Costco

[Smithy]

6 minutes ago, kayb said:

I entertain myself with seeing how many meals for two I can gin up from a rottissererie chicken. My record is five, plus six pints of stock.

 

That's pretty close to what my best friends do. One dinner (chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes and a salad), then the rest of the meat gets pulled off and put into containers to be used in other meals. The skin and bones all go into the broth pot. I think they've said 5 meals also, all told. 

[lemniscate]

I avoid eating the white meat off almost any kind of chicken/fowl.  I'm a dark meat only eater.   And I eat the skin.   My family eats the white, which to me is quite salty.   I also hoard the carcass bones in a freezer bag and do the IP all day stock method.   

 

Nobody better touch the oysters on the chicken, those are mine.   It's a hard fast house rule.

 

But we've not bought as many rotisserie chickens this year because I'm cooking out of the freezer mainly.

[ElsieD]

5 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

I avoid eating the white meat off almost any kind of chicken/fowl.  I'm a dark meat only eater.   And I eat the skin.   My family eats the white, which to me is quite salty.   I also hoard the carcass bones in a freezer bag and do the IP all day stock method.   

 

Nobody better touch the oysters on the chicken, those are mine.   It's a hard fast house rule.

 

But we've not bought as many rotisserie chickens this year because I'm cooking out of the freezer mainly.

What is the IP all day stock method?  I have a stash of frozen chicken carcasses and bits and pieces I need to do something with.

[kayb]

8 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

What is the IP all day stock method?  I have a stash of frozen chicken carcasses and bits and pieces I need to do something with.

I throw mt carcasses in the IP with a quartered onion and a couple of carrots cut in chunks, water up to the max fill line. Pressure cook for 90 minutes, then when you think of it, turn it off and set for another 90 minutes. Then it can sit on “keep warm” until you’re ready to parcel it out in containers and freeze it.

 

I have a small colander that fits perfectly in my 6 qt IP, and I put all the solids in that. Makes it easy to lift out, leaving the stock, that I can then ladle into containers for the freezer.

[lemniscate]

12 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

What is the IP all day stock method?  I have a stash of frozen chicken carcasses and bits and pieces I need to do something with.

 

I set the soup setting to 240 min.   Let it go that long and then do it again.   I get very gelatinized stock from super long bone cooks.   I also hoard veg scraps and toss them in too.

 

The reason I was doing this is I wanted the bones to soften.  I was blending those into a paste and making my dog biscuits with it.   I don't have that dog any longer so I bury the bones in my garden soil now.   Eventually I will get another dog..............

[heidih]

Wow lotta cook time. I figure it is a cooked carcass. Into a pot with minimal water. Nothing else. maybe hour or 2. I get chicken jello to use as needed. Flavor per dish.

[rotuts]

although not a CostCo

 

I do chicken / turkey carcass the same way :

 

I like to leave little room between carcass bits as possible 

 

thus chop up the concave carcass so that its a little flatter 

 

why ?

 

less water to the fill line , as the bones , all of them are closer together .

 

30 min HP ,  release , but you can wait if you have other things to do .

 

20 minutes does not seem long enough for the meat to easily fall off the bones 

 

w a stir and ' swish ' ( to get the meat off the bones  ) w a potato masher .

 

the old fashioned kind.

 

take out all the bones . discard .

 

using that potato masher , mash up the meat  , it becomes finely shredded w little effort

 

10 - 15 more minutes , HP .   release .

 

remove the meat , and ' strain '  w some pressure to re lease all the juice .

 

discard .  its tasteless .  Dogs love it as a ' treat ' addition to their dinner

 

because they will eat anything they see yoy making for them

 

cool , defat , freeze in bricks .

 

if you have more bones to do , use the same just done stock ,

 

doing the same thing as before , and you now will have 2X bricks .

 

if you are using ' seasoned ' carcass , its possible the seasoning  / salt content

 

will be higher than you like , so , use less of the brick , or dilute.

 

no need to dilute 4X  stock from a carcass that was deboned 

 

w/o seasoning .    you can roast that carcass ' plain '

 

and get a roasted ' brick '

[weinoo]

2 hours ago, kayb said:

I entertain myself with seeing how many meals for two I can gin up from a rottissererie chicken. My record is five, plus six pints of stock.

 

 

[scott123]

8 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I'm pretty sure they inject the chicken with the brine, as opposed to just letting the chicken rest in a brine for like 24 hours.

 

 

 

When I first read this, my first thought was "is there even equipment that can inject a whole chicken?" Apparently, there is.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gI1rBVSWn8

 

This being said, I'm very sensitive to salt, and I don't detect any noticeable saltiness in the meat, just the skin.  I'll concede that it's not the same thing as a fresh unbrined chicken that you've cooked yourself, but, it's exponentially closer to that than deli chicken/turkey.

[weinoo]

5 minutes ago, scott123 said:

 

When I first read this, my first thought was "is there even equipment that can inject a whole chicken?" Apparently, there is.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gI1rBVSWn8

 

This being said, I'm very sensitive to salt, and I don't detect any noticeable saltiness in the meat, just the skin.  I'll concede that it's not the same thing as a fresh unbrined chicken that you've cooked yourself, but, it's exponentially closer to that than deli chicken/turkey.

 

My thought was that it's just much faster, and disperses the brine throughout the bird to a greater degree, than dunking the bird in a salt water bath for a day.

 

But, after seeing that video, yikes!  I wonder how much weight the bird puts on in that machine.

 

Also, if you're the person manning the machine, don't fall in.

Edited July 8, 2023 by weinoo (log)

[scott123]

21 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Also, if you're the person manning the machine, don't fall in.

If they haven't put one of these in a horror flick, they certainly should

After watching the video again... I want one of these machines.  Imagining being able to brine any meat instantly.  I have a jaccard device, but this would be way better than that.

[rotuts]

its the salt content you consume 

 

not how it got there .

 

from the thread 

 

Costco seems to have almost 1.84 times the salt content

 

as Walmart's chicken.

[weinoo]

27 minutes ago, rotuts said:

its the salt content you consume 

 

not how it got there .

 

from the thread 

 

Costco seems to have almost 1.84 times the salt content

 

as Walmart's chicken.

 

That's true; but with brine injection, you're certain to get that salt content throughout the product.

[scott123]

39 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

That's true; but with brine injection, you're certain to get that salt content throughout the product.

 

Not to split too many hairs, but I think it's important to recognize that, beyond the brine injection, the chickens have a rub which contains salt, so there is a disparity between the salt in the meat and the salt in the skin. 

[palo]

2 hours ago, scott123 said:

 

Not to split too many hairs, but I think it's important to recognize that, beyond the brine injection, the chickens have a rub which contains salt, so there is a disparity between the salt in the meat and the salt in the skin. 

Which is why the skin tastes salty and the meat doesn't

 

p

[weinoo]

10 hours ago, palo said:

Which is why the skin tastes salty and the meat doesn't

 

p

 

Well, I'm guessing the meat doesn't taste salty compared to the skin.  I'd also wager that the meat tastes salty compared to an unbrined bird.

 

If there are 460 mg of sodium in a 3 oz. serving (which is probably not just skin, or maybe no skin), it's gotta taste a little salty unless someone's taste buds are dead.

[rotuts]

taste buds get acclimated to salt levels.

 

this is my theory and Im the Index in a study of One.

 

commercial levels of salt are relatively high

 

compared w salt levels of ' home cooking ' from fresh.

 

try a reduced salt ' chip'  and a regular chip.

 

if the regular chip reduced its salt content , no one would buy it.

 

Tj's has reduced salt vegetable chips.  they are quite good.

 

but they don't compare to the higher lever salted chips.

 

that's why 95 %  ( estate ) if chips are very salty .

 

economics of precessed salt.

 

you get used to thelevls of salt in processed food

 

and are disappointed when you don't get that ' zing '

Edited July 9, 2023 by rotuts (log)

[Maison Rustique]

And I am surprised to see the worker handling the raw chickens without gloves. I thought that was some sort of food safety requirement.

[Shel_B]

Host's note: this was originally a post titled "Have You Tried These Costco Products?"

 

If you have, what's your opinion on their quality, value, taste and flavor?

 

 

 

   

Edited June 29 by Smithy
Added host's note (log)

[Kim Shook]

23 hours ago, Shel_B said:

Host's note: this was originally a post titled "Have You Tried These Costco Products?"

 

If you have, what's your opinion on their quality, value, taste and flavor?

 

 

 

   

I do not claim to have the most delicate, discriminating palate, but I think the EVOO is very good.  I find it tasty enough to dip crusty bread into.  As far as the apple cider vinegar goes, I claim ignorance.  I buy the cheapest store brand of that and have always been satisfied with that.  My mother was a complete name brand shopper and always used either Heinz or White House and I never could taste the difference between those and my store brands.

 

[&roid]

On 6/28/2024 at 11:53 PM, Shel_B said:

Host's note: this was originally a post titled "Have You Tried These Costco Products?"

 

If you have, what's your opinion on their quality, value, taste and flavor?

 

 

 

   

I haven’t tried the EVOO but the cider vinegar is available this side of the pond too. Over here it’s VERY good value - like £1-2 a bottle from memory. It’s decent stuff, especially at that price. We use a lot of it. 
 

Out of interest, how much is it where you are?

[Shel_B]

1 hour ago, &roid said:

I haven’t tried the EVOO but the cider vinegar is available this side of the pond too. Over here it’s VERY good value - like £1-2 a bottle from memory. It’s decent stuff, especially at that price. We use a lot of it

Out of interest, how much is it where you are?

I don't know ... sorry.

[Kim Shook]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:31 AM, &roid said:

I haven’t tried the EVOO but the cider vinegar is available this side of the pond too. Over here it’s VERY good value - like £1-2 a bottle from memory. It’s decent stuff, especially at that price. We use a lot of it. 
 

Out of interest, how much is it where you are?

I'm in the US and tried to look.  I forgot the one thing I really dislike about Costco - their website only gives prices on delivery items.  So the only apple cider prices available were supplement gummies.  🙄 I have a Sam's card/membership through my church because I shop for them and the Sam's website gives you the in store pricing and delivery pricing.  For me, it's the only advantage Sam's has over Costco.  

[&roid]

7 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I'm in the US and tried to look.  I forgot the one thing I really dislike about Costco - their website only gives prices on delivery items.  So the only apple cider prices available were supplement gummies.  🙄 I have a Sam's card/membership through my church because I shop for them and the Sam's website gives you the in store pricing and delivery pricing.  For me, it's the only advantage Sam's has over Costco.  

They definitely don’t seem to like making price comparisons easy - I’m sure they even block my cellular data in store so I can’t check if things are good value!

[Kim Shook]

On 7/3/2024 at 2:22 AM, &roid said:

They definitely don’t seem to like making price comparisons easy - I’m sure they even block my cellular data in store so I can’t check if things are good value!

Yes!  And that's so weird - because when I do price check, they are usually competitive with Sam's and Amazon.