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Winner, winner - not - chicken dinner

I've been focusing on food, exercise and getting healthier the last couple of years, and a part of that has been going slightly flexitarian in what I eat.

So far I've eaten chicken and farmed salmon, but lately eating this kind of food has left me with a little bit of distaste, distaste for how these animals are farmed up and then slaughtered after a rather petty life.

So it fits well that I some months ago bought some frozen hens on the local megamarket, these are hens that have lived a productive life, pushing out eggs on a regular basis.

I'd say eggs and garlic are two staple foods in my diet these days, and I do feel more comfortable with a mixed flexitarian diet rather than going full vegetarian, because I feel that it's easier to eat well, healthy and varied by going a bit mixed.

So, these hens cluck around their lives, put out eggs and are at some point slaughtered. And then that meat (and everything else) can be put to good use.

A picture of a couple of hens that have simmered just below boiling for some hours:



Later I'll pluck the meat off these, and freeze that, and then take everything that remains and let that simmer for at least 4 hours, let it boil down and then run it through a siv and freeze that as well.

From what I understand, there are a lot of nutrients in what remains, and it feels right to be able to make use of everything. It's a bit of a contrast to what most people do here in Norway, which is buy minced minced chicken meat, filets and so on. That's fine I guess, but with my approach, I make good use of an animal that hasn't just been brought up and fed to then be slaughtered.

I can't tell how these hens have been treated though, I guess that's on of my next goals in ethical eating - making sure that the animals I eat have been treated well enough.

As for chicken raised just for slaughter and fish raised in pens just for slaughter - I think the treatment they often get is questionable, and as for fish raised in pens, the effects on their surrounding environment can't be all positive, as has been seen on thick layers of sediment below then pens, as well as fish escaping from the pens and mixing with the local fish. I think I'll be buying more fish that has been roaming freely and then caught as well.

[Permalink] [By morphex] [Food (Atom feed)] [02 Nov 00:58 Europe/Oslo]