Deficiency of proteins is the main cause of unbalanced nutrition. Most of us solve this problem simply - eat as many birds as possible in all its forms, the benefit of the assortment is very large. About what are the useful qualities of poultry meat, as well as much more on this topic, read below.
It turns out that the bird is not only cheaper than pork and beef, but it is much more useful. It produces dishes with a mild delicate taste, and some of them can rightly be considered delicate - for example, all the famous "Peking duck" or foie gras paste from goose liver. The best restaurants in the world include a variety of meat in their menu, but still the first place should be given to an ordinary chicken.
THE GREATEST TENDER MEAT
As soon as our ancestors prepared the chicken: on coals, on a spit, in clay pots. Among Russian merchants, a stewed chicken with eggs and cabbage whipped in milk was especially popular. Very appreciated tolstosuma and chicken, stuffed with beef or cooked under white sauce with gooseberry. And, of course, everyone loved the famous fire cutlets, cooked from chicken meat, without exception. It is believed that the domestic chicken originated from the wild "hen of the jungle", whose birthplace is Ancient India. People very quickly appreciated all the benefits of dietary meat from this bird, so gradually began to breed different breeds. Today their number exceeds six hundred.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, a "meat", specially fattened chicken was called a poultry. Today we appreciate the meat of broilers. This fattened two-month-old chickens, weighing about 2 kg. The most universal option - they can be cooked and fried. By the way, earlier broilers called only fried chicken (broiled - in English "fried") or cooked on a spit.
Distinguish the chicken-broiler from the usual easily. First, it is larger, with well-developed muscles, and therefore the shape of the chest is rounded, like that of an adult bird. And the usual chicken is more "built-up," and the chest is oblong with a hard and bulging keel. By the amount of fat, you can also tell the chicken from the chicken. If the subcutaneous fat is only in the lower abdomen, then we have a chicken-broiler before us, and if the chest, belly and even a solid backbone swim with fat, young meat can not be called. And yet, frying the broiler meat (especially in a frying pan with non-stick coating), you can do without fat - it's enough. In the legs it is larger, but in the breasts - a little (so white meat is the most dietary). However, chicken fat contains many useful polyunsaturated fatty acids.
In general, the useful qualities of poultry meat can be said for a long time. It compares favorably with meat with a high percentage of high-grade proteins (containing many so-called essential amino acids). She has a lot of soft muscle tissue (unlike meat, in which there is more rigid connecting), and that connective, which is, is more friable and tender.
In old culinary books you can find a lot of useful advice on the preparation of chicken, however, they mostly concern how best to chicken, gut, and cut. Today there is no need for them. In shops are already sold completely gutted carcass and separately semi-finished products - breast, shins, hips, wings. For lovers of offal - cleaned and washed liver, heart, ventricles.
Chilled meat is more juicy, preserves the maximum of its nutrients, but it is not stored for long. Frozen is cheaper and in some situations even more convenient - for example, if you need to buy chicken in reserve.
INDIAN COCK
Folk wisdom says: "One chicken for seven dishes can not be laid out." But turkey - quite. Earlier, when the "Bush's legs" were just beginning to bring us an overseas turkey, the sellers chopped it in half: many housewives simply did not know what to do with the whole carcass, so much of it. "Overseas", more precisely, overseas, in North America, this huge bird lived from the earliest days (archaeologists claim that another 10 million years ago). The Indians (and it was from them that the name of the bird came) long ago learned how to grow and breed it. So far, on the last Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day, the main dish on the table for Americans is a turkey.
If the meat of the chicken is considered healthy and dietary, the meat of the turkey is doubly, therefore it costs more. The most delicious stuffed turkey - the good it is so big, there is where to clear up. If you give it all (if only there was enough room in the oven!), You can not take care of other dishes. To ensure that the poultry meat is not dry, it does not lose its useful qualities (there is a little fat in the turkey), it can be pre-flavored with butter. Make it simple: melt the butter, put in a syringe with a thick needle and in several places, puncture the carcass. To determine the readiness, pierce it, for example, with a fork - the juice should be transparent. Turkey is very versatile: it can not only bake, but also fry, cook minced meatballs, boil broth - everything will turn out delicious and useful.
PERNET BREASTS
Goose - it's almost exotic. It is also a very large and rather fatty bird, which is rarely cooked entirely (therefore earlier it was served exclusively on major holidays, especially at Christmas). Because of the abundance of fat in the goose is very valued liver. Pate from it - foie gras - an exquisite delicacy, which is loved all over the world. By the way, the most delicious is Strasbourg. Even the ancient Greeks forcibly fattened the goose to get a particularly large and fatty liver. Traditions remain, foie gras are still on our table, although, thanks to the protests of the "green" geese, at least in the advanced European countries, are no longer tortured: forced feeding is legally forbidden today.
More customary for our tables is a duck. It is popular with us, in Europe, but especially in Asia. It is no accident that the first thing that comes to mind is the "Peking duck". This is when the duck is hung up and fried over a fire, diluted with firewood of fruit trees. The bird turns out unusual - with a brilliant crispy skin of reddish color, the meat smells of fruit aromas. Duck stuffing especially well apples, prunes and cabbage (you can individually, but tastes good and together). Apples and prunes give her sweet meat a special delicate aroma. And from the necks, paws and heads come out delicious rassolniki. In the gooseberry - the ingenious invention of man - the stew is very soft and juicy.
EXOTIC GUESTS
On the Russian "birdy yard" has recently appeared a very unconventional "ptaha" for us - the African ostrich. Its height sometimes reaches 2.5 meters. The ostrich is well tolerated by the heat and frosts, so it's got a good start in a new place. Earlier, the ostrich was kept for the sake of a beautiful feather (ostrich feathers - chic decoration for clothes), but now they appreciated meat. The blessing of it is much - the adult individual weighs over 130 kg. Breeding in us and guinea fowl, which, on the contrary, are very small (weighing up to two kilograms), but to taste extremely tender and exquisite.
ALL FOR PURCHASES!
Until recently, the overwhelming majority of Russians "bought" a bird in the markets. It's cheaper, and there's always a choice. Today, we want not just to feed the family, but to feed them deliciously and qualitatively. Markets of the former trust do not cause, increasingly we buy meat, we go to supermarkets or supermarkets. Prices here are slightly higher, but the choice in turn is very large: frozen and chilled meat, in the form of whole carcasses and divided into parts, domestic and imported.
Interestingly, the volume of import supplies has recently declined markedly. As a rule, the frozen meat imported from abroad is dominated by frozen meat. And in the sector of fresh and better quality chilled products, carte blanche is just at our manufacturers. You will not believe, but until now the demand for chilled meat is much higher than the supply. No matter how hard the producers try, they do not have time to meet increasing needs. Recycled poultry, including semi-finished products, is also very popular. These are cutlets, sausages, nuggets, and sticks, and parts of carcass in breading, shish kebab, grilled chicken, stuffing ... The assortment is represented by more than 130 items. If more recently most of us found it difficult to name certain brands of chicken products, today many of them are all heard. No less promising and the market turkey. Many who have private farmsteads have been breeding this bird. And not in vain. It is inexpensive in terms of content, and marketing is not a problem now. After all, everyone knows about the useful qualities of poultry meat.
Perhaps the only thing that is partly restrained by demand is the situation around the bird flu. Is it worth it to be afraid? According to experts, it is unlikely. True, if you buy proven products. As practice shows, if the virus infects a bird, it first of all occurs in the private sector where there are no veterinarians, and it is difficult for business executives to control the causes and extent of infection, the spread of the disease and even more to take preventive measures for the future. At large poultry farms today, as a rule, the bird is reliably protected from penetration of any kind of infections. However, if you have doubts, suspicions, just a desire to once again be safe, remember the 100% effective way to fight viruses: cook or fry the bird until it is ready, do not eat raw eggs. The most careful we can advise knives and cutting boards to be processed with boiling water.