Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>jmcquown wrote:
>>sf wrote:
>>>Dave Smith wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have never seen different sized birds offered in the same store here,
>>>> though some stores tend to use larger birds than the others. FWIW, I
>>>> like to do them on the rotisserie on my gas grill and I buy the birds at
>>>> the store that cooks and sells the smallest rotisserie birds because I
>>>> like to do the small ones that are just enough for one generous portion
>>>> for each of us. They cook quickly and they are delicious.
>>>
>>> One Cornish Game Hen feeds the two of us!
>>>
>> Same here! But Cornish hens are not cheap.
>
>I make the on occasion more for presentation value than anything else.
>Nice, when you have dinner guests, to have a half bird on the plate
>instead of a hacked up chicken . Other than that, I'd just as well h
>ave a chicken, same flavor at 1/3 the price.

There's no reason for serving "hacked up" chicken, I usually disjoint
a whole bird and bake all its parts on a rack in a roasting pan,
everyone can have whichever part and all are nicely browned, none are
hacked up... or I'll roast a large chicken whole, which is just as
easy to carve neatly as a holiday turkey at table, or I'll carve it
all away from guests and place it attactively/garnished on a platter
for service. As to rock cornish game hens (just a small hybrid
chicken) I'm not fond of them, they consist primarily of bone and fat,
they may may make for an attractive presentation but they are messy to
eat and they contain very little that's edible (~6 ounces of meat at
best). They are typically sold in twos because that's what's intended
to feed two small portions although I will eat both and still be
hungry... if anyone is buying rock cornish game hens that one is two
servings then they are a vry small eater or it's NOT a true rock
cornish game hen, probably a broiler. About 50% of a raw chicken by
weight after cooking is waste... I consider a 6 pound roaster four
adult servings... there's about twice as much white as dark. For six
people I'll roast two 6 pound chickens, I like to serve enough so
there'll left overs, I don't like to run out. Left over chicken is
never wasted.
I don't remember ever serving guests rock cornish game hens, they are
pretentious and people leave hungry... a half is truly an appetizer,
albeit messy... most guests rather not have to play with their food in
public so most of the game hen is left on their plate wasted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_game_hen