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What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

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301–310 of 327 posts

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#301

Animal welfare aside, I find people in North America really in favour of chicken breast, much more than other parts, say chicken thigh. Yet I myself think chicken thigh tastes much better, especially with the skin (yet again it is usually skinless in supermarkets here, unfortunately). Is it because of nutrition (percentage of fat/protein etc.)? On top of that, chicken feet are considered unacceptable by many...

Much of it comes down to people's discomfort with meat. White meat is consistent, reliable, mild-flavored, and often is served such that it contains no clues that it came from a living animal. Those not comfortable with murdering for food shouldn't do so by proxy.

One of the things I'm grateful to my parents for is teaching me where meat comes from. I mean, I knew it was a dead animal, but to really know...

We lived on a county island in our small city (now larger) in California; so we could have farm animals on our property. My parents raised ducks, chickens, rabbits, geese, pigs and one time a cow. We had "farm fresh" eggs every day; in fact, we had so many my mom would sell them from the house as a way of making some side money as a stay-at-home mom, while my dad worked for the county (road maintenance).

I was witness to numerous chicken beheadings, and know exactly where and why the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" comes from. I even help to pluck the carcasses with my mom.

I later watched my dad skin and gut our rabbits, which we later cooked and ate for dinner.

Same with the pigs and the cow (we had a local butcher come and shoot them, they were then pre-prepped for transport to the butcher's shop, where he aged and prepped/packaged them - we had a large chest freezer to hold the meat after).

I have no illusions about where our meat comes from. I have no illusions that it was once living and breathing. If there is anything that disturbs me about our current "factory farm" system of meat, it would be the occasional piece of chicken - almost always a wing piece - where the bone is broken, leaving me to wonder whether that happened pre or post-mortem.

I don't want any animal to suffer before death, even if I am going to be eating it later.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#302
post #271

Animal welfare aside, I find people in North America really in favour of chicken breast, much more than other parts, say chicken thigh. Yet I myself think chicken thigh tastes much better, especially with the skin (yet again it is usually skinless in supermarkets here, unfortunately). Is it because of nutrition (percentage of fat/protein etc.)? On top of that, chicken feet are considered unacceptable by many...

Interestingly, the marketing of the white breast meat was almost a problem but worked out well for Big Chicken: they overdid the marketing of breast meat and had a problem of how to dispose of the thigh meat (there's only so much pet food required) but nowadays most is exported to Russia where the bland breast meat is not desired.

> they overdid the marketing of breast meat and had a problem of how to dispose of the thigh meat

Actually, a portion of it is bleached, and used as "white meat" for those frozen shaped chicken products like chicken patties and nuggets...

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#303
post #169

Your concern for animal welfare will never be enough for the animal rights people (just read the other comments here).

Umm, I've seen plenty of balanced views in this thread. I'm a vegan, partially for animal rights but I still encourage meat-eaters that are concerned to go for the better stuff. I don't believe it is the best solution, but I applaud anyone willing to attempt to make things better. "the animal rights people" is a pretty broad brush, I know that quite a few can be completely impossible to discuss the nuances with but h…

> I also encounter a good part of meat-eaters that become incredible defensive and almost hostile if they find out about my dietary choices.

Yeah after someone found out after kinda knowing them for a couple years they said "Fuck You" and we haven't spoken them since then. I wonder what their problem was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#304
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, in Ukraine we called imported chicken legs "Bush's drumsticks" (referring to Bush Sr.) This is because legs are not in as much demand in the US, so they would rather export them to countries where they are in demand!

I'm afraid you're mistaken. It's because Bush organized humanitarian help to post-USSR countries in tge early 90s, which risked hunger because of the awful economic conditions.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BA%D0%B8...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_legs

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#306
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't forget the first time I served a perfectly cooked breast to my sister-in-law. Her reply: "it's too juicy."

You want to really gross someone out? Serve them properly cooked pork - where there's just a hint of pink to it. They'll think you're trying to poison them. /I've been served a pork tenderloin that was so brown I thought it was beef...yuck.

It's probably fine, but is it worth the risk that parasites will be permanently embedded in your body? I'll go with "NO".

Given the above, enjoying the taste is right out. Pick your favorite meal, add a bit of poison, and try to enjoy it.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#308

Animal welfare aside, I find people in North America really in favour of chicken breast, much more than other parts, say chicken thigh. Yet I myself think chicken thigh tastes much better, especially with the skin (yet again it is usually skinless in supermarkets here, unfortunately). Is it because of nutrition (percentage of fat/protein etc.)? On top of that, chicken feet are considered unacceptable by many...

I strongly prefer chicken and turkey breast because it's easy to deal with because it does not have bones or cartilage. When it's cooked it usually doesn't have any weird colors and the taste is relatively boring but consistent. Thighs, wings, drumsticks etc all have problems I just don't want to deal with as an eater.

Yeash, what do you do when faced with a lobster or whole crab? Or a whole fish! The cheeks on a grouper, mmmm. Not to mention that the scraps and pickings off a just carved bird carcass are some of the best eating on the thing.

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A rash rejection of dialog. Plants are very lowly sentient through structures that are the plant-counterparts to animalian neurons. They communicate with other plants and they sense what can be described as "pain." But, I don't think arguing on the sentience of an unprotected kingdom will further this discussion. The discussion on animal welfare seems to be an emotional one alone. As long as our mirror neurons aren't…

Ive always found in the quieter parts of Silicon Valley and areas, there does exist a merge between the technological and something else. I've seen this something else be called luck, magic, parapsychology.. Many names. But I've also found that it is indeed whispered and talked of behind the scenes. I've learned these arts as well, to hear the ebb and flow of what goes on around me. Many times, I can feel the data go…

> Many times, I can feel the data going on the wire, and the emotion it carries.

That's easy to prove. Have people send certain kinds of data and then name the emotion. You could upend several sciences and also be rich.

So why don't you?

Re: What is this colored fiber in my chicken?

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Don't these two sentiments exclude each other? Not the OP, but a meat eater. I think it's obvious for most people that they want to eat meat but they don't want to cause unnecessary suffering. Those two sentiments aren't just not mutually exclusive, they complement each other. I know people who keep animals for their meat- chickens, ducks, goats, pigs and a cow or two. I've seen them really care for, and about the…

Am I so wrong in the assumption, that if someone claims to love something, he won't hurt it? Allow me to put this into a little statement: "I love you, but now I have to kill you, so I can consume you" And they still cause suffering. A mother loses her child (calf), a sister her brother, just because there is someone who wants to eat him/her/it?

> Am I so wrong in the assumption, that if someone claims to love something, he won't hurt it?

Not directly relevant to farm animals, but how many married couples don't have fights? I don't think that assumption is right.

And when considering raising and killing an animal vs. never having any animal at all, consider the quote "'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all".

> And they still cause suffering. A mother loses her child (calf), a sister her brother

Unless you have the cure to aging, that's going to happen no matter what. In fact, slaughtering means that more of them die at the same time and don't have to go through this suffering.

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