Poultry and Game

One of the great mysteries of life is why so many people refuse to eat beef because of the BSE scare, which at worst (if you believe it and if you eat cheap beef) promises a one in six million risk, and prefer to eat chicken, which carries a high risk of salmonella. ‘Oh,’ you may say ‘but I buy those free range chicken the supermarkets offer’. However although these may taste better, the problem lies with the modern breeds, the speed with which they are raised and what they are fed on.Five weeks from egg to table is a terrifying thought and the flesh is loose on the bones, allowing disease to proliferate. The reason free range chickens taste better rests in what they are fed, although they do not have much time to acquire any real flavour. The answer is to buy organically-produced chickens of old breeds: then and only then will you know what chicken should taste like. However, such chickens are more expensive and although they go a lot further, they are hard to get hold of. The answer is to use your chicken as a base for other flavours. The recipe for Mochrum Pie, for instance, has an unusual use of apple with chicken.