When cracking an egg, always do it against a flat surface. When you crack it against an edge (like the side of a bowl), it may drive pieces of shell up into the egg that you'll only have to spend time digging out.
To determine the freshness of an egg, place it in the bottom of a large container of water. If it lies flat, it is very fresh. As the egg gets older, will tip up on one end. An old egg will float (and many people will tell you not to eat a "floater"). This works because there is an air cell inside the egg that increases in size as the egg ages, making it more buoyant.
It is easy to peel sto
re-bought eggs that have been hardboiled because they have aged. Not so fresh-from-the-farm eggs. When peeling these hardboiled, the white tends to stick to the shell. To get around this, try adding a 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil and a pinch of salt to the water before boiling the eggs - the same trick you use to keep pasta from sticking.
While chickens can be tamed to an extent (some people even keep chickens in the house, putting them in specially made diapers), this author doesn't recommend taming roosters other than to establish yourself as the overall boss of the barnyard. As birds come, go, and age, the pecking order changes, creating a situation in which a "trusted" rooster may suddenly and inexplicably attack a trusting keeper. Keeping one's emotional distance from a roo will prevent wounds and an early appointment with the stew pot.
Many chicken owners remove the spurs from the legs of their roosters (this is a simple procedure to perform if you know how to do it, analogous to trimming your fingernails). They claim that it makes the process of mating easier on the hens (I agree with this), and makes it safer for people to be around them (here I disagree - here are my reasons for not taming roosters). The main reason I leave the spurs on my roosters is because one of their jobs is to protect the hens from possible predators, and the spurs are one of their primary weapons. Having had a rooster killed saving a hen from a number of stray dogs, I would never deny them any of their means of performing their duties.
Why do people often compare the taste of an unusual or exotic meat to chicken? Why is the phrase "It tastes like chicken" heard so often spoken? The answer is quite simple - the meat they are sampling actually does resemble chicken in taste and texture. The reason for this is that distinctively flavored meats like beef and pork have a high fat content (called "marbling" in food circles) - and fat is where the flavoring of meat comes from. Chicken meat, on the other hand is quite lean. Lean meats tend not to have a distinctive taste because of the lack of fat in the muscle tissue. This is why squirrel, rattlesnake, rabbit, et. al, "taste like chicken." There is not enough fat in these meats to give it a characteristic taste.
Which came first - the chicken or the egg? According to Genesis 1:20 - 22, the chicken did:
20And God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."
21So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."
