
Some months back when the blog was in hiatus, a reader named Ben asked a question about fryers, roasters and broilers. I am ashamed to say that I did not respond. So my sincere apologies for the delay, Ben – this one’s for you.
Ben’s Question About Fryers, Broilers and Roasters
Hi, Really enjoyed this article! Could you elaborate on how those old-fashioned definitions of the various size/ages of chicken have changed today? For example, in Julia Child’s chicken fricassee recipe from 1964, she calls for a fryer (and her size/age chart matches yours almost exactly), but I’m wondering what the modern day equivalent would be. Thank you, Ben
Delaware Broiler Industry
Today’s supermarket chickens owe their start to a woman named Celia Steele, who lived in Ocean View, Delaware, in the 1920s. Most farmers in those days kept a flock specifically for eggs. Excess egg-laying chicks became fryers, broilers and roasters for the table. Celia’s plan was to raise 50 chickens to add to her flock of laying hens. Due to a hatchery error, she received 500 chicks. Along the theory of turning lemons into lemonade, she elected to raise them to a weight of 2 pounds and sell them as broilers. What Steele did differently was to build small coops (broiler houses) exclusively to raise multiple crops of broilers. Her innovation was so successful that by 1925 she was raising 10,000 broilers a year. Celia’s idea was soon commercialized and jump-started the broiler industry in the state of Delaware.
Making Broilers Profitable
Once the big commercial interests got in on the broiler act, the first thing they started looking for was a way to cut costs. The meat birds of the day did produce a hefty carcass, but they needed lots of food and a long growing period to do so. People started looking around for a bird that would grow much more quickly and thus need less feed. The Chicken of Tomorrow Contest, co-sponsored by American grocery chain A&P and the USDA, was the bright idea of some folks at A&P who were looking to improve their public persona after A&P’s 1945 conviction for criminal restraint of trade. The goal was to breed broiler chickens with more meat on their bones and a faster growth rate to decrease feed costs.
The Cornish Cross
Arbor Acres farm in Connecticut and Vantress Hatchery in California raised the winning birds in the 1948 contest. Eventually, the two were crossbred to produce the Cornish Cross, then further refined. By 1964, Arbor Acres was producing chickens faster than anyone in the world. Vantress had been bought out by Tyson. Chickens in the “Chicken of Tomorrow” contest lived an average of 16 weeks. Today’s Cornish Cross lives no longer than seven, and sometimes less. The birds have been bred into two strains. The Cobb 500 has a massive breast and round body similar to that of today’s Thanksgiving turkey. The Ross 308 is more balanced in terms of meat distribution and develops the body frame first before putting on weight.
Julia Child’s Fryer
Ben, Julia Child’s chicken in 1964 was probably one of the early versions of the Cornish Cross from Arbor Acres. In those days there were still some differences between fryers, broilers and roasters other than age. In a picture of carcasses laid side by side, those from the 1920s would probably look like the picture above. The 1964 picture would be somewhere in the middle. Today, whatever they are called at the grocery, meat chickens are basically all the same. Raise your own, or find a local poultry grower who is raising heritage chickens or crossbreds like the Freedom Ranger. Otherwise, the terms broiler, roaster and fryer don’t really mean anything today.