Hugh's Chicken Run (Merged Discussion)

Lotus-eater

geordie_joe wrote: »

You may be right, but I remember being told that chickens have to be fed dye to make their egg yolks yellow.

Thinking about it now, if you are right and it is grass, or some other natural food such as corn that makes the yolk yellow then battery chickens would not have these in their diet and would need it artificially added.

It's possible that when I got told hens need dye I thought they meant "normal" hens like we used to keep in the sixties and they were actually meaning battery hens.

I do remember that the yolks from our hens were orange not yellow.

Battery chickens are fed a dye........ or they used to be, don't know if it still goes on. Doubt free range ones are.
Its not corn, although that might work as well. Its the natural food the chicken gets. That orange your eggs were is the bestest yellow egg you can get

I always look at the colour of the yolk if I have an egg, it gives me a good idea of the diet of the chicken, pale yolk, then just maybe it hasn't been outside as much as suggested.

Lotus-eater

geordie_joe wrote: »

Something has just struck me, when did hens become chickens?

For years we kept hens, but when one was killed and roasted it became "chicken"? My dad reared hens, killed them. my mother cooked them and presented them to us as chicken!

Also, off topic I know, but when did tangerines become satsumas?

Thats because in the UK we have different names for meat and the actual animal....... because its not nice for the people eating it to think of it as an animal. My wife who isn't English talks about a pig being on a plate as meat, ie this pig is nice

~Chameleon~

Talking of eggs and yolk colour you've just reminded me of something. I cracked open a couple of eggs the other day, both from the same box and both free range eggs "produced and packed for Mallard Farms" according to the box. One of the eggs had a lovely orangey yolk but the other was noticably paler which I was quite surprised about and wondered if a caged egg had got packed by mistake, but both were stamped free range on the egg

Makes me wonder whether despite being free range, some of the birds were actually unable to go outside like some of these farms we've been hearing about. Possibly a bullied bird or lack of openings in the barn to enable them all to get out?

~Chameleon~

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Thats because in the UK we have different names for meat and the actual animal....... because its not nice for the people eating it to think of it as an animal. My wife who isn't English talks about a pig being on a plate as meat, ie this pig is nice

You have a point there ...

Pig = Pork
Cow = Beef
Baby Cow = Veal
Deer = Venison
Hen = Chicken (although that is also the name of an animal)
Sheep = Mutton

But, what about LAMB?????? - it's a baby sheep yet no one seems to mind calling it such :huh:

geordie_joe

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

LOL!!!!

I think tangerines and satsumas might be different fruit, but could well be wrong!

I'm here to learn, and quite willing to admit I'm wrong, but when I was young we got a tangerine in our stocking at xmas. Now the shops are full of satsumas that look and taste like tangerines, and you can't but a tangerine.

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I guess it's no different to calling sheep lamb is it? Ok, I know they probably are still lambs when slaughtered but I still call mutton lamb even though it's sheep

I have never tried never mutton, well not that I can remember. Never seen it sold in any shop either. Did look on line once but it was too expensive for me to try.

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Confused yet? :rotfl:

I was confused when I came in here, and I'm not getting any better

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Btw, yes the yolks will be more of an orangey colour - aka deep yellow

I'm a man, I only know the colours of the rainbow, all these colours women make up just confuse me.

I can manage with prefixing them with dark or blue, as in dark blue and light blue.

But all this beige, violet, magenta, olive, ultramarine just confuses me!

geordie_joe

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

You have a point there ...

Pig = Pork
Cow = Beef
Baby Cow = Veal
Deer = Venison
Hen = Chicken (although that is also the name of an animal)
Sheep = Mutton

But, what about LAMB?????? - it's a baby sheep yet no one seems to mind calling it such :huh:

Good point, but why does HFW keep cows and chickens, surely he should keep cows and hens?

Or, what is the difference between a hen and a chicken if they are both animals? I can understand that the meat of a pig is pork, but is the meat of a hen chicken, or is a chicken an animal?

mutley_muppet

geordie_joe wrote: »

Something has just struck me, when did hens become chickens?

I just googled it to make sure! But basically a hen is a female chicken.
See below.

A young chicken is called a chick. A male chicken is a c!!!k or a cockerel, depending on its age. Similarly, a female chicken is called a pullet or a hen. The age at which a pullet becomes a hen and a cockerel becomes a !!!! depends on what type of chicken is being raised. Purebred poultry producers have very age-specific definitions. A chicken is a cockerel or pullet if it is less than one year of age. After one year of age, the chicken is referred to as a hen or !!!!. In the commercial chicken industry a female chicken is called a hen after it begins egg production (around five months of age). A sexually mature male chicken (again, around five months of age) is referred to as a rooster.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PS050

~Chameleon~

geordie_joe wrote: »

I'm here to learn, and quite willing to admit I'm wrong, but when I was young we got a tangerine in our stocking at xmas. Now the shops are full of satsumas that look and taste like tangerines, and you can't but a tangerine.

How about clementines and mandarins then?

geordie_joe wrote: »

I have never tried never mutton, well not that I can remember. Never seen it sold in any shop either. Did look on line once but it was too expensive for me to try.

Mutton is a much stronger flavour, great in casseroles and curries. I think it's becoming more popular again although I'm surprised you found it to be expensive as it's usually the cheaper alternative to lamb

geordie_joe wrote: »

I was confused when I came in here, and I'm not getting any better

Hehehe you and me both! My poor brain is addled with all this stuff on tv the past week or so! :huh:

geordie_joe wrote: »

I'm a man, I only know the colours of the rainbow, all these colours women make up just confuse me.

I can manage with prefixing them with dark or blue, as in dark blue and light blue.

But all this beige, violet, magenta, olive, ultramarine just confuses me!

:rotfl: :rotfl:

competitionscafe

geordie_joe wrote: »

I'm a single man, and making meals from scratch for me usually consists of steaming a few veg and cooking some meat. I do sometimes try other stuff involving recipes, but mostly it's meat and two veg.

Nothing wrong with that, it's still cooking from scratch and steaming veg is probably the healthiest way to eat them too. I do that quite often - steam some veg and pan fry a piece of fish or grill a chop or fry a steak or brown a piece of chicken on the hob and then roast it for 12 to 15 minutes in the oven - a healthy balanced meal, cooked from scratch in 20 to 30 minutes total time - even more healthy if you make it 3 veg instead of 2 and go for a smaller (but free-range) piece of meat. Although I do like a bit of butter and some fresh herbs on my veg to make them more interesting, maybe some spices or herbs and garlic on the chicken or meat too or some lemon and chopped parsley on the fish......

Shambler

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Battery chickens are fed a dye........ or they used to be, don't know if it still goes on. Doubt free range ones are.
Its not corn, although that might work as well. Its the natural food the chicken gets. That orange your eggs were is the bestest yellow egg you can get

I always look at the colour of the yolk if I have an egg, it gives me a good idea of the diet of the chicken, pale yolk, then just maybe it hasn't been outside as much as suggested.

I saw a program and it showed a colour chart ( a bit like a dulux paint chart ) of different colours ranging from a pale yellow to a deep orange.

Different supermarkets had their own requirements for the yolk colour and so dye was added to the food to reach their desired colour.

It would not surprise me if this dye is also fed to 'organic free range' eggs.

I've not seen anyone complain about this yet so it is probably still in practice.