Thanks so much for reading especially one of the oldies. "The Rise of the Chicken" sounds like a FUN TITLE. I think Americans moved to chicken as better than red meat. Originally it was mostly a less expensive option. One of my friends who grew up on a farm said way back when, as they were sorting the chicks for eggs, the males would be given away and people raised them as fryers. The species for layers and fryers are now completely separate at least in the first world. People would keep their layers for many years also. Now, they replace the layers as soon as they start slowing down in their egg production.
I had a friend from the south who tried to school me about fryers and layers but this city girl was totally lost. But I do love me a good egg from a farm-raised chicken.
I love eggs and I am conscious about how many I eat. A poached egg is the perfect breakfast for me. It is late so time to shutdown. I wrote a companion post titled Eggs (a play on the chicken and the egg) https://markdolan.substack.com/p/eggs -- for the record I love a runny poached egg as my fave.
It's way late back there, wherever you are, which for some reason i assume is on the east coast. The night is still young and there is light in the sky since it is the solstice. But I'm an early riser so I'll read about eggs tomorrow.
We are US Central -- We are watching a concert it is almost midnight in the Midwest. There can never be too much music -- also hotter than hell so turning up the AC to sleep comfortably. Love the solstice!!! Playing tennis on Monday morning -- sunrise is 5:29 so starting at 6:30
What a great article! I didn't know quite how bad chicken was, re: viruses and bacteria. Eeeeeesh. I'll probably back away from that. Not a red meat fan though lamb and grass-fed beef are all right once in a while. My favorite is sardines, but I realize that's not a popular position :-)
You are funny :) I wrote about umami a while back and I suppose sardines would qualify. You are LUCKY you love them because they are really good for you! When our kids were young we would have make your own pizza nights and invariably have one or more extra kid over. We put out all sorts of topping and included anchovies. Two of my boys loved them as did I. I believe a small fish is off-putting to a lot of people for some reason. We always seemed to be challenging the visitor to "just try one".
I think chickens in theory are not necessarily so bad but the conditions and especially the density of the animals is just a tough environment for disease. I eat chicken once in a while but not very often. As the years pass I get more and more comfortable with mostly plant-based eating and it is no big tragedy if I don't have meat very often.
I plant to maybe write abou the current egg pricing. It is interesting as I mentioned it in one of my first sessions in a new class I'm taking THANKS TO YOU! We've been pretty lucky so far at avoiding bird flus, especially in the case where they jump species. I'm not sure we are as prepared as we might be.
I am going to grab a can of sardines the next time I'm at the store now. I seem to remember one of my favorite TV cooks Alton Brown being a big sardine fan!
If you are buying sardines, the Season sardines are the most delicious (to me) by a country mile and I have no idea why. I like the boneless/skinless ones even though the whole ones are certainly healthier and I sometimes eat them too. Oddly, anchovies have never been my thing, possibly because I also had a traumatic pizza reveal experience as a little kid ;-)
The egg pricing is so interesting, reminds me of when almond prices skyrocketed several years ago because the California crop was decimated.
Do you happen to know if the chicken virus thing applies to undercooked eggs?
RE Sardines: I am going to start with Wild Planet skinless boneless.
RE Eggs: I haven't heard reporting that the virus is bad for broilers. My understanding is the strategy for layers is that if there is an infection, they cull the whole group and start over again. I think that is why the prices are skyhigh. This happens somewhat regularly but this is the first time the virus has evolved to survive the winter months. The wild birds carry the virus and do not get sick. Never considered the overcooking. It seems this virus hasn't jumped to humans yet.
“If meat consumption were a religion, chicken would be the fastest-growing religion of them all!” Love this!
I never feel as good eating any kind of food as I do after eating a giant steak. I wonder why? Is it psychological? But I don’t want steak every day. Chicken is generally no fun. The best everyday meat is pork though it does bother me how smart pigs are. Can’t science do something about that? I vote for dumber pigs!
I just recently saw an overwhelmingly sad thing about the pig stuff. Don't think I will blog about it. The reason I did not choose pork as my favorite is that all of the best pork things are slow cooked and take too much time. I think that is why I have settled in with lamb. It is unusual and very special tasting. I like seafood of all kinds and ESPECIALLY abalone and scallops, they seem decadent even more than steak for me. One of the craziest things I know about pigs is that if the animals are in distress and scared they release hormones and can ruin the texture of the meat. That is a crazy superpower! It is pretty well agreed upon that amongst feed animals the pigs are the most sentient and like us.
I've been feeling squeamish about chicken for a while, and it's much harder to find locally raised ones than it is to find grass-finished beef where I live. You might have pushed me over the chicken edge!
I was like everyone else regarding chicken, just fine until I experienced it from the inside. It is a weirdly engineering animal now. The fat content of chicken is off the rails and the retention of additives in skin and connective tissue is significant. Chickens whether broilers or hens are razors-edge animals it seems. Not sure of the book but I recall that Tyson and KFC pioneered the movement toward 36 day birds from hatch to in the store. The current rise of a virus that survives the winter (never before) is what is driving the CRAZY PRICING of eggs. There is genuine attention in the industry to consider vaccinating the birds rather than cull and start again. This is because the virus that struck in 2022 has now show itself to be mutated sufficiently to survive the winter in wild birds. I was recently at the grocery store and saw American raised lamb chops. They were the size of a stuffed pork chop. Crazy!
What Antonia said! I think we've previously discussed my "meat minimalism," but chicken has been my biggest exception. Also: thanks for explaining the price of eggs! They are seriously crazy these days.
First things first. If you are UNFAMILIAR with Antonia, read her Newsletter. It is amazing and I go out of my way to keep my reading list under ten sources most of the time as I don't have time for more.
I know I'm an outlier and most people think I'm crazy. I tend to enjoy meat and seafood occasionally and now don't eat chicken very much. Our grandparents used to eat about 5-10 pounds of chicken a year and Americans are now north of 110 pounds a year. For me, since I don't have meat that often I would rather have something I really love. Chicken is not that special to me and lots of fat. The area of the country where it was mostly tobacco production migrated to catfish farming and is now big poultry country. I think this is a lowest common denominator approach to protein. I am going to write about the egg thing. Much like COVID, viruses of all sorts want to survive. They've been tagging along on wild birds for a long time. Gotta give the virus credit to evolve an insensitivity to temperature. We are going to have to turn up our game if we want omelettes.
I think "The Rise of the Chicken" could be a short story. Maybe even a novel.
Thanks so much for reading especially one of the oldies. "The Rise of the Chicken" sounds like a FUN TITLE. I think Americans moved to chicken as better than red meat. Originally it was mostly a less expensive option. One of my friends who grew up on a farm said way back when, as they were sorting the chicks for eggs, the males would be given away and people raised them as fryers. The species for layers and fryers are now completely separate at least in the first world. People would keep their layers for many years also. Now, they replace the layers as soon as they start slowing down in their egg production.
I had a friend from the south who tried to school me about fryers and layers but this city girl was totally lost. But I do love me a good egg from a farm-raised chicken.
I love eggs and I am conscious about how many I eat. A poached egg is the perfect breakfast for me. It is late so time to shutdown. I wrote a companion post titled Eggs (a play on the chicken and the egg) https://markdolan.substack.com/p/eggs -- for the record I love a runny poached egg as my fave.
It's way late back there, wherever you are, which for some reason i assume is on the east coast. The night is still young and there is light in the sky since it is the solstice. But I'm an early riser so I'll read about eggs tomorrow.
We are US Central -- We are watching a concert it is almost midnight in the Midwest. There can never be too much music -- also hotter than hell so turning up the AC to sleep comfortably. Love the solstice!!! Playing tennis on Monday morning -- sunrise is 5:29 so starting at 6:30
I love these long days, too. But I also like the short, dark days of winter. I blame that on my Scandinavian heritage.
What a great article! I didn't know quite how bad chicken was, re: viruses and bacteria. Eeeeeesh. I'll probably back away from that. Not a red meat fan though lamb and grass-fed beef are all right once in a while. My favorite is sardines, but I realize that's not a popular position :-)
You are funny :) I wrote about umami a while back and I suppose sardines would qualify. You are LUCKY you love them because they are really good for you! When our kids were young we would have make your own pizza nights and invariably have one or more extra kid over. We put out all sorts of topping and included anchovies. Two of my boys loved them as did I. I believe a small fish is off-putting to a lot of people for some reason. We always seemed to be challenging the visitor to "just try one".
I think chickens in theory are not necessarily so bad but the conditions and especially the density of the animals is just a tough environment for disease. I eat chicken once in a while but not very often. As the years pass I get more and more comfortable with mostly plant-based eating and it is no big tragedy if I don't have meat very often.
I plant to maybe write abou the current egg pricing. It is interesting as I mentioned it in one of my first sessions in a new class I'm taking THANKS TO YOU! We've been pretty lucky so far at avoiding bird flus, especially in the case where they jump species. I'm not sure we are as prepared as we might be.
I am going to grab a can of sardines the next time I'm at the store now. I seem to remember one of my favorite TV cooks Alton Brown being a big sardine fan!
If you are buying sardines, the Season sardines are the most delicious (to me) by a country mile and I have no idea why. I like the boneless/skinless ones even though the whole ones are certainly healthier and I sometimes eat them too. Oddly, anchovies have never been my thing, possibly because I also had a traumatic pizza reveal experience as a little kid ;-)
The egg pricing is so interesting, reminds me of when almond prices skyrocketed several years ago because the California crop was decimated.
Do you happen to know if the chicken virus thing applies to undercooked eggs?
RE Sardines: I am going to start with Wild Planet skinless boneless.
RE Eggs: I haven't heard reporting that the virus is bad for broilers. My understanding is the strategy for layers is that if there is an infection, they cull the whole group and start over again. I think that is why the prices are skyhigh. This happens somewhat regularly but this is the first time the virus has evolved to survive the winter months. The wild birds carry the virus and do not get sick. Never considered the overcooking. It seems this virus hasn't jumped to humans yet.
“If meat consumption were a religion, chicken would be the fastest-growing religion of them all!” Love this!
I never feel as good eating any kind of food as I do after eating a giant steak. I wonder why? Is it psychological? But I don’t want steak every day. Chicken is generally no fun. The best everyday meat is pork though it does bother me how smart pigs are. Can’t science do something about that? I vote for dumber pigs!
I just recently saw an overwhelmingly sad thing about the pig stuff. Don't think I will blog about it. The reason I did not choose pork as my favorite is that all of the best pork things are slow cooked and take too much time. I think that is why I have settled in with lamb. It is unusual and very special tasting. I like seafood of all kinds and ESPECIALLY abalone and scallops, they seem decadent even more than steak for me. One of the craziest things I know about pigs is that if the animals are in distress and scared they release hormones and can ruin the texture of the meat. That is a crazy superpower! It is pretty well agreed upon that amongst feed animals the pigs are the most sentient and like us.
Lamb! Mr. Dolan now you are just being peverse.
I really do enjoy lamb. I am in a small minority. It seems you are reacting to some childhood memory :)
LOL
Should have said ewe...
I've been feeling squeamish about chicken for a while, and it's much harder to find locally raised ones than it is to find grass-finished beef where I live. You might have pushed me over the chicken edge!
I was like everyone else regarding chicken, just fine until I experienced it from the inside. It is a weirdly engineering animal now. The fat content of chicken is off the rails and the retention of additives in skin and connective tissue is significant. Chickens whether broilers or hens are razors-edge animals it seems. Not sure of the book but I recall that Tyson and KFC pioneered the movement toward 36 day birds from hatch to in the store. The current rise of a virus that survives the winter (never before) is what is driving the CRAZY PRICING of eggs. There is genuine attention in the industry to consider vaccinating the birds rather than cull and start again. This is because the virus that struck in 2022 has now show itself to be mutated sufficiently to survive the winter in wild birds. I was recently at the grocery store and saw American raised lamb chops. They were the size of a stuffed pork chop. Crazy!
What Antonia said! I think we've previously discussed my "meat minimalism," but chicken has been my biggest exception. Also: thanks for explaining the price of eggs! They are seriously crazy these days.
First things first. If you are UNFAMILIAR with Antonia, read her Newsletter. It is amazing and I go out of my way to keep my reading list under ten sources most of the time as I don't have time for more.
I know I'm an outlier and most people think I'm crazy. I tend to enjoy meat and seafood occasionally and now don't eat chicken very much. Our grandparents used to eat about 5-10 pounds of chicken a year and Americans are now north of 110 pounds a year. For me, since I don't have meat that often I would rather have something I really love. Chicken is not that special to me and lots of fat. The area of the country where it was mostly tobacco production migrated to catfish farming and is now big poultry country. I think this is a lowest common denominator approach to protein. I am going to write about the egg thing. Much like COVID, viruses of all sorts want to survive. They've been tagging along on wild birds for a long time. Gotta give the virus credit to evolve an insensitivity to temperature. We are going to have to turn up our game if we want omelettes.