Advise needed.......CAPON FOR X-MAS

[tiger ranks]

has anybody eaten a capon i am thinking about trying one this x-mas (A capon is a rooster that has been castrated to improve the quality of its flesh for food)

many thanks

[ken78]

thay dont call them capons any more thanks to the eec the new name is large roasting capon style chicken

http://www.mettricksbutchers.co.uk/p10230/Large-Capon-Style-Chicken/product_info.html

[Giacomelli]

yes they still call them capons. I am getting mine from allens of mayfair.

[JahSE22]

There is a good Bucher in Holland Park Rd you won't miss it everyone knows.

[Dorothy]

We had a capon from William Rose for Christmas about 3 or 4 years ago. It was certainly called a capon then. It was really very good (much nicer than turkey imo, because less dry, but it does just taste like an exceptionally nice chicken). They have enormous thighs (think of cartoon roosters) which is great for people like me who like their meat on the bone. I will probably try and get the same this year.

[Burbage]

I ate (a bit of) one last Christmas that came from the butcher's opposite the Plough. It was just as Dorothy described.

[bonniebird]

I didn't know roosters had balls :-S

[Penguin68]

You will not be able to buy a capon as described - roosters are no longer actually castrated - instead they are 'caponized' which means chemical castration. That is why they are more honestly sold as 'capon style'. I am told that the chemically castrated roosters grow similarly and taste very similar to the old-style capon (which, like a child castrated before puberty tends to grow both large and fat) but I would prefer not to eat one myself.

[Loz]

Am I the only bloke shifting uncomfortably in his chair reading this?

[ed_pete]

Surely this is more Lounge suited, apart from being overtly middle class I'm not sure what it's specifically got to do with East Dulwich.

[Penguin68]

The value of a capon or capon-style bird is that, as it is 'built' so to say, over a chicken carcase a 6-8lb bird has a much better meat to skeleton ratio than a small turkey - hence better value. It is argued by many butchers that until you get a turkey over 10-11lbs, it is more bone than meat.

As to where in ED you can get this - any of the 'proper' butchers - Libretto, Wm Rose etc. can order one for you - most wouldn't carry them normally in stock, as the demand is small except at Christmas, when they would want orders anyway.

[ken78]

http://aylesbury.duckfarm.co.uk/richard/waller/capon read the link for the real name of the bird, all your REAL BUTCHERS should know the name for what thay are selling ,surely they are not lying to their customers.if so what else do thay lie about. makes you think dont it.

[zeban]

How vile. poor bloody rooster

[Huguenot]

It wouldn't be at all unusual for food retailers to try and pass off a poorer quality product as the real thing, I'm sure butchers are no different.

We're fortunate that the EEC has protected us from despicable charlatans trying to corrupt British products like Cornish clotted cream, Stilton, Cumberland Sausage, Plymouth Gin, Melton Mowbray pork pies and West Country Cheddar. Our kitchens and tastebuds are better for them.

To be a Capon, a chicken nees to be both surgically castrated and fattened for 77 days.

Butchers trying to pass off doctored meats and accellerated growth as a Capon should be put straight, and I imagine they and their wallets hate the thought of it.

[Annette Curtain]

Loz Wrote:

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> Am I the only bloke shifting uncomfortably in his

> chair reading this?

Hmmmmmm

Freaky bloody analogy.

Penguin, your a freak.

NETTE :-S

[ken78]

Huguenot Yesterday, 03:36PM

did you not read the link i put up

The word Capon is an old-fashioned term for a large chicken eaten at Christmas. The name is still applied by some of us in the trade, but the CORRECT TERM should be large Christmas chicken. It has been almost 40 years since caponizing was banned; chicken breeders then took on the challenge to develop a bird that would fill the void left and succeeded! Although slow grown we can now produce birds of 4 - 6.5kgs (8-14lbs) oven ready for Christmas. Chicken with taste

hope this explains THE RIGHT NAME for the bird

[ClareC]

zeban Wrote:

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> How vile. poor bloody rooster

I'm with you there!

[ken78]

thanks ClareC Today, 08:39AM

anyway just buy a turkey;-)

[Alex K]

Caponising was banned forty years ago? On a commercial basis only, perhaps? Guess we never got the memorandum. My dad had the kit in the shed: Find the proper spot on the body wall, in with it, turn and hook, pull out, cut, turn bird over, repeat. Bob's yer uncle. Maybe one out of ten of the cockerels we'd caponise died of this or that complication (it was before antibiotics in the water dish), but the capons 1) didn't fuss the neighbours with adolescent crowing competitions -- 2) were damned good eating. The corner butcher just a few shops along the parade in Nunhead from Soper's had a sign out offering to take orders for capons come Christmas. Maybe I'll head back there this week and put my name down for one.

[ken78]

Alex K you still not looking at the post.

The name is still applied by some of us in the trade, but the CORRECT TERM should be large Christmas chicken. It has been almost 40 years since caponizing was banned; chicken breeders then took on the challenge to develop a bird that would fill the void left and succeeded! Although slow grown we can now produce birds of 4 - 6.5kgs (8-14lbs) oven ready for Christmas. Chicken with taste

hope this explains THE RIGHT NAME for the bird

so what are you going to order A CAPON?? OR A LARGE CHRISTMAS CHICKEN ask the butcher he should know if not go to a butcher who knows his trade.or a SUPERMARKET THEY KNOW THE NAME. have a look

[Alex K]

Hmmm! Thanks, Ken -- the butchers on Evelina Road had "capon", large as life and twice as natural, on their little outside sign. Maybe they get them in from France, will have to enquire. **grin**

I reckon they know their customers (like me) and have given up on re-educating them as a hopeless effort, wastes-the-butchers'-time-and-irritates-the-pig sort of endeavour. Therefore sagging back into "capon". Or perhaps simply not interested in buying a signboard that can accommodate all those words?

If no true capon, then "large Christmas chicken". Good to know.

Either way NOM NOM NOM NOM.

[ken78]

VERY RUDE OF Alex K you did not read the post on the net or are the net wrong and your so CALLED BUTCHER wrong or right ??? i know as i am a butcher for a lot of years now and i do know the NAME of what i sell unlike some, its just a case of telling the truth you dont have to lie to your customers or DO YOU.ps you can buy a signboard that says what ever you want it to say.

[Jeremy]

Hey Ken - any idea where I can buy a Capon this Christmas?

[ken78]

why not try Alex K he knows all the answers (?)

[Alex K]

Oh, my. Ken, I've given offence when I had no intention of doing so. I'm sure that you are correct. I went only by what was signboarded, and I expect -- although I haven't asked them yet -- that what the Nunhead butchers last week-end signboarded as "capon" is nothing of the sort.

Please accept my apology. It is sincerely offered, and I am very sorry to have displeased you. I did not mean to cast any doubt on what you have told us.

**edited for syntax**