Have you ever taste Capon? To me, it's the best chicken dish I ever tasted!
I only tasted it once during CNY with my uncle. In chinese words, they call this 阉鸡 (Capon). I don't really know what's the different between normal chicken and capon until but it's definitely taste better. They tend to have more tender, flavorful flesh as well as a higher fat content.
After doing some research through the internet, I just know that a capon is a rooster that has been castrated to improve the quality of its flesh for food. the process of turniing a rooster into a capon is known as 'caponication'.
Caponication happens between 6 and 20 weeks of age, depending on the producer and the chicken breed. Heritage chicken producers remove the testes of the cockerel surgically.
As a result of caponization, a capon becomes much more mellow, losing the aggression commonly associated with roosters. This makes capons easier to handle and also changes the way in which their meat matures. Capons have more tender, fatty flesh because they are not as active as roostes are. The also tend to taste less gamy, because they do not develop sex hormones, which can impact the flavor of the flesh.
In the kitchen, roast capon is moist, flavorful and very tender since the flesh starts out tender and the higher fat content acts as natural basting agent. A high quality capon has a dramatically different flavor than traditional roast chicken.
Unfortunately, the industrialization of meat production has made capons rare. Chicken breeds raised for meat are engineered to mature quickly, so that they can be sent to market in as little as five weeks. This rapid development has an impact on overall flavor and quality of the meat which most consumers are not even aware of because they have never tasted more naturally raised meat.
Oh... I just miss the taste of Capon again................ ><
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