American Bresse

Description

Here at Crosshatch, we wouldn’t have a rainbow egg basket if we didn’t first have a commitment to heritage dual purpose breeds. Beyond the nutritional value of the wonderful egg, we’ve harvested and tabled quite a number of different dual purpose breeds at various ages and stages and I will say for certain that nothing compares to the American Bresse, a breed recently imported from France that is rumored to be the best tasting chicken in the world.

In France the Poulet de Bresse is sold in delis with its head and legs (as proof) for three figures per bird, where the meat can marble when finished traditionally on corn and raw whole milk. Here in the States some feel it may be the true answer to sustainable heritage meat options— the Bresse matures quickly, has a high meat to bone ratio, and lays plentiful pink to tan eggs by the time it reaches harvest at 14-17 weeks. This mean your culls are your food and your breeding pens can continue producing for years to come.

We’ve gotten accustomed to the fact that our heritage birds (Black Coper Marans mainly) just don’t table like the genetically monstrous Tyson Cornish cross our taste buds grew up on. They are phenomenal soup birds but the first time we served roasted roosters most of our gathered family didn’t eat them— the meat was too dark and too red to be recognized as chicken and they were out of their comfort zone. We weren’t sure Bresse could live up to our high hopes for a meat bird that is not a Cornish Cross (poor things) or a cross that can’t be maintained as a line on our farm (Rangers), but… oh, oh, oh. They did.

In the photos below, we rested a 17 week old male raised and harvested with love here at the redstead for five days dry in the fridge, filled with an onion and garlic and roasted at 425* for a few then dropped the temp for a long and slow 220* while going about our day’s chores, brushed with nothing but oil and sea salt. The pan sauce was thick as gravy and the breast is the single best white meat I’ve ever eaten.

Pictured in the main photo are two Bresse eggs in the center, each showing a bit on the pink bloom side, with bloomy purple black copper marans to the left and a BC1 backcross olive to the right.

Our line of Bresse comes to us through North Star Farms and you’ll be receiving the results of our first line breeding with their stock. We have set up pairs with excellent white earlobes, slate gray legs, balanced bodies, tight feathering and delicious meat— we will be loading every empty space in our incubators with them all year long. We’re excited to share some with you in the name of sustainable back yard and homestead food production!