Author: Anna & Mark

When our
pullets started laying,
they eschewed the nest box and made their own nest in the straw at the
back of the coop.  I didn’t notice until I was refreshing the deep
bedding and nearly
stepped on an egg on the ground.  Since I didn’t know how long the
egg had been present, I needed to test it before deciding if it was
safe to eat.



Luckily for those of us
with ornery layers, it’s very easy to run an egg test.  Simply
fill a cup up with water and gently lower your egg in.  If the egg
sits completely flat on the bottom like the one in the photo, it’s
newly laid and quite safe.  Over time, an air pocket will form and
enlarge in the egg, so slightly older eggs will start to sit a little
crooked, with the blunt end angled toward the surface.  That egg
is okay for baked goods and hard-boiling.  But if the egg floats,
very carefully take it outside and dispose of it before it explodes
into a foul-smelling mess in your kitchen!



Since our pullets aren’t
laying up to their full potential yet, we’ve been buying grocery store
eggs as a supplement to our dog’s feed.  I was curious to see how
“fresh” supermarket eggs did on the float test, so I lowered one into
my mug.  According to the float test, supermarket eggs are good
for baked goods only, which is just about all I’d use them for (and
that in a pinch.)  I sure am glad we’re back up to three homegrown
eggs a day!

I’ve had a lot to learn about
growing our own meat chickens, especially once I brought our heirloom
birds to the kitchen.  If your recipes are based on storebought
meat, chances are they start with a line like “Take two chicken breasts
and….”  Here are some tips and recipes I’ve developed over the
last two years that help you enjoy and respect your homegrown chickens’
meat.



The easiest way to make
use of the whole bird is to roast your chicken, then stew up the
bones.  One of our small layer-breed broilers (less than two
pounds) can turn into four to six meals if we first roast the chicken
with vegetables, then use the carcass as the base for a delicious
soup.  You can read my in depth description of roasting a chicken
in my
99 cent ebook, or
can see the recipe I
developed mine from here.



Heirloom chickens have a
lot more leg than breast, so it’s useful to know some recipes just for
the legs.  If you’re buying storebought meat on a budget, chicken
leg recipes are even more helpful since legs are often one of the
cheapest cuts of meat.  This garlic
and thyme chicken leg recipe is my new easy and delicious
way to use up chicken legs.



Finally, if you’re serious
about making your flock self-sufficient, you’ll often end up with old
layers who are too tough to chew.  Traditional chefs love these
chickens for their richer flavor, which can be stewed out by cooking
for a long time at low heat.  The resultant soup is
phenomenal!



How have you found
cooking with real chickens to be different from cooking with
storebought meat?  Do you have any heirloom chicken recipes to
share?