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Stewing Fowl


The Hersch

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Does anyone know of a food purveyor in the Washington area that is a dependable source of stewing hens (or cocks)? I've been living in exile in semi-rural North Carolina, and I have a butcher shop here that usually has old hens (and occasionally cocks), and these are among the vanishingly few things I'm going to miss when my exile ends in a couple of weeks. I've seen stewing hens at the Tenleytown Whole Foods maybe twice in all the years I've been shopping there. Does any place have them regularly? You can't beat them for making soup.

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Does anyone know of a food purveyor in the Washington area that is a dependable source of stewing hens (or cocks)? I've been living in exile in semi-rural North Carolina, and I have a butcher shop here that usually has old hens (and occasionally cocks), and these are among the vanishingly few things I'm going to miss when my exile ends in a couple of weeks. I've seen stewing hens at the Tenleytown Whole Foods maybe twice in all the years I've been shopping there. Does any place have them regularly? You can't beat them for making soup.

You might find them at Eastern Market.

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Dude. Go to a Latin Market -- we have a couple in Mt. Pleasant, if you're up that way. Look for what they call (Mrs. B, help me) a galena (pronounced guy-ee-na). Them are spme old chickens -- we use them for stock but keep saying that we need to make a good old coq au vain with one.

Probably not as fresh as the ones you got from a local butcher, but after a good long stewing, the difference will likely be less.

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Dude.  Go to a Latin Market -- we have a couple in Mt. Pleasant, if you're up that way.  Look for what they call (Mrs. B, help me) a galena (pronounced guy-ee-na). 

My online Spanish-English dictionary tells me it's "gallina", and thanks, that's an excellent suggestion. Although I live not very far from Mt. Pleasant, I don't know it at all well. Where would I find these markets, and is there one you'd recommend over another?

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I don't know their names. <_<

There are two Korean-owned, Latin-oriented, yuppie-serving gorcery stores (and a couple of other, even smaller places) on Mt. Pleasant St.. I refer to one of them -- next to the 7-11, between Kenyon and Kilbourne -- as "Our Store," because it's closest to our house and has a better selection of bad wine. The other one is just north, between Kilbourne and Lamont, and is known to me as "The Big Store," because it has five registers instead of two.

We usually hit the big store for gallina, thou I think they have it at the other store fairly often. If you're there, you might also look for some pork belly, fresh herbs (basil, thyme and rosemary) and fish, which is always much cheaper than Whole Foods but can be horrid or delightful depending on when it was delivered. Be foreward -- some more fastidious folk have found The Big Store a little dingy -- or maybe they're just put off by the salsa music. I think it's great though, if you know what to get there.

PS -- if you like mangos, they had some delicious little yellow ones for sale last time I was there. Same kind they sell at WF, but priced for buyers who don't have gold cards.

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Mmmmmm, pork belly. Thanks for the info. The local NC butcher where I get stewing hens is also an excellent source of fine pork belly. I figured I'd have to venture out into the suburbs to one of the big Asian markets to get it in/near Washington. Glad there's a closer source.

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Be foreward -- some more fastidious folk have found The Big Store a little dingy -- or maybe they're just put off by the salsa music.  I think it's great though, if you know what to get there. 

PS -- if you like mangos, they had some delicious little yellow ones for sale last time I was there.  Same kind they sell at WF, but priced for buyers who don't have gold cards.

Not a reference to me, I hope? I like salsa. My first visit was rather exciting since I felt that I was no longer in the United States.

I was put off by areas of the store that did not seem sanitary. Items in the produce department that did not move quickly looked sad, such as the otherwise cool, pudgy aloe leaves. The fish department scared me the most, and I therefore felt inhibited in front of the meat cases which nonetheless did have lots of interesting things that a gringa might find exotic: pig ears and curly tails and so forth. The range of dairy products was fantastic and there were quite a few packaged items that you could not find easily elsewhere, let alone at the price. FYI, there were no ancho chili peppers to be found--my goal since the ones at WF are ridiculously costly--so like any other store everything isn't always there. Dried beans galore. Cheap rice, chilies in adobe....

Here's the web site for the entire local region, including newer stores.

BTW: I bought those little champagne mangoes at 3 for $2 at WF on sale. Magruder's sometimes has better deals.

Postscript regarding initial inquiry: I second Al Dente's recommendation, but advise calling ahead. I was pleased with capons purchased at much better price than at WF, fresh vs. frozen.

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Not a reference to me, I hope?  I like salsa.  My first visit was rather exciting since I felt that I was no longer in the United States. 

I was put off by areas of the store that did not seem sanitary.  Items in the produce department that did not move quickly looked sad, such as the otherwise cool, pudgy aloe leaves.  The fish department scared me the most, and I therefore felt inhibited in front of the meat cases which nonetheless did have lots of interesting things that a gringa might find exotic: pig ears and curly tails and so forth. The range of dairy products was fantastic and there were quite a few packaged items that you could not find easily elsewhere, let alone at the price.  FYI, there were no ancho chili peppers to be found--my goal since the ones at WF are ridiculously costly--so like any other store everything isn't always there.  Dried beans galore.  Cheap rice, chilies in adobe....

Here's the web site for the entire local region, including newer stores.

BTW: I bought those little champagne mangoes at 3 for $2 at WF on sale.  Magruder's sometimes has better deals.

Postscript regarding initial inquiry:  I second Al Dente's recommendation, but advise calling ahead. I was pleased with capons purchased at much better price than at WF, fresh vs. frozen.

A reference not to you but to a couple of whining yuppies who should move back to their gated communities, who posted in the Mt. Pleasant newsletter -- and an admission that, on first glance, the store can seem a little, ahem, off-putting.

The fish can indeed be a bit scary, but we've bought excellent snapper, rockfish and even clams there several times without ill-effect. A person not confident in their fish selection skills, however, might be wise to shop elsewhere.

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A reference not to you but to a couple of whining yuppies who should move back to their gated communities, who posted in the Mt. Pleasant newsletter -- and an admission that, on first glance, the store can seem a little, ahem, off-putting.

The fish can indeed be a bit scary, but we've bought excellent snapper, rockfish and even clams there several times without ill-effect.  A person not confident in their fish selection skills, however, might be wise to shop elsewhere.

Stewing hens are available at both poultry vendors at Eastern market as well as the organic meat vendor at the Del Ray farmers market. The market should start up on Saturday. I can vouch for the stewing hens from both places. They make great chichen and dumplings.

If you haven't cooked a stewing hen you should. You will be amazed at the flavor.

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This morning at Bethesda WF I bought a bird labelled "Eberly Fowl for Slow Cooking or Stewing". When I asked just what kind of fowl (though I knew it was a chicken), the employee was unable to tell me anything (eg, hen or cock), other than to confirm it was an older chicken with a stronger flavor.

Don't know if this helps. After I finish making stock today I'll let you know how it tastes.

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Does the Bethesda WF carry these regularly? As I mentioned in my original post, the Tenleytown WF has them, but only once in a blue moon, and a stewing fowl is not a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. As to the hen/cock distinction: I don't know if my experience is typical, but the hens I've cooked have had quite a lot of fat in them, whereas the one cock I've had, after about four hours of simmering, had rendered out AT MOST a half teaspoon of fat. My intuition is that the cock was a much older bird than the hens, which might account for the difference more than the sex would, but I don't actually know.

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If you call up WF or Balduccis, you can usually have them order numerous different birds. One day + lead time.

I heard a cute recipe in Hawaii about eating Roosters. Place the Roosters and some rocks in a pressure cooker for about 2 hours, take out the rooster and eat the rocks! : )~

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I finally made it to the Bestway (Waitman's "Big Store") in Mt. Pleasant today, and bought a six-pound old hen. For the record, it was labeled, not "gallina", but "FRESH CHICKEN FOWL". It is now bubbling away in the stock pot, although since it got up to the simmer only about twenty minutes ago it has a long way still to go. Far from being put off by the fish counter, I found it quite appealing. I like the fact that you can inspect and select your fish yourself--they're lying in tubs of crushed ice on the customer side of the counter, and you pick out what you want and put it in a smaller tub and give it to the counter people to weigh and clean. So you can smell it and examine the eyes and gills before you decide to buy. The drawback is that it's a tiny little space with many eager customers. At any rate I bought a couple of beautiful, obviously nice and fresh, little Boston mackerel for tonight's dinner. Among my favorite fishes, these were a lovely $2.49 a pound, which is practically free. The store is certainly very cramped, dingy, and crowded, but lots of fun. Thanks for turning me on to it.

ETA: The fowl was $0.99 a pound.

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