Legghorn

In 2019 I ran Feast Fairly where chefs in London created a dish that championed under-utilised foods and raised over £8,000 for the Refettorio Felix, a community kitchen in London. I was so excited to see small pullet eggs, salmon bellies and 'seconds' asparagus being enjoyed and making a difference to their producers but there was one ingredient I thought had the potential to make a massive impact, the Breeder hen. Breeder hens are the parents of the chickens we eat and their thighs, in particular, currently go to waste. Why? The meat is tough and the Breeders have been seen for their main purpose, to lay over 250 eggs that hatch into broilers. The meat has incredible flavour because they live to 60 weeks and the husbandry is excellent. Breeders are barn reared for biosecurity, as there is a high risk of diseases, such as Avian Flu. As a result the Breeder hens are antibiotic free and our Breeders are kept at the same indoor density as Free Range. The Breeder meat is a by-product of the broilers and has an extremely low carbon footprint. Our Leghorn mince is blended with the Breeder hen offal, making better use of vital resources and vastly improving the nutritional content. We are working with Noble Foods to bring Leghorn mince to Foodservice in partnership with a network of local and national wholesalers. Leghorn mince makes the perfect ragu, however we also have talented chefs using our mince in Koftas, Dumplings, Burgers, Meatballs, Kievs, Larb and much more. From Shuko Oda at Koya 'I made hen dumplings/meatballs with mince spring onion, ginger, sesame oil, seasoning etc And cooked them in dashi to make soup. It was delicious, really fluffy and light in texture.' Sam Bryant of Whole Beast 'The Mince is sensational!' Ryan Walker at Silo 'Tried a Ragu with it and that works very well as an alternative, flavour profile is very similar to the classic veal pork lamb & offal mix!' We made a kofta with it as well and it worked very well!'