Sunday, August 17, 2008

Cook One - Beer Can

The prep:
Both birds were seasoned with a basic brown sugar/salt type dry rub and left to marinate for 24 hours in the fridge.The home grown carcass was somewhat smaller, with more prominent bone structure and lower meat to bone ratio. The breast was much narrower. The skin was a gold yellow color, and seemed more dry with a noticeably pebbly texture. The carcass felt firm, with little "wiggle" to the joints. Extra skin was tidy, extra fat had been removed, natural truss kept legs bundled in and abdominal cavity was empty and clean.The Gold'n Plump carcass was substantially more filled out, with pudgy legs and rounded breasts. The skin was a pinkish white, somewhat wet and slippery with a much smoother texture. The carcass felt much more "loose", with legs flopping out to the sides and wings loose in their joints. Skin at the cavity was ragged, cavity was somewhat roughly cleaned with a few small pieces (testes, some kidney) still intact inside that were removed before cooking. Purplish coloring that appeared to be bruising was evident on lower legs.The chickens were mounted on their respective mostly-full Miller Light cans,and settled over an indirect fire on a Webber kettle charcoal grill.At this point the experiment went somewhat awry, as unexpected company arrived and I neglected my monitoring of the cooking process. Heat went too high, and skin was overdone on both birds. When I took them off, internal temperature of the breast meat had reached 190 degrees, substantially overcooking and drying. The home grown bird's skin seemed to brown more readily and evenly, although both chickens crisped up nicely and took on a very appealing color. The yellow cast to the free ranged broiler was clearly visible, giving golden undertones to the mahogany skin.
The meat was cut from the carcasses and served - the pasture raised bird is above in the photo, the commercial broiler below. When carving, I noticed some differences - home grown meat was more firmly connected - removing the thighs required a knife, while the other thighs pulled off easily on their own. Separating the drumstick from the thigh was the same, with one pulling apart with only slight effort by hand, the other requiring some knife work.

Visually, the meat was colored quite differently, with the free ranging creature showing a distinct yellowish or gold cast in the meat, and a quite strong gold color in the fat. It's thigh meat was darker, as well. The commercially grown meat was much more pale, pinkish white to white, with a few dark flecks of retained blood against the bone in the breast meat. Fat was white to translucent, and while both birds had a similar amount of fat under the skin and within the leg muscles, the intense coloring on the ranging bird made the fat much more noticeable to the eye.

Diners were served a thigh and breast portion from each broiler and asked to comment on similarities and differences in taste and texture. Most diners noticed a firmer texture of the home grown thighs, (although all diners stressed that this was not to an unpleasant degree) and some detected a deeper, more meaty flavor. The over-cooked qualities of the breast meat rendered both dry and many thought indistinguishable, although some felt that the industrial meat had a more "chalky" or "cottony" mouthfeel. One diner called the store-bought meat "more mushy", while another was somewhat off put by the "strange color" of the fat in the grass fed chicken.

In all, there was universal agreement that both chickens were delicious, but that a more accurate comparison might be achieved by using a more lightly seasoned and closely controlled cooking method. The dry rub, smoke and degree of done-ness interfered with the tasting enough that a clear favorite was not determined. However, there were no leftovers from either carcass, and diners left full and happy, eager to participate in the next phase of experimentation.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Cristy,

What a great idea! I'm going to share your blog with some locavores here in Oklahoma. Can't wait to see the next round.

Anonymous said...

I thank you for doing and posting this experiment. A couple of thoughts:
1. the store bought chicken seems too good. A Purdue chicken to me is a factory raised chicken.
2. Great pictures and written descriptions of the chickens.
3. I was dissapointed that they were overdone and a true taste comparison couldn't be accomplished. Could you repeat the experiment because that's what the whole deal is about - a taste comparison.

Cristy said...

Thanks, Nancy - glad you like it. I can't wait for the next one too - stay tuned!

Anonymous - Thanks for your comment. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the store bought chicken being too good. I chose that kind because it's the only kind my local store carries, and they seemed pretty typical to me. I was a little surprised that the tasters didn't detect more differences, but I'm striving to be unbiased here, so I wrote it like it happened. As far as the overcooking - I was disappointed too, but you know - sometimes my dinners are like that! :) I may repeat the beer-can one someday, because that' my favorite way to cook whole chickens, but I think the next experiment will be high-temp oven roast butterflied, because I'll have more control. (I'm making my guest list right now - wanna come over?)
Cristy

The Farmer's Wife Pasture-raised Poultry said...

Really cool idea! No doubt in my mind that store bought bird was a cornish cross chicken. Did you raise any? Last year I did something similar only compared 2 different chickens I had raised on pasture. My family likes white meat best so they liked the cross better than the K-22, both were from Moyer's in PA. I thought then I should have served cut up bite size pieces so they couldn't tell what bird the meat had come from. Always trying to compare apples to apples and eliminate bias!

Cristy said...

Hi Farmers Wife!
I haven't raised cornish cross, but I might try some next year. This was my first year with chickens, and I'd been reading that some folks have trouble with the health of cornish cross. My home is at a high altitude and has very cold nights all summer, and I was worried that cornish cross might not be the best "starter" birds, but I think next year I'll try some, since starting butchering at eight weeks would spread things out for me. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Cristy