I have always been a dark meat eater. I believe the leg is the best part of the chicken; it has it's own handle! As such, dark meat (legs and thighs) are generally the only chicken I buy. Last week, I went to Sam's Club to stock up on ingredients for Pub Week. I bought two packages of chicken, one dark and one white. The dark meat was a six pound package of legs at $1 per pound. The white meat was a seven pound package of split chicken breast. Having never bought white meat before, I was shocked to discover it was $2 per pound, double the price of the legs.
Why is this? Simply, the majority of Americans prefer the taste of white meat, so the demand is higher. This is also why a lot of dark meat gets exported to Russia and other countries. In particular, the most popular option seems to be the "boneless skinless breasts" which, at Sam's Club, come individually plastic wrapped. For some reason I find this a little disquieting. I went with the bulk packaged bone-in chicken.
Now in possession of several pounds of both kinds of chicken, you can expect to see all manner of poultry delights coming up on No Free Lunch.
I for one have always found dark meat chicken to be delicious, and more importantly, to resist drying out a great deal better than white. While I don't know where that particular feature comes from, here's a med school corollary to your post: DELICIOUS FOOD BIOLOGY! The dark meat takes on its characteristic color due to a higher intracellular density of 2 proteins: myoglobin (binds oxygen) and mitochondria (makes energy out of oxygen). That makes these the least fatiguable type of muscle in the body. People have dark meat too, we just mix it in with white meat fibers slightly more indiscriminately than chickens do. I don't know a good estimate for the differences in proportions between our species.
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm... chicken.
Glad to see the No Free Lunch community has such a wide knowledge base.
DeleteIf I had a car to drive to Sam's Club in and a freezer that wasn't already full of creepy dead fish, I would go and buy so much $1 and $2 per pound chicken.
ReplyDelete(I have also always preferred the dark meat, but I mostly buy white for my lunch sandwiches nowadays)