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When I was a kid we raised chickens for a long time and they were pretty small. I remember getting a new variety that were huge in comparison (they finished aro
by steve_adams_86 5y ago
When I was a kid we raised chickens for a long time and they were pretty small. I remember getting a new variety that were huge in comparison (they finished around 8lb sometimes!) and they ended up looking great but being incredibly disappointing to eat. They tasted a lot like store-bought chicken. Big chickens are definitely less interesting on the plate in my experience.
As I recall my dad picked them because the feed to meat ratio was crazy. The chickens ended up like 2-3lb heavier on average (maybe 1/3 increase) but finished way faster and ate about the same amount. It was a no-brainer for cutting costs, and we were really poor.
Popular commercial duck breeds are similar. They're easier to turn into things you like eating I suppose, like smoked breast or confit, but flavours and textures are far less enticing and lack character. If you have the opportunity to raise your own, seek out older and more interesting breeds – there's a whole other world to explore that you'll never see in a grocery store.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoI'm betting they are probably less nutritious too.
- chmod600 5y agoI've suspected for a long time that we are missing major stuff from out diet due to changes in both the plants and animals we eat. I look at fruit in the grocery store and it just looks unnatural to me.
- inter_netuser 5y agoWell, we are at the point where farmers have to add nutrients to soil.
- derbOac 5y agoStudies have found decreases over time, from the mid 20th century, to now, in vitamins and minerals in fruits and vegetables. It's due to changes in varieties, soil depletion, and increased atmospheric CO2. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/vanishing-nutrients/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/vanishing-... https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511/ https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrie... There is some evidence sugar content has increased, from varietal changes, but that's about it.
- rayiner 5y agoPeople who talk about whether food is “nutritious” are like anti-vaxxers. There’s no scientific basis to these ideas, just feels.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoYet you don't provide any evidence for your bold, asbolutist, and franckly, insulting, claim. Hence I'd say this very form of comment is closer to the proverbial facebook mum style, than somebody suggesting "I'm betting". But allow me to actually provide some hints that, while not able to remove all doubt about the matter, nevertheless show such a theory is not an undeserving question, nor born from an irrational mind: https://journals.ashs.org/downloadpdf/journals/hortsci/44/1/article-p15.pdf https://journals.ashs.org/downloadpdf/journals/hortsci/44/1/...
- MathCodeLove 5y agoWhat are you trying to say here? That nutrition doesn't exist? It's anti-science to state that an apple has more nutritional value than a potato chip? Specifically what the parent is referencing is the density of nutrients per unit of meat. Are you saying that all meat is uniform in nutrient density? I'm genuinely flabbergasted by your supremely odd take on this situation.
- rayiner 5y agoWhat “nutrients” are you talking about? Vague unspecific references to “nutrients” is a red flag that you’re talking to an anti-vax type.
- BiteCode_dev 5y agoVague unspecific references to anti-vaxing are to me a red-flag that somebody tries to win a debate without having to provide any argument for ones opinion, even when answered approprietly in another comment.
- steve_adams_86 5y agoWanting more information about nutrition is not comparable to being opposed to vaccines. Nutrition is an area of study which lacks a lot of information. Even as time goes on and agriculture changes, the data we have about the food we consume appears to be out of date. There are many other factors we’re just beginning to become aware of with implications we haven’t begun to unravel. Nutritional science and the data we have today is completely acceptable to question. Just about everything is, but nutrition seems especially open.
- moltar 5y agoWhen I went to a Thai food market back in 2011, I was surprised to see that chicken breasts were so tiny. About the size of index and middle finger put together. But when I got them home and cooked the flavour was so delicious. Don’t even need any sauces. It was just so good on it’s own.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> disappointing to eat I’m halfway convinced that the recent plant-based goop phenomenon is not a story about environmental or moral concerns, but instead disillusion with the blandness of commodity meat.
- rhn_mk1 5y agoWhy not both!
- inter_netuser 5y agoIsn’t there an entire flavour industry? Seems much easier fixed than trying to invent fake meat from scratch.
- lordnacho 5y agoIt's easy to optimise things that we can get numbers for, like how much food the chicken is fed and how much it weighs. There's no number for taste, even if everyone agrees it's worse.
- emerongi 5y agoSimilar story with strawberries. The huge ones are quite bland, whereas the small ones pack a punch. I imagine it's mostly the water content that makes them bigger, but at the same time it dilutes the taste. Same for tomatoes as well. Homegrown tomatoes have a strong taste, whereas store-bought ones are quite weak in taste (as well as weirdly plastic). Pretty much anything that is produced for profits will be optimized for weight and minimal production costs. Nobody cares about taste.
- fayten 5y agoAs far as I am aware the water content reducing flavor is a myth. For fruits and vegtables it comes down to ripening and temperature control. The majority of fruit we purchase from the super market is picked far before it's rip and is either sitting in storage/transport long enough to get acceptable flavor, gassed with certain hormones to speed up rippening before final arrival, or just straight up dyed. Oranges from warm climates are actually green and are dyed in a lot of cases in the US. A cooler climate is needed to kill of the green pigments in the fall turning them orange. Fate of food is an interesting book on the food supply chain: https://www.amandalittle.com/fateoffood https://www.amandalittle.com/fateoffood Food dying and our perception of flavor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FPnag_rvU8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FPnag_rvU8 A fun video with Paul Hollywood trying the most expensive strawberries: https://youtu.be/895DfGuoqvU https://youtu.be/895DfGuoqvU
- Hammershaft 5y agoI wonder why companies don't sell smaller quantities of pricier variants of fully ripened fruit then.
- steve_adams_86 5y agoWell, I know in my own garden that fully ripened food doesn’t last long even with only a 20 meter trip to my refrigerator. It’s so delicate and tends to be prime for breaking and/or decaying.
- bryanlarsen 5y ago
- phreeza 5y agoI would say there is a place for both. The "village chicken" I have eaten was indeed quite flavourful, but also had a lot of tendons and generally more chewy meat, while "broiler chicken" have more, blander but also more tender meat.