donk79

And apparently you pick it up frozen and have to thaw and reheat.

A few minutes Googling says "slow roasted then flash fried" And yes, whole.

Popeyes came up in conversation with a friend yesterday. We were catching up on family happenings and I learned his brother-in-law is now a regional manager for the chain. Item of greatest interest there was the Thanksgiving Turkey. Apparently Thanksgiving Turkey sales are a huge thing for Popeyes. One store in Maryland sold over 9,000 this year. People drove hours to pick them up. All the managers received one as well. My friend reported that he would not spend $50 on one himself, but would be happy to join in consuming a free one! So take that for what it's worth. Anyone here ever experienced a Popeyes turkey?

How does it look? Any freezer burn?

All this talk of rabbit is killing me. Almost 15 years ago, my wife and I were living in rural Maryland and had a small town restaurant that prepared a rather dry fried rabbit. It was still wonderful! Now, I am in Virginia, surrounded by cottontails, and with no good shooting lanes for harvesting them. And I will be darned if I can figure out any other way to procure them around here. Anyway, keep sharing! at least my dreams are tasty!

In the US (Mid-Atlantic region), beet sugar is quite common. When I was keeping bees, I was taught to avoid it (right or wrong) when I made syrup to help the bees bulk up for winter. Often (but not always) store brands were beet sugar. Sometimes Dominoe was the only available came sugar and it was typically a bit more expensive than the beet sugars. (Nota bene: It has been more than five years since I last had to feed bees).

A1?

I've noticed Vanilla extract prices dropping at my local Costco. I think they are down to $25/pint from $35/ pint a few years ago. Is this representative of the rest of the market right now?

It really is an interesting prospect. Regular breed dairy beef is rightfully (imo) considered very low grade. When we shifted to the crosses at home, the quality of meat from the steers we raised improved drastically.

Based on what I see in Google, this concept of the Holstein/Wagyu crossbreed as "Snow Beef" may just be this one company's effort at marketing, "Saskatchewan Snow Beef." The other references to "Snow Beef" that I am seeing are all from Hokkaido in Japan. I don't even see a website, past their Facebook and Instagram. From what I can tell, distribution is pretty limited. I think you may have to be in Saskatchewan to get it.

Genex is who you might want to look at then, if you ever had interest in looking that direction.

I took a look at the sales website for the company my father worked with. They currently have one Wagyu bull available, at $50. This compares to the Holstein bulls coming in as low as $20 per breeding attempt. I am not certain where the bull calf market is right now, but I have seen it run anywhere from $10 to $150 per animal. I figure that these crosses would land in that bull calf market, but at a higher premium. I can certainly see both temptation to give the Wagyu breeding a try, and hesitation. I suspect it will be a market in need of development to make it a solid go.

Most of the herd went to large dairy farms in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. A small number of unmarketable animals went to slaughter.

I deeply wish I could ask my father about this. He died suddenly 6 weeks ago, but before that spent 40 years in cattle breeding. Most of that time was focused on our family Holstein farm, but for the past 5 years he was on the governing board for a multinational agricultural genetics company. He had hinted that interesting things were coming with crossbreeding in future years, but couldn't reveal more. For the past couple of decades, it was common for him to select an Angus bull for first calf heifers. Holsteins breed large babies, and that birth can be rough for a younger cow. The crossbreeds made for some pretty good beef. I can absolutely see Wagyu providing similar benefits, and if they can improve revenue streams, many dairy farmers will be all over it (those willing to risk the investment, that is). Wholesale Milk prices are very unreliable, and in the past decade, most dairy farms have been operating at a loss. Our family farm has been in operation since 1882, and we stopped milking in March, just before the pandemic hit.

That's beauty! My concern about loin is the likelihood that the loin would be overcooked by the time the skin was rendered. This probably says more about my lack of experience and skill than it does anything else. I would happily pull my plate up to what you posted!

Why "skin-on" for a loin? Unless you have a specific intention for it, I would just remove the skin.

I do not think that it would be hard to move yourself out of competition with Lodge. Personally I have never liked Lodge's unmilled surface. That's why I use an old Griswold. In fact, I would say that the old cast iron at thrift stores and yard sales is the main competition for a good cast iron pan. Keep your wares accessible, market well, and I think you could have a shot.

Lizhou, I am not completely certain how eye catching these mixes are in person, but I find your pictures of them to be quite stunning!

Good catch. Watermelon rind pickles are a thing, and they are sweet. I am pretty sure dill is not involved.

Ha! I know that place! Only about 6 miles up the road. They make zounds of jellies. Some of them more interesting than others... I am tempted, but am making no promises yet...

It's been a good ten years since I had chickens, so the word of someone who has them now is good enough for me.

Reunion Baguette with country pate from The Staunton Grocery.

Your mention of double yolks makes me curious. In my chicken experience, double yolks are more likely to come from older hens (larger eggs too). I wonder if an older hen, who may be past her prime in number of eggs laid per day, may produce richer eggs. Pure speculation here, but I am curious.

Anna, that thread contains some serious gold. Excellent digging!

Until reading this thread, I used to think of myself as a fairly nonjudgmental person. Is that wrong? 😉