Posted on 11/29/2016 4:18:07 PM PST by Jamestown1630
Very nice! I love egg nog.
Another switch in topic: reading a chicken soup recipe in the NYTimes inspired me to seek out a “stewing hen” at my local Chinese market. It’s supposed to render the most flavorful broth. Anybody have experience with this nasty, scrawny looking thing? It cost me 6 bucks for 3 pounds!
Never used one.
I thought stewing hens were old laying hens that are no longer productive egg producers.
Supposedly you can coax a lot of broth flavor out of them.
Yes. The article was of the opinion that stewing hens were not available to most people but I found an old girl at my local Chinese grocery. I was wondering if our group had any experience with them. I certainly don’t think that young fryers have a lot of flavor - even, lately, the kosher birds that I buy.
I’ve seen Asian recipes calling for stewing hens.....in chicken as a main course...not soup.
I wonder if that’s what makes down-and-dirty Chinese restaurant soup so delicious? That and the massive amount of salt they pour into their Egg Drop?!
Maybe sneaking in some MSG?
Maybe! There used to be a great restaurant on 1st Avenue that served the best Chinese food. But I really did get a headache an hour later. I didn’t get hungry as the old joke goes, but I got a hell of a headache!
But if you are willing to do your own butchering you can get them for free.
People keep hens for eggs. When they stop laying they can either butcher them or keep them around as useless eaters who bother the other birds. A good portion of people do not want to do either so they give the live birds away.
You can generally find them on Craig's List.
There are a number of videos on YouTube that will show you how to correctly butcher and clean a chicken.
Actually, I was commenting on how cheap they were. A three pound Empire chicken cost me $15. It turned out to have no flavor unlike the old days when they had the most flavor. There has got to be some new koshering process that gets rid of any brining or salt residue that turned the joints of a bird into caramelized candy.
This old bird cost me 6 bucks for the same weight.
Five bucks a pound? For chicken?
I can get grass finished pasture raised beef for $3.50.
We go in with three other families and buy a whole beef. Two of us get a quarter and one gets a half.
Either next year or the year after we probably will be raising our own.
I am going to try finishing the beef on turnips. It is suppose to yield a more tender beef.
Well, since you don’t bother to put your state on your homepage, I have no idea where you are writing from. I’m writing from an urban center in the northeast and it is expensive here.
Sorry.
Yes, I suppose the North East is expensive in the urban areas.
Do you pay sales tax on food there?
Our state exempts uncooked food from sales tax which is a big help.
We pay taxes on everything, including certain foods. Food is outrageously expensive here; fish, so healthful, is out of my budget.
Oh, come on. Do you think we still have massive oyster reefs? All of our seafood, like most of America, seems to come from Thailand these days except for a few days in summer.
We generally get fresh water fish here. Saltwater is too expensive.
I’m in NYC, lol, not Maine. New York City has no oyster or lobstermen.
But I thought they had a fresh fish market in NYC. Or am I hopelessly out of date? The last time I was in NYC Ed Koch was still mayor.
I make a quicky egg drop soup. Start with a carton of chicken stock. I add an envelope of Knorr spring vegetable soup mix, some vegeta, extra vegetable flakes. Onion powder, garlic powder, dash of soy sauce, let simmer about 10 minutes. Add a little sesame oil. Slowly pour in a couple scrambled eggs. Add some green onions and serve.
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