiet. Then someone said "did he get you too?" The crowd isn't moving now, so I push through and see what initially apears to be spilled coffee on the carpet of the train. I get off the train, and realize this isn't coffee. There's a man standing against the fence with drool hanging out of his mouth, red nose, pale face, vomit down his shirt, pants and shoes. I think, "oh that poor guy, he looks terrible" and at the same time "what a dumbass! He could have infected the whole train! Even if he's just hung over, why the hell is he getting on a train packed with people when he's feeling bad?"
This is the day that I go to get my flu vaccination from the hospital, which is free for employees. Oddly, this is not a requirement for hospital staff. Fortunately, I have been feeling fine so far. The hospital's response to the new flu has been to tell staff that if you are feeling unwell, but have not been to Mexico recently, follow the usual protocols- stay home, cover your mouth when you sneeze, throw your snotty tissues in the trash, and wash your hands a lot (that goes for everyone, even if you're feeling well).

As it turned out, there were three of the 11 students who were infected with H1N1, but none were reported to have more than mild symptoms. I really appreciate that New Zealanders are willing and eager world travellers, and that New Zealand is such an excellent tourist destination, but at the same time, this does put our relatively small population at risk. I suppose if this flu were actually a real threat, Darin and I could pack up our pets and flee to our land in Maungaturoto until it was safe to return to the cities. We were up there this past weekend and found that the recent rains had filled our new water tank completely. We also saw a large group of turkeys cruising around, so we would have water and meat. Hey, can you blame me for being paranoid? The train is a serious risk these days, with so many people in close proximity.

Sometimes I have to agree with Sartre: "Hell is other people".

This idea was repeated in a book about searching for the perfect meal, in The Man Who Ate The World by Jay Rayner. This book is relatively new, and was very entertaining. The title and subject is very similar to a 1997 book, The Man Who Ate Everything. The latter is a bit more intellectual, both practical and philosophical, and a lot less shallow. Both entertaining, but I'm only a few chapters into the ...Everything book. My most recent food fun has been to make chicken apple sausage from Bruce Adells Complete Sausage Book. We used a free range chicken from the grocery and one of our backyard chickens who turned out to be a rooster. It is delicious! We'll have to make it again soon, because there's another rooster out there (at least one). Sad though, because they have names: 5 Toe and Elvis. I guess their name will soon change to Sausage.

Happy new year 2009

We spent Xmas morning at Cornwallis Park (above) with my sister and bro-in-law. The beautiful red flowering trees are the Pohutakawa, AKA New Zealand Christmas tree. Darin brought our camping stove, fresh eggs from our hens, chopped veggies, and free range bacon, and made omelettes for breakfast. We were glad we got there early, because this remote beach became fairly busy as the morning progressed. We played a couple games of Bocce ball, then headed further down the road, through Huia and on to Whatipu, where I knew of some sea caves within an easy walking distance. Sadly we didn't bring any flashlights or sunscreen with us, so the cave tour was cut short.
There are about 5 caves of different sizes, and one can be camped in. I love caves! There are lots here in NZ, and sometimes people get trapped in them.
The picture below shows how far away from the ocean the caves are. The location is at the mouth of the Manukau Harbor, where sand has been deposited over the years. You can get to the beach from here, but it is a bit of a walk and there are many swampy areas.
For Xmas dinner I made a lamb stew recipe using a lamb shoulder (bone in) from my sister's Julia Childs cookbook, and it was the best! Pretty easy, too.

The weekend after Xmas, Darin and I went up to camp in our orchard, on our land outside Maungaturoto. We had a satisfying time walking around with a beer in one hand, machete in the other, smashing the thistle bushes to death. I did get a few scratches, but that's the price you pay when you do battle with the REAL evil weed.

Fargo and Ruby had fun playing in the recently filled pond next to our driveway. Ruby improved her swimming skills immensely, and she enjoys launching herself from the shore into the water. She and Fargo are master stick-fetchers.
We knew there was a rabbit living in the ravine just uphill from the pond, and Darin found him hopping about early in the morning. He hadn't even had any coffee yet, but his aim was perfect, right in the head! The dogs had fresh rabbit for breakfast (post-butchering).

After making ourselves breakfast, we drove 10 minutes to Whakapirau, where we tried out our new surf-casting rods and reels. The tide was out, and the shore was hella-muddy. Note to self, wear your gumboots next time. After 1.5 hrs without a nibble, we gave up. It was a lovely morning for standing around the beach, watching the birds and the tide come in.

Though I meant to paint my bedroom during the break, it just didn't happen. We did have some fun with friends, and ate lots of good food. I took the time to experiment with the goat meat, and found it to be really quite good. I made 2/3 goat, 1/3 beef sausages with pork fat, seasoned with rosemary, mustard, garlic, and salt of course. I also made a goat meat chili, cooking the goat legs in beer and broth with carrots, onion, shallot, leek, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, etc. The cooked meat was removed from the broth, cut off the bones, and the broth drained. Then I made the typical chili sauce using some of the broth, and just added the meat back to it. I have never fully appreciated the awesomeness of braising meat before this break, and I feel enlightened by the time and effort I put into learning it.

I finished reading Steve Martin's autobiography, Born Standing Up, and also Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler. They were both ok, quick reads.

Finally, my new favorite blog is CakeWrecks. I frequently laugh out loud when I see it- check it out here. I will add it to my liks also.

Sausagefest and SkyTower

Two fellow foodie friends in Auckland, Steve and Holly, hosted a sausage-making and eating afternoon that we fondly referred to as Sausagefest. We made 5 different kinds: lamb merguez, chicken habanero, hot italian sausage, bratwurst, and russian beef. I use spice mixes from Penzey's, a company that I respect enormously for the quality and availability of convenient mixes (such as this). They have a grinding attachment for their mixer, which greatly speeds the process of stuffing the casings. Still, the volume of sausages we made took several hours. But what a great excuse to drink wine and then eat an amazing meal. I also made the black bean, corn, tomato, green pepper, and cheese salad. The dressing for this salad was olive oil, white vinegar, a couple chipotle peppers, 2 cloves garlic, and about 1/4 cup cilantro leaves blended together.

Today I've prepared some chickpeas (garbanzo beans) that I bought dried and soaked overnight. They boiled for about 1.5 hr, and now I think I'm going to make hummus. Most of the recipes call for tahini, which I don't have, but it seems simple to make. I just need to find my sesame seeds. My spices cabinet is a bit chaotic, despite a recent cleaning. I have a tendency to stockpile spices. They have enormous value to cooking.
My niece arrived on Friday from Rochester, Minnesota. I went to the top of Sky Tower with her yesterday, where we had pretty decent views, despite the rain showers moving through. Steph nearly fell out the window but caught herself on the railing.

Fortunately she didn't fall, but we got to see someone jump, and that was a good thrill. There are glass blocks in the floor, so you can see below you, and walking over them gives you a very odd sensation. Here again, our Entertainment Book saved us money with a 2 for 1 admission to Sky Tower, which is $25 per adult. They just expired June 1 (happy June!) so we need to get the new one. They are sold as a fund-raising scheme for various groups and clubs. We bought ours from a mental health group last year, and this year I think the SPCA will be our charity of choice. They do critically important work and yet get no monetary support from the NZ gov't. Check out this horrifying story of how the SPCA euthanized a cow whose leg literally fell off from neglect.

Also last weekend, Darin banged together the old fence from the front yard into two compost bins. I went over to my sister's house and scooped up cow poo into a bag and brought it back for the compost. Darin cleaned out the chicken coop too, and that got added to the grass clippings and other bits in the bin. Here's Ruby above the full bin before I covered it with black plastic. I didn't check the temperature, so I don't know if it ever got hot enough to be a "hot compost".
Isn't she a cutie? We are continuing to find teeth around the floor (she is teething). Fargo is facilitating this process by playing tug with her and various toys lying all over the house. He's very tolerant of her jumping on him. She likes to grab and carry his leash in her mouth on walks, which is very cute. Here she is being the darling princess she is:

FINALLY our chickens have started to lay eggs!! They are Araucana and Barred Rock crosses, and are laying brown and green eggs. Our black Leghorn is supposed to lay white eggs, and she's still not laying. We're not sure if our pure Araucana is laying or not.