Topic: Cost of chicken for your curries

[Peripatetic Phil]

Am I reading this right? Cheap supermarket frozen chicken.  Added water and stuff. "Fine", "good enough for a curry", etc.  Are you guys being serious?  Unbelievable! Bin it. Get down to your local Asian/English butchers.

Don't bin it : some poor battery hen had six weeks of living hell so that you could buy cheap chicken. The very least you can do having bought it is to feed it to your cat, dog, or whatever.  But do buy free-range for yourself -- onced tried, you'll never look back.

** Phil.

[Invisible Mike]

You are right Phil. Never, ever buy that intensively reared crap. Free range meat should be compulsory in my book. If it's good value you are looking for then you can buy two good sized breasts of free range chicken for ?3.49 from Aldi - probably the best deal I've seen so far. Always buy British and always look at the small print, the unsuspecting among us will be suprised how much halal chicken reared in places like Brazil and Thailand make it to these shores...

[natterjak]

I wonder how many of you who are aghast at the thought of eating "intensively reared crap" eat Indian restaurant and takeaway food and how confident you are of the origin of the chicken you might be served in a typical BIR establishment? 

[Peripatetic Phil]

I have little doubt that much of the chicken served in BIRs and in other low-to-medium end restaurants is intensively reared (much of the BIR chicken comes from South America, I understand).  But the point that Mike & I are making is not about what is served in BIRs -- if we choose to eat there, then we have to accept what is offered.  But when cooking for ourselves (or for others), we /do/ have a choice; and then he, and I, and Bengali Bob (and I am sure many other members of this forum) would say "make the right choice :  buy only free range and then everyone benefits -- the bird (better life), the farmer and the vendor (higher markup) and the diner (better texture, better taste).

** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

If it's good value you are looking for then you can buy two good sized breasts of free range chicken for ?3.49 from Aldi - probably the best deal I've seen so far.

Interestingly, although the price looks attractive, it is beaten by both of my local butchers.  Coxheath regularly has free-range supremes at

[sp]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awx9c0qbt48

[vindapoo]

i buy wholesale from the same place the butchers buy from, and last case was just over

[mickdabass]

Saw a documentary a few years back about processing far eastern chicken in holland, injected the chicken meat with rendered animal proteins (cow, pig, horse etc) to make the meat absorb the water. It caused uproar at the time with certain ethnic groups getting excited about eating pork etc etc. Scientists could determine the source of the proteins by examining the dna. The manufacturers have tweaked their process now and can jumble up the dna strands so the protein source can not be identified. Also, because the meat was processed in holland, it can be stamped with a "produce of EU" badge. As cruel as our chicken production methods appear to be; Im sure its far worse on these far eastern farms.
Support your Local farmer and buy from a local butcher
Nuff Said

[Secret Santa]

injected the chicken meat with rendered animal proteins (cow, pig, horse etc) to make the meat absorb the water.

Added value, yummy!  ;D

[bamble1976]

I dont like the chicken from any of my local takeaways.  also tried the plumped up stuff from asian supermarket and did not even like it in the tikka. 

Buy chicken from local butcher but tend to stick to mutton for curries now.

Barry