Posted on 04/26/2015 10:33:43 AM PDT by nickcarraway
SNIP
In the town of McPherson, Kansas, there is a butcher shop called Krehbiels Meats, where, not long ago, an elderly woman bought a chicken that moved her to tears. The chicken had longer legs, a smaller breast and yellower skin than regular chickens, and on the back appeared two words the woman, who was in her 70s, would not have seen in a very long time: “barred rock.”
SNIP
She had every reason not to be excited. During the course of her 48 years of marriage, chicken had only ever brought disappointment. The problem was chicken and dumplings. It was one of her husband’s favorite dishes, but every time she made it his verdict was always the same: “Not as good as my mother’s.”
SNIP
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Did she ever find a new husband?
I am sure she will, she has the magical chicken!
As they say, you can pick to out of three:
quick
cheap
good
though when it comes to raising animals for food, the first two are so intertwined, that you can’t really separate them so the third loses.
So, where can you get a good old fashioned ‘chicken’ because chicken soup no longer has a good flavor, either.
In fact I just learned that Australian lamb, grass fed, is why I do not like lamb anymore.
The lamb I liked is American lamb, grain fed. Grass fed lambs taste gamey-er, and evidently that is what Australians like.
Why we are buying them is still a mystery to me.
Also, why pork chops don’t make good gravy anymore - another mystery to me.
One last mystery to me that has nothing to do with food but as soon as I write this I’m sure everyone will understand and agree:
I live in Phoenix Arizona. Why isn’t there a train to both California for passengers, and to Flagstaff. Out here in the summer I’d be on that train every weekend, both up and over are cooler.
I’m sure a lot of people would be. But why no one has every made tracks up or down for passengers, when they make everything else, highways, in town shuttle train tracks...
Don’t get it.
Bet her son thinks his mother’s Chicken and Dumplings is the best ever.
I’m old enough to remember what those real chickens tasted like. Chicken was fairly expensive and reserved for Sundays. Meat or fish was the fare the rest of the week.
The skin was more yellow than the current bland white chickens and there was real flavor in those birds. The other flavor I miss from my younger days is real Coca Cola made with cane sugar. That you can still buy if it’s imported from Mexico, $1 for a small bottle.
Chocolate used to taste like heaven. Now it’s made with coconut oil and tastes bland.
I used to think everything tasted great. Now it all tastes like cardboard. So, I got out my Mom’s old cookbooks and read the recipes. You can’t even guy the ingredients anymore. A cake of yeast comes to mind. Everything takes hours to make. We’ve gained inexpensive and plentiful food but lost the taste. On the other hand, if everything was made today like it was in the ‘60’s a meal out would average $100 per plate and take an hour to get to your table.
Chicken....much of the packaged beef, veggies of all kinds, for example, celery. Whole Foods celery or farm stands still have it. It’s really green, too.
When I was young, gradation of beef changed. The better beef is in the restaurants now.
According to the article, all chickens available in supermarkets today are broilers. I recall chicken stew made from stewing chickens back in the 1950’s, but if you’re in the market for a stewing chicken today, you’re out of luck.
Best is a pastured chicken. But they are both smaller and more expensive. They do roam the pasture and eat all the little things in nature chickens should eat. And the bird tastes fantastic roasted with salt and pepper. I really can’t afford it because I need two of them to feed my family.
Next best, and very close in taste, is Mary’s organic chicken. They sometimes go on sale at whole foods in CA, don’t know if they go far across the country, but there may be other farms with good tasting commercial chicken.
And don’t ever buy chicken broth because it is all filled with msg, all of it. Even the organic boxes, even the cans that say No MSG on it. They all have it, every single one. I know because it makes me deathly sick. Any soup in any restaurant unless they make it from literal scratch which is 0.02% of restaurants, is made from msg.
Nearly every rotisserie chicken everywhere is full of msg. They spike the water they inject it with before cooking. That is why each bite makes you HAVE to have another bite.
If you want good chicken soup, throw your organic chicken carcass, after carving off the good meat, into a crockpot and fill with filtered water. Add a few tbsp of vinegar.* Cook on high 18-24 hours, then add vegetables, cook another 8-24 hours. Strain, salt to taste. There is the chicken broth you love. It doesn’t make you need another spoonful like the boring umami addictive msg broths. It makes you delight in the taste. There is a HUGE difference.
*The vinegar is to get all the goodness out of the bones. This is why you need an organic bird.
It was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten in my life.
There's way too much frankenfood in the US.
We've been dining on the US equivalent of Victory Gin for quite some time.
Have you ever done a baked potato taste test? Your local,cheap supermarket’s russets vs farmers market or whole foods organic unpackaged russets? The difference is wild.
It probably has to do with the breed of chicken used by the man’s mother and the breeds that predominate today’s market. We had a chicken coop when I was a kid and raised our own chickens and got eggs. We had Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rock. Some chicken breeds are best for producing meat, while others for laying eggs.
Of course my wife has never been able to make fried chicken as good as my mother’s. Maybe it’s just a ‘man thing.’
I’m in Northern Ohio, just outside Cleveland. I buy my chicken at Cam’s Asian Market. on Miles Ave. across from the dead mall. Their chicken is fabulous! They get it all from the Amish. The fresh fish there is always great too.
I see “But One, Get one Free” sales of gigantic chicken breasts at Giant Eagle every few months. They’ve been injected with some sort of liquid too. I’m convinced those are old egg layers being culled by the egg companies. Rubber chicken, fur shure!
The pork chop/gravy problem is that the consumer wanted leaner, less fatty pork and the pork producers complied. If you are able, but heritage pork.
When I lived in El Paso I’d eat lunch over in Juarez.
Always had two large, ice-cold Cokes in glass bottles with real sugar (beet sugar but that’s fine).
Pulled from a big metal tub of cracked ice.... wonderful!
(and only 20 cents each)
Dos hamburguesas y dos Cokas por favor....
I can’t find fruit that tastes like it used to - apples, oranges, peaches - nothing has the flavor or texture it used to.
I also live in Arizona.
Something horrible has happened to the ribeye steaks and roasts at Walmart over the last year. The fat doesn’t change texture when I cook it. It has no flavor (fine - it’s a walmart steak), but that’s not the problem. There’s a distinct difference in the texture. My family can’t stand to eat a walmart steak or roast any more. When I trim it up for soups and stews, I find these huge hunks of fat that’s still a hard, pure white, solid lump after cooking. Even the crockpot doesn’t touch it.
At first, I just thought it was weird and moved on, but it kept happening. I’m hunting for another place to buy meat in our town now.
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