Poultry

Chicken used to be the greatest luxury about twenty years ago. My grandfather would bring us chickens that he specially reared on his farm, but they were always for festive occasions, and later at boarding school – delight of delights – we used to get chicken for lunch on Mother Prioress’s feast day. The excitement! I remember it still! Perhaps it’s just nostalgia but I’m quite sure that chicken tasted much more delicious then. Nowadays, chicken is less expensive and is arguably the most popular meat of all. The birds are intensively reared and produced on a large scale in not very humane conditions, so while the price has come down considerably, flavour has suffered correspondingly. As a result, there is inevitably a small but steadily growing demand for free-range chickens and eggs. These are more expensive to produce so the consumer must be prepared to pay a little extra for the naturally reared bird with superior flavour.