[Sca-cooks] Chicken feet...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Oct 7, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Tara Sersen Boroson wrote:

> ... in stock.  Scald and peel or throw in as they are?
>
> I've always thrown them in as they are.  But there was a discussion  
> on a
> traditional foods forum on the subject, and people seemed to be  
> split on
> the issue, with perhaps a slight majority leaning toward scalding and
> peeling.  What do you wise people say?

Do wise guys count?

> Some of the folks in the peel camp were proclaiming, "The chickens  
> walk
> around in shit."  I argued that the feet are already scalded with the
> rest of the bird before plucking, then agitated greatly in the  
> electric
> plucker, so they're as clean as they're gonna get.

I agree, more or less. Sometimes I see chicken feet with little  
scraps of papery snake-skin-looking stuff, which I just pinch off  
with my fingers. Many people like to trim off any claws that may be  
there, but that's probably if you're eating the chicken feet, say in  
"garbage", or steamed with black bean sauce for dim sum.

For the stock pot, hey, protein is protein, and if you're going all  
classical, yes, all the meats and bones sometimes get a blanching,  
and it wouldn't hurt here, either, but it's brought to a boil and  
simmered for hours anyway, so for most purposes it's probably not  
really necessary. No chicken-toe cooties are going to survive.

>   People argued that
> they were gross, with their callouses and stuff.  Well, are callouses
> going to affect the final product?  I doubt it.  Just strikes me as a
> huge expense of time when I don't see much benefit.

For the most part, I'd agree.

Adamantius