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Devon Life
Tuesday 1 January 2008
By his own admission, Andrew Maunder of Lloyd Maunder knows more about chickens than is probably good for any one man. Including no doubt, if pressed (and not very hard, I suspect), the answer to the perennial question; ‘why did the chicken cross the road?' If it had any sense at all – and chickens are not renowned for their cognitive ability – it would be to escape the battery and ensconce itself in Andrew's high welfare chicken rearing system where the birds live a happy life, albeit a short one, doing what chickens do best: digging, scratching in the dirt and running about. They even have footballs and CDs to keep them occupied. “Not that they're going to have a quick game of five-a-side or boogie on out,” Andrew said, “but they do like to peck at them.” It's a case of full circle for Lloyd Maunder so far as chicken raising goes. They were the first company to introduce large scale chicken rearing in this country 50 years ago in conditions that might have been acceptable then but are totally unacceptable now. Today, Lloyd Maunder's Devonshire Red chickens are to extremely high welfare standards for three specific markets: Free range, where the birds are free to roam in grassy tree-shaded paddocks during daylight hours in a healthy stress-free environment; Corn Fed reared indoors to RSPCA's Freedom Food standards in a stimulating environment – with toys; and Organic, reared to The Soil Association's stringent standards roaming freely by day in large organic fields and housed in mobile chicken arks at night. The Devonshire Red is a slow-growing breed that has the opportunity to mature to full succulence before processing in a highly efficient and humane manner to arrive at the kitchen table. But what do you do with it once it's there?
That was the purpose of my meeting with Andrew. In company with a dozen or so other people I was attending the first of a series of Master Classes put on by the company in association with Michelin starred chef, Mark Dodson, at his restaurant at the 13th century Mason's Arms in Knowstone, near Tiverton. Called “Maximum Taste: Minimum Waste”, the Master Class was intended to show how the whole of a chicken could be used to best effect with the minimum amount of wastage. After a highly entertaining – and interesting - introduction by Andrew Maunder, the participants were split into two alternating groups: one to see how to joint a chicken with Lloyd Maunder's Development Manager, Chef Paul Watkins, and the other to see what to do with it once it had been prepared. Key to much of the process, we found, was a really sharp knife. “More accidents are caused by blunt knives than by sharp ones,” Paul was keen to impress on us and proceeded to prove the point by failing to nick any part of his anatomy whilst dismembering a number of birds in front of us. Anatomy is another key point to take into consideration – there are natural points of a chicken's anatomy which lend themselves to easy jointing and it is just a matter of practice to identify and utilise them to make the process easier.
Afterwards (having gone out immediately to purchase a decent knife and sharpener) I tried the techniques at home on just a medium sized chicken and was absolutely amazed at the size of the breast that I was able to liberate from the carcase. Shop-bought chicken breasts can't utilise half the meat there is to obtain – and at much the same price as a whole chicken. Just one breast would have sufficed for two people and, in all, I reckoned that I could have got three roasts, one (possibly two) stir fries and (had the pan not boiled dry when I turned my back for a split second) a decent chicken stock or soup out of the bones. Fourteen servings out of one chicken is certainly making the most of it.
There are more ways of cooking a chicken than there are of skinning the proverbial, because it is so versatile, and Mark later showed us just a few. With a stock pot bubbling away in the background he showed us the best way to carve a bird – and that involved cutting away the whole breast rather than slices, later to be cut thickly on the bias – and a very simple dish of Chicken with Cider Sauce. Simple it may have been, but presentation when it later reached the table (and there was a two course lunch included in the price) was out of this world. Again, that was reproduced at home that weekend – even down to the wafer-thin carrots and courgettes - and very well received it was too.
I had never been on a cookery Master Class before, but with an appetite well and truly whetted, it probably won't be too long before I go on another because this was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion, presented in an entertaining and informative manner in superb surroundings. Supermarket chicken breasts? Not for me any longer. Give me a sharp knife, a Devonshire Red, a glass of wine and Clapton blaring out above the bubbling of the stock pot and I'm a happy man!