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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

Brown meat is much much more delicious; why would anyone prefer white meat is beyond me.

And the irony is that, in buying "heavy breasted chicken", customers pay for something they can't consume (assuming chicken is priced by the pound in the US).

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This is true, in Ukraine we called imported chicken legs "Bush's drumsticks" (referring to Bush Sr.)

This is because legs are not in as much demand in the US, so they would rather export them to countries where they are in demand!

I'm afraid you're mistaken. It's because Bush organized humanitarian help to post-USSR countries in tge early 90s, which risked hunger because of the awful economic conditions.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%BE%D0%B6%D0%BA%D0%B8...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_legs

Thanks for the prooflink.

Hmm. Thinking about it, I mostly don't use drumsticks because for a sauté they're a bit more of a pain to cook vs flatter variants.

America is the only country I've ever been to where white meat cost more than dark meat.

For me it was an early lesson I learned in cooking, thinking I was improving a recipe by using breast when a recipe called for thigh simply because skinless boneless breast was more expensive.

>>America is the only country I've ever been to where white meat cost more than dark meat

This is because legs and thighs are fatty, and Americans have come to associate animal fat with health problems. White meat is leaner, and is therefore perceived to be healthier and more expensive.

It's a great example of the power of marketing.

Not just health problems really - it just tastes gross, a much less pleasant texture and consistent flavor.

Especially when prepared in a sandwich or in chicken nuggets the white meat is much nicer - chicken nuggets the ooze fat and leave your mouth and hands greasy have horrified me too much.

Fat is what gives meat most of its flavor. We aren't talking about deep frying as in your chicken nuggets example. We're talking about fat that is naturally on the meat.

Not talking deep frying either, I don't deep fry nuggets. Dark meat gives it a bad, inconsistent texture and taste and a generally greasy feeling in your mouth even when eaten on its own. If you like that, you go right ahead, but I'll stick to the white meat - it makes sense that it's priced more to me since it may not be more flavourful, but it's more versatile and more pallatable. No marketing needed - it's just better.

White meat I agree is better in chicken tenders and nuggets. But dark meat is tastier in nearly all other dishes in my opinion. Chicken Kiev is the only other dish I can think of where dark meat isn't an improvement

I like the taste (or maybe it's the lack there of) of white poultry meat more than dark; a lot more.

Ditto. White meat has a texture that I enjoy. Thighs taste snappy to me and it weird me out.

> Brown meat is much much more delicious; why would anyone prefer white meat is beyond me.

Colon cancer?

Because red meat is much more expensive, especially if you want a good cut.

Chicken for example does not have fat or any obnoxious connective tissue, no matter what cut you get.

Have you ever seen chicken thighs? They are very fatty,you usually need to trim it off before cooking. Breasts aren't, but chicken has more edible parts than just breasts.

They are fatty, but it's fat you can eat (do you remove it when you roast a whole chicken?)

Compare that to the fat of most parts of the pork, which is usually so tough you can't chew it (so you have to remove it with a knife as you eat it) or to a veal, which sometimes has that yellowish fat that even tastes acidic. It's awful.

Slow cooking makes most fat _very_ edible.

They're called "red meats" and while i agree with you that white meats are generally tastier, some dishes lend themselves better to white meats than red.

Brown/dark meat refers to the leg, thigh, etc.

I did not know that. Thank you for the correction.

'Red meat' generally refers to beef (as well as sheep and some game) in the US.

'White meat' is chicken, which comes in two varieties: white breast meat and dark wings and legs.

'The other white meat' is pork. The 'ultimate white meat' is lobster, although I'm not sure how that court case came out.

Yeah, I know what red and white meats are. They're pretty common terms which I'd expect most people to be aware of. It was "brown meat" which I was oblivious to. It's possibly not a term commonly used in the UK (or if it is then I've clearly lived in a cave most of my life :))

Maybe because studies in the past two years suggest that red meat is actually quite dangerous with frequent consumption.

Brown meat refers to poultry's legs, it's different from red meat (beef). I'm not aware of any study that shows brown meat to be more dangerous than chicken breasts?

Humans and many other animals have been eating meat for billions of man-years (this is a software site after all), I kinda doubt "actually quite dangerous" is a fitting description. Bungee-jumping without a rope is "actually quite dangerous", for example.

they might be talking about antibiotics in the meat, which wasnt a problem until recently

Funny. In Germany if you say "antibiotics in meat" most people will think of poultry.

No they haven't. Red meat is not dangerous. Cooking red meat the way Americans tend to (disgustingly fried everything) is, but disgustingly frying anything is bad for you.

People fry red meat ?!

I have spent much time in the US, but I think I have never seen that...in restaurants at least. And I'm kinda glad I didn't.

I've lived in Japan for my entire adult life and we cook meats either in a frypan or a wok. Do you roast it in the oven or something?

They're referring to deep frying, rather than pan frying.

Slightly OT, but Is this a language thing? In the UK frying in this context means in a flat frying pan with a very small coating of oil. This is perfectly normal for a steak. Deep fat frying, where the meat would be submerged in hot oil would be out of the ordinary.

Have you ever had a hamburger...?

It's not as common, but yes. One example found in Southern cuisine / Texas / etc. is called either chicken fried steak or country fried steak. Although often pan fried, some restaurants deep fry them.

With mashed potatoes and white gravy[1], it's delicious, too.

[1] People who put brown gravy on chicken fried steak are heretics who should be deep fried themselves.

Fried is not the primary manner in which Americans consume red meat, I like how you got the anti-American attack in there though.

Red meat is, according to WHO, a probable carcinogen, although the increased risk is quite small.

Literally everything is a fucking carcinogen.

> Literally everything is a fucking carcinogen

> > Red meat is not dangerous.

Pick one.

Are you trying to imply you were using the meaningless definition of 'dangerous', and not the "notable risk" definition?

Because "might be a carcinogen along with basically every substance" only proves the former.

The WHO said that red meat is probably a carcinogen, and that processed red meat is definitely a carcinogen.

But the amount of cancer they cause is quite small.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/10October/Pages/Processed-meat-c...

> A key statistic provided by the infographic is that if everyone stopped smoking, there would be 64,500 fewer cases of cancer a year in the UK, compared with 8,800 fewer cases if everyone stopped eating processed or red meat.

This is for a country with a population of 60m to 70m people.

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