(no subject)

[eub]

I just made chicken stock. I never made chicken stock before. I feel so l33t.

It isn't rocket cuisine ("isn't brain food"?), but I'd never tried it, and I'm a child of the boneless skinless breast generation: big gory bony chicken carcasses scare me. And to stomp on my fear with both feet, I've got a whole (1.5-lb) chicken roasting in the oven now. Wish me luck, that I may not be traumatized by this small chicken and thrown into worse terror than ever.

Hacking up chicken backs with a crummy dull knife is a bother. Next time I either get a cleaver or shop around for a permissive recipe that lets me skip that and just simmer them longer.

Comments

[eub.livejournal.com]

Outcome: not traumatized by chicken, per se, but bitter at snazzy new thermometer. The chicken was actually 2 lb, sorry -- which was outside the recipe's range, so I was flying by thermometer. The thermometer claimed for HOURS that the chicken was 140 °F, 145, 150,... finally I got fed up and pulled it at "155". By the texture of the breast meat, it was wayyy above 155. The pan sauce was good, though, and mostly saved it. And the drumsticks were great.

I never liked the looks of that thermometer: the probe is a one-piece metal rod. Now, the sensor is at the tip, I hope, but the rod has got to be conducting heat like mad.

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

I have one of those, and it works fine for me. If it is working right, the trick is to put it in the right place - usually the thickest part of the meat, and not touching a bone, since that will make it not register right.

When I made chicken soup/stock, I just cooked it in lightly boiling water till the meat fell off the bones. Made cleanup easier as well ;)

[eub.livejournal.com]

I may have had bone issues. Probably ought to give it a calibration test anyway.