Kosher birds raised humanely are now on sale. But do they taste better?
Free-range chickens are now being sold for the first time by kosher butchers in London and Manchester. They have appeared as a result of a Channel 4 television series, Hugh’s Chicken Run, in which television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall set out to persuade the poultry-buying public that they should be eating free-range birds rather than the intensively reared version — those kept beak-byjowl in large sheds and sold at two-fora-fiver in our supermarkets.
The public response persuaded Stephen grossman, of kosher meat distributor Lewco-Pak, that Jewish customers were also clamouring for humanely reared, free-range birds. So anglo-Jewry’s biggest poultry abattoir, based in Bedfordshire, linked up with a local farmer to rear birds for the kosher market. But is there a difference in taste between the cheaper, intensively reared chickens and the pricier free-range variety? The JC’s editorial department decided to put them to the test. We bought four whole birds of similar size, all around 1.9kg (4.2lbs): two free-range birds, which were on sale at £5.79 a kilo, and two conventional chickens, priced at £3.20 a kilo.
They were roasted in the same way, with a rub of extra-virgin olive oil and for approximately the same time, before being brought before the panel for a blind tasting. Travel editor Jan Shure judged that chicken a tasted like a classic ordinary bird, while chicken B was much moister and tastier. news editor Jenni Frazer agreed: “Chicken B was much firmer and had a better taste altogether.”
Managing editor Richard Burton expanded: “Chicken B was not as dry as chicken a. I could eat a lot more of chicken B because it was more moist.” Art editor Karen Silver took a similar view: “It’s more succulent.” Food-page editor Simon round admitted candidly that he was finding it difficult to tell the difference between the two. So there was surprise when he announced: “But I know which one is free range and which is conventional.” He revealed he had snapped a leg bone in half. “You can tell the difference, because the intensively reared bird’s bone will snap easily but the free-range one won’t. Its bones are much stronger because it has been allowed to run outside and develop normally.”
