Topic: "Old School" Taste, Alive and Kicking

[chewytikka]

Thanks Guys.
Yes, I'll ask if I can video stuff, but some Curry Chef's don't like the idea of Youtube.
They have to proof/sign off their new menu anyway, so I'll pop in tonight.

Just one point, they weren't making a Chicken Stock out of carcases/bones like you would,
but actually boiling the whole Chickens in the pot.

Barry, I'll have to ask if I can name them on CR0 first.
cheers Chewy

[Micky Tikka]

Theres a couple of whole people from on here I would like to fit in that pot Chewy ;D ;D
sorry couldn't resist it

[Geezah]

Interesting post Chewy, and I personally add any frozen chicken stock I have to my base when I make one.

That aside, were there any vegetarian dishes on the menu, such as tarka dhal, and would they have this base included in the dish?

[Kashmiri Bob]

This is totally brilliant!  Somehow, I am going to cram a chicken into the Prestige for my next base gravy.  Must add great flavour and depth to the mix.   

[Peripatetic Phil]

Discard the Chicken, of course not, are you kidding. 

This is the old method of precooking Chicken.

No, absolutely not.  I followed the link back to your initial message, in which you wrote :

They would fish out the overcooked chicken at the end, literally falling apart, leaving lots of bits and pieces behind.

from which it seemed to me as if they had cooked the chicken to the same point as I cook a carcase when I want to make chicken soup.  And if you /do/ cook a chicken that far, the flesh is completelu unsuitable for making a curry, because it is, as you wrote " literally falling apart".  So now I am confused.  Just how long /is/ the chicken cooked for in the kitchen that you have just visited ?  Is it just long enough to soften the flesh, and extract a little flavour, or is it cooked (as you wrote in your initial post) until it is " literally falling apart", in which case I can't see how they can then use it in a curry but it would certainly create a wonderful stock.

** Phil.

[Aussie Mick]

Fantastic thread and pictures Chewy. I rememeber getting huge "shards" of chicken breast in the curries of old.

Hey Phil, I rememeber me dad used to boil up a chicken for hours on end and make a soup out of it with lentils, carrots, celery and onions, and it was delicous. He used to say he had an "old boiler". Ipresume that the bird was much older than your average chicken of today which is approximately 35 days old when it goes for slaughter.

Years and years ago, chicken was a real treat. You couldn't buy skinless chicken breast, or legs....you could only buy chicken, with the head on and the giblets inside..................them were't days.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hey Phil, I rememeber me dad used to boil up a chicken for hours on end and make a soup out of it with lentils, carrots, celery and onions, and it was delicous. He used to say he had an "old boiler". I presume that the bird was much older than your average chicken of today which is approximately 35 days old when it goes for slaughter.

Yes, that last statistic is somewhat horrific (as is the number of birds slaughtered each day just for use by KFC alone).  But in China, soup is still made (in the countryside, at least), from aged hens, and that soup is out of this world.  Incidentally, I wonder whether your dad did say "an old boiler" and not "an old broiler" : you can, in some places in the U.K., still get "broiler fowl" to this day.

Years and years ago, chicken was a real treat. You couldn't buy skinless chicken breast, or legs....you could only buy chicken, with the head on and the giblets inside..................them were't days.

Ah, giblets : where /do/ they go these days ?  If you are lucky, you still get them in your Christmas turkey, but otherwise ?  Gone the same way as "Home and Colonial", more's the pity.  There is still a butcher's shop in Tunbridge Wells where you can buy them (separately, and quite cheaply) but why are they no longer inside the chickens we buy ?  For me, they were an essential ingredient of the chicken gravy to accompany the roast, and were also a special treat to be eaten at the end of the meal ...

** Phil.

[solarsplace]

Ah, giblets : where /do/ they go these days ?  ... snip ... were also a special treat to be eaten at the end of the meal ...

** Phil.

Eeeeeew!  nasty.

Fair enough if you like that sort of thing 

By my opinion is that is jolly unpleasant and should be only used as a challenge in those jungle get me out of here programs.

Cheers

[Peripatetic Phil]

Eeeeeew!  nasty.  Fair enough if you like that sort of thing    By my opinion is that is jolly unpleasant and should be only used as a challenge in those jungle get me out of here programs.

SP, SP, have you never eaten chicken liver or chicken hearts ?  They are truly delicious.  The crop I do not rave about (that is something of an acquired taste, which I have never really acquired) but the neck is OK.  If you've not tried the heart and liver, I really do recommend that you should.  You must be a young stripling of a lad if you didn't have chicken giblets in/with your chicken when you were a boy ...

** Phil.

[Les]

I rememeber getting huge "shards" of chicken breast in the curries of old.

My first early experience (60s/70s) of Curry's Was chicken on the bone, normally Thighs, And that is what I miss with the modern curry's of today, The old style seemed to have so much more taste. or maybe that's just me dreaming ;D

Les