Donna wrote:

> Is it just me, or does chicken today really not taste as good as it did,
> say, 30 years ago?

Probably not as good, and for the same reason that veal isn't as
strongly flavored as beef. If you're buying supermarket chicken, it's
a very different critter than was being sold back in the day. Chickens
were killed at around 12 weeks back then. They had fully calcified
bones and fully developed muscle tissue. Nowadays, they're killed
around 6 weeks because they've been bred to grow fuller, faster. And
they've been shot up with stuff not found in nature.

That's why there's redness at the bones when there didn't used to be
at the same temperatures. The bones are porous because they're so
young. The heme literally soaks through the bone and stains the flesh.
The old rule "pink chicken isn't cooked" no longer applies. Only a
thermometer will tell you the truth.

Pastorio