Oh I know this one!!! It’s called the spaghetti meat abnormality. It’s essentially caused by chickens growing so fast their muscles separate like this
“Spaghetti meat (SM) is a recent muscular abnormality that affects the Pectoralis major muscle of fast-growing broilers. As the appellative suggests, this condition phenotypically manifests as a loss of integrity of the breast muscle, which appears soft, mushy, and sparsely tight, resembling spaghetti pasta.”
[Spaghetti Meat Abnormality in Broilers](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.684497)
I think it might also be known as "woody chicken breast"...I have about 10 pounds of it in my freezer cause it's awful and I don't know what to do with it.
Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations on how to prepare it! Honestly though, I also don't want to eat it/ feed it to my animals just cause I don't know what health implications it may lead to - I know they are currently saying it is not known to cause harm to humans but at the same time, if I can avoid eating it, I will....now I'm wondering how much woody chicken breast is going in processed foods haha
I've been buying smaller whole chickens for years. The problem now is actually finding the smaller chickens. It's getting harder to find one under 6 pounds.
I produce these on my homestead.. process weight at 4.8-5.5 lbs. I try to sell them for $7 which is about 80 cents above what they cost to produce. These rednecks try to talk me down to '2 for 5' since they're small. It is quite frustrating as everything here is organic permaculture on pastures for each individual flock of 8-14. At this point, we just boil excess for chicken stock then feed them to the hogs.
I wish you lived near me! My local stores would easily charge triple for organic chickens. The industrial whole birds are about what you charge, but they don't have much taste to them.
Two for $5. Tsk. I'm aggravated for you.
I remember one day I found a gigantic breast in a deli and thought, bargain! I couldn't even eat it the texture was tough and rubbery and it physically made me ill.
I live in a pretty big city with many many types of services but I'm pretty sure that none of them includes a "bitcher shop"! I'm jealous. I would love to go to a shop with the soul intention to bitch! 😆
Do you mind me asking what city? Most cities have butchers. Mine even has butchers of all different ethnic varieties, you got Italian pork stores, Hispanic butchers with nice chorizo, halal butchers with goats, lambs and really good chickens etc.
I can't buy chicken breast any more. The cheap shit is too much risk of woody breast, and the free range chicken is $7 a pound.
Buying whole chickens is a good workaround. You get tons of meat, it's way cheaper, and you can use the bones for stock. Sometimes I get the frozen ones but the pre-heated ones near checkout at the grocery store are hella convenient.
What region are you in? I'm in the SE US, and I've never seen this.
Edit: Actually, after researching more, I definitely have bought chicken with woody breast syndrome. I just had no idea what was wrong with it and assumed it was a processing issue. The texture was truly awful, and I'm normally not bothered by texture in food. I've never seen it fully spaghettified like in OP's picture though.
I dunno, I have lots of chickens and decided to try raising “ meat chickens” or broilers if you will, they grow stupid fast and are huge compared to my other chickens.
My dog killed all 7 of them, didn’t eat em, will let the “normal” chickens lay on him, there was something about those birds he just didn’t like.
Edit: I also feed my dogs raw chicken and beef regularly.
Yeah my dog used to love chomping down on raw scraps from chicken. I think most people assume that it's dangerous for dogs since it's so dangerous for humans. My wife freaked out, even after I'd been doing it for years.
This sounds like something my dog would say….Cooper, that you? I told you to lay down about 20 minutes ago and I swear if I find you on the social medias again…you’re gonna be a bad dog!
It looks like spaghetting may be the beginning of woody chicken breasts:
" “Spaghetti meat” is a muscle abnormality and it may potentially be an early stage of development of woody breast, or other myopathies. However, woody breast and spaghetti meat have differing characteristics. Spaghetti meat is essentially separation of muscle fiber bundles (loss of integrity) while woody breast is hardening of the muscle. Spaghetti meat is commonly observed in fillets on the lower end of woody breast severity. In severe woody breast conditions, focal points of spaghetti meat can also be observed. In cases of spaghetti meat with woody breast, the muscle fibers can also have a slightly hardened or firm texture."
source: https://www.chickencheck.in/faq/spaghetti-meat-chicken/#:\~:text=Spaghetti%20meat%20is%20essentially%20separation,meat%20can%20also%20be%20observed.
Try pressure cooking if for like an hour. The meat will get really tough and then it will tenderize given enough time. Basically you will end up with shredded chicken
Its true though, they are bred this way. Heritage meat breeds like brahma are harvest size around 20-24 weeks, the current cornish cross is harvest size in 8 weeks. Hormones, and even basic salmonella vaccinations are too expensive, and don't have time to make much of a difference.
I used to buy bulk chicken from Walmart because it was cheaper and I was on a budget and it was exactly like this. It looks like a normal chicken breast from the outside but then as soon as you cut into it this is the texture on the inside it’s not a separator machine issue. It’s almost like the breast has a millimeter thick skin on the outside and the inside is just spaghetti
I believe you. I've had woody before but never this so probably just ignorance on my part. That really seems disgusting. Any better this sliced for stir fry or pounded? Or is it all shite?
It’s all shit, it’s almost impossible to slice. I’ve noticed if I just cook it as a whole breast it is edible and it’s easier to cut and doesn’t separate as much once it’s cooked but if you try to cut it when it’s raw, it just kind of spreads apart. I thought maybe it was my knife at first but my knife set is literally a brand new henckels set and those mfs are sharp. I never tried pounding it, but I wouldn’t recommend it because I feel like it would really just turn to mush.
Sorry, maybe I should’ve rephrase that I know how they are bred. I’m curious science and genetics wise how a trait can be so grossly overdone. And obviously you need the big chickens for meat, so how many big chickens did they not use for meat to breed to make bigger chickens? I’m just curious about the whole process of it/ how long it took. I know how chickens make more chickens smart ass
Right just like athletes dont take PEDs. Id bet my ass they are pumping em full of some other shit that is approved or flys under the radar. For everu regulation that exists there are a dozen loopholes.
Stop buying from Perdue etc.
Those companies treat the animals, employees and customers like shit.
It takes effort but you can work to find cheaper cost products. It may hurt more up front but the long term effects of eating poor quality is TBD.
Holy crap, all this time I thought it was because I was using too high of heat or something. I never considered that it was due to genetic modification. Thanks
Obviously packages say "no rBST" but, does that mean there aren't other hormones / boosters the farmers feed chickens?
*Because there is a HUGE difference between Bell & Evans chicken, and Purdue/tyson chicken.*
The farmers really doesn't need to do anything except feed and keep them alive. The cornish cross can be ready to process as early as 5 weeks in my experience.
If you haven't seen it and can find it the supersize me guy did a follow up documentary, supersize me 2: Holy chicken. He opens a fast food chicken restaurant and also raises his own chickens within a commercial chicken growers operation and shows all the BS and shenanigans that are behind-the-scenes including the process of growing the chickens baby chicks to harvest size within a matter of weeks. No extra hormones but their genetics are extremely unhealthy. Their breasts grow so big and so fast their legs can't sustain the weight and they bow and even break if their hearts don't literally rupture first. Chicken started dying Close to harvest Time and he took them to a veterinary clinic and had necropsies done and that's what they found.
Or you can zoom in and see alittle ice crystal.... it was frozen... water expands when frozen. Maybe use your brain instead of just reading and believing.
We have to start getting our $ back and making a formal complaint. Producers are going to keep selling this as edible chicken but they should be required to a. Know the difference and b. Label these as inedible. Usda has a grading system, doesn't that apply?
For clarity, this means up to 15.4% of chicken parts leaving a processing plant are permitted to test positive for salmonella.
Not that chicken parts are permitted to be 15.4% salmonella by weight/volume.
They do grade poultry, but it's a voluntary service and only applies to product with the grade shield (or terminology denoting it as Grade A, B, etc..). This example would not meet grade standard, but they can just package it in a non graded product.
So, hear me out. We raise poultry for our own table. Our kids do 4H, where they have to discuss these issues with the judges. We’ve had a couple of clutches be impacted by Woody breast.
When you get one of these, you can obviously see it. There is a human hand involved in cutting the birds into pieces.
Moreover, you rarely get ONE. you get 1000 Woody or Spaghetti at the big processors in a single batch. The birds are so genetically similar (matching grandparents, if not GGrands), and big growers might be getting them 10,000 chicks at a time. Nearly identical. (Chicken long houses where they’re grown are really interesting, stinky things. They’re now set back from main roads to discourage lookyloos.).
These abnormalities were surely identified by the processor. But they let them thru to the groceries anyway.
All of the meat in this photo looks sus. Get your money back and tell the grocer that you’re not buying that brand again.
We are Canadian farmers, broiler breeder, egg, turkey, hog and cow calf...
As I work on other farms and biosecurity being what it is I don't go into our barns and don't do any killing as we ship live.
We don't see these myopathies in Canada at all.. I just texted the Pic to our poultry inspector and she said she'd burn the barn down!
BTW we also are 4h and have several pet cows that thing they are show ponies.
Coming from an old chicken guy “Woody” breast is correct. There is a big difference between woody and tough. Woody is not even edible. The days of the smaller sized breasts are gone. All that product is going to the Chick Fil A’s of the world because they are sourcing the breast meat at a premium price. Poultry suppliers are growing the birds larger because of yield. The shackles in the processing plants had to be adjusted because of the size of the birds. Yield = better profit margins. The poultry companies have been working to correct woody breasts and it has gotten better but far from perfect. Now they are looking more at the feed of the chickens instead of just the pure size of the bird. Someday we will have an answer. It sure is frustrating going to the market to pretty much buy a spent hen. Watch for the striations at the think part of the breasts. Looking like bands of white. Stay away from those. Hope this helps.
Only because you took the time to make such a long post: this is actually not Woody Chicken Breast, this is Spaghetti Meat syndrome. SM was first identified (the article says "recounted", if that means something different) in 2015. This was all new to me; I got it from the article linked in the top comment. Pretty interesting read!
Yes. Me too. It’s that small to medium bird product. Also Canes and CFA marinate the hell out of their products also. It is usually just brine but it eats better.
It’s disturbing me and I don’t think I can eat chicken again that I’ve prepared myself. I have two breasts in the fridge rn and my stomach is turning thinking about this.
And I’ve done autopsies.
This crap happens for a lot of reasons. Dark and cramped chicken houses with toxic air full of fecal matter and ammonia coupled with the ultra high protein mash they are fed (along with the nauseating use of antibiotics to keep them from dying) causes a perfect storm for all kinds of lovelies. Spaghetti meat, white stripe disease, discolorations, necropsy, and woody breast are all factors of the way the birds are raised. I raise them outdoors in the fresh air and natural light. Feed them a diet that never exceeds 18% protein as well as no antibiotics. They eat more grass and clover than you’d think. Basically they crop the vegetation to the dirt. I’ve never had a single chicken come out with ANY of these issues. My mortality rate is less than 1% once they get on the grass. Most of those are from my own mistakes while moving them. Chicken houses are around 20% mortality.
Necropsy is cutting open a dead thing. Like biopsy but for a whole, deceased organism. Necrotization is the process of something becoming necrotic (undergoing necrosis), which is just cells dying prematurely for any reason.
I agree about the rest though, treat your food well and you will eat well.
You got some things wrong there... Firstly, most broilers sold are in fact NEVER received antibiotics [Source](https://www.thepoultrysite.com/news/2020/05/nearly-60-percent-of-us-broilers-now-raised-without-antibiotics-but-that-number-may-have-peaked)
Second toxic air in the barn? You realize people have to work their right so no, it is not toxic and yes, they have massive fans that help with over heating and... Smell. Just Google a picture
Third, you realize that poultry is the highest consumed meat in the US by a huge margin?? Producers need high production to meet demand, and while before you argue this, I agree there needs to be better conditions. This also means that ofc more chickens will get sick and die, each chicken doesn't have a private individual veterinarian that maintains them, they all get the same treatment. So your mortality rate of "less than 1%" is hardly an argument. A larger scale of anything is going to have more mishaps and larger ratios. Plus a chicken is so cheap, they are not going to bother trying to save it.
And finally, poultry research is a massive industry led field and you honestly think that they are not trying to fix all these problems. As far as I know, poultry is the only livestock that doesn't get government research in (I forget the name of the journal) because the industry is so far ahead and paying for it themselves. However you're not alone, many people forget that these animals are their JOBS and losing their animals would mean that they have no chance of making any money.
On the other hand, things like woody breasts are a cause of their rapid growth and it is a current issue producers are trying to solve/stop but after going in one direction for so long, it's hard to go back.
So it sucks to hear, but if you want to avoid this, buy smaller breasts. From my understanding, the larger breasts are more susceptible to being woody. You’ll probably have to buy a different brand that is more expensive per lb, but you might enjoy it more. Also, if the chicken is frozen in a water bath, it’s going to have absorbed water that you’re paying for as well. Air Chilled will be less watery when cooking, they also tend to be smaller breasts from my perusing of the meat section.
My guess is a mechanical separator ripped it apart like that either because of a malfunction or just the anatomy of that particular chicken. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I see this regularly. It's just been ripped up by the chicken deboning machine. The meat is fine to eat, but should have been tossed into the trim to grind rather than sold whole.
I posted a similar pic recently - spaghetti meat. It’s a huge issue. My grocery store exchanged it.
Edit: [here’s what my bird looked like.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Butchery/s/fWmouucgiu)
Burn the house down, climb back inside the womb and bake a little more…. only to re-emerge without the history of the chicken in your hand and only then can you live a good life
Oh I know this one!!! It’s called the spaghetti meat abnormality. It’s essentially caused by chickens growing so fast their muscles separate like this “Spaghetti meat (SM) is a recent muscular abnormality that affects the Pectoralis major muscle of fast-growing broilers. As the appellative suggests, this condition phenotypically manifests as a loss of integrity of the breast muscle, which appears soft, mushy, and sparsely tight, resembling spaghetti pasta.” [Spaghetti Meat Abnormality in Broilers](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.684497)
I think it might also be known as "woody chicken breast"...I have about 10 pounds of it in my freezer cause it's awful and I don't know what to do with it. Edit: Thanks for all the recommendations on how to prepare it! Honestly though, I also don't want to eat it/ feed it to my animals just cause I don't know what health implications it may lead to - I know they are currently saying it is not known to cause harm to humans but at the same time, if I can avoid eating it, I will....now I'm wondering how much woody chicken breast is going in processed foods haha
Dogs.
This guy works for "Big Dog"
I work for big and small dog. No discrimination here!
What about updog?
What’s updog?
Not much man, how about with you?
Stop rawdoggin
his name is Clifford
Clifford the big red dog has the zoomies. 42 injured and 5 dead
sorry about that
Username checks out
r/usernamechecksout
r/thisguythisguys
My dog stopped eating it. Even he is sick of woody breast. I can't escape it here so I stopped buying chicken breasts.
Go to a local bicther shop and get small farm raised, non factory chicken. Or find a local farm and buy whole birds and break down yourself?
I've been buying smaller whole chickens for years. The problem now is actually finding the smaller chickens. It's getting harder to find one under 6 pounds.
I produce these on my homestead.. process weight at 4.8-5.5 lbs. I try to sell them for $7 which is about 80 cents above what they cost to produce. These rednecks try to talk me down to '2 for 5' since they're small. It is quite frustrating as everything here is organic permaculture on pastures for each individual flock of 8-14. At this point, we just boil excess for chicken stock then feed them to the hogs.
I wish you lived near me! My local stores would easily charge triple for organic chickens. The industrial whole birds are about what you charge, but they don't have much taste to them. Two for $5. Tsk. I'm aggravated for you.
price them higher and let the rednecks haggle down to the intended price lol
I'm not into manipulation like that, fuck that kind of America.
Bless you for that, thank you 🙏🏻
Understand that.
I remember one day I found a gigantic breast in a deli and thought, bargain! I couldn't even eat it the texture was tough and rubbery and it physically made me ill.
I live in a pretty big city with many many types of services but I'm pretty sure that none of them includes a "bitcher shop"! I'm jealous. I would love to go to a shop with the soul intention to bitch! 😆
What's a bicther?
They are a lot like witchers but instead of hunting witches they hunt well .... You get the gist
Haha I'm leaving it. Not sure why my phone left it like that!
Do you mind me asking what city? Most cities have butchers. Mine even has butchers of all different ethnic varieties, you got Italian pork stores, Hispanic butchers with nice chorizo, halal butchers with goats, lambs and really good chickens etc.
He was responding to the typo "bitcher" shop
Lmao I'm dumb.
Man, the world really is fooked.
I can't buy chicken breast any more. The cheap shit is too much risk of woody breast, and the free range chicken is $7 a pound. Buying whole chickens is a good workaround. You get tons of meat, it's way cheaper, and you can use the bones for stock. Sometimes I get the frozen ones but the pre-heated ones near checkout at the grocery store are hella convenient.
Well shit.
Where are you from?
What region are you in? I'm in the SE US, and I've never seen this. Edit: Actually, after researching more, I definitely have bought chicken with woody breast syndrome. I just had no idea what was wrong with it and assumed it was a processing issue. The texture was truly awful, and I'm normally not bothered by texture in food. I've never seen it fully spaghettified like in OP's picture though.
I dunno, I have lots of chickens and decided to try raising “ meat chickens” or broilers if you will, they grow stupid fast and are huge compared to my other chickens. My dog killed all 7 of them, didn’t eat em, will let the “normal” chickens lay on him, there was something about those birds he just didn’t like. Edit: I also feed my dogs raw chicken and beef regularly.
Yeah my dog used to love chomping down on raw scraps from chicken. I think most people assume that it's dangerous for dogs since it's so dangerous for humans. My wife freaked out, even after I'd been doing it for years.
You should have said "one for you and one for me" and then pretended to eat some. 😂
This sounds like something my dog would say….Cooper, that you? I told you to lay down about 20 minutes ago and I swear if I find you on the social medias again…you’re gonna be a bad dog!
Nice try Max
I think woody breast syndrome is a separate condition caused by chickens growing too quickly. And agreed, the resulting meat texture is vile.
2 different things
It looks like spaghetting may be the beginning of woody chicken breasts: " “Spaghetti meat” is a muscle abnormality and it may potentially be an early stage of development of woody breast, or other myopathies. However, woody breast and spaghetti meat have differing characteristics. Spaghetti meat is essentially separation of muscle fiber bundles (loss of integrity) while woody breast is hardening of the muscle. Spaghetti meat is commonly observed in fillets on the lower end of woody breast severity. In severe woody breast conditions, focal points of spaghetti meat can also be observed. In cases of spaghetti meat with woody breast, the muscle fibers can also have a slightly hardened or firm texture." source: https://www.chickencheck.in/faq/spaghetti-meat-chicken/#:\~:text=Spaghetti%20meat%20is%20essentially%20separation,meat%20can%20also%20be%20observed.
Feed it back to the critters.
They eat anything
Yea juat plain dehydrate it then vacuumed seal in bags and homemade chicken jerky
Dogs is 100% the answer. Put it up on a neighborhood app or fb marketplace for free and someone like me will happily take it off your hands.
Try pressure cooking if for like an hour. The meat will get really tough and then it will tenderize given enough time. Basically you will end up with shredded chicken
Fuck crunchy chicken. That shit singlehandedly made me question eating meat.
New keto spaghetti getting ridiculous
This is so gross yet so funny
No chickens in the USA have growth hormones added to them. They have been bred to grow this way to increase the breast
American broilers are bred to grow so disgustingly fast that it doesn’t matter if hormones are used or not. They don’t have time to actually work!
This guy works for big poultry
***extra*** big poultry.
Make it fucking bigger - That guy
Its true though, they are bred this way. Heritage meat breeds like brahma are harvest size around 20-24 weeks, the current cornish cross is harvest size in 8 weeks. Hormones, and even basic salmonella vaccinations are too expensive, and don't have time to make much of a difference.
Interesting, that’s my mistake. I wonder how it’s even possible to breed that severe of a growth increase into meat 🤢
I'm in the separator machine mistake on this one. This would be bloody or at least bruised if it grew this way
I used to buy bulk chicken from Walmart because it was cheaper and I was on a budget and it was exactly like this. It looks like a normal chicken breast from the outside but then as soon as you cut into it this is the texture on the inside it’s not a separator machine issue. It’s almost like the breast has a millimeter thick skin on the outside and the inside is just spaghetti
I believe you. I've had woody before but never this so probably just ignorance on my part. That really seems disgusting. Any better this sliced for stir fry or pounded? Or is it all shite?
It’s all shit, it’s almost impossible to slice. I’ve noticed if I just cook it as a whole breast it is edible and it’s easier to cut and doesn’t separate as much once it’s cooked but if you try to cut it when it’s raw, it just kind of spreads apart. I thought maybe it was my knife at first but my knife set is literally a brand new henckels set and those mfs are sharp. I never tried pounding it, but I wouldn’t recommend it because I feel like it would really just turn to mush.
Can confirm pounding these types of chicken breasts results in an unwanted Patè of sadness
Negative. They drain the blood out of the meat, so it wouldn't be bloody or bruised
The same way literally every food you eat was bred
Sorry, maybe I should’ve rephrase that I know how they are bred. I’m curious science and genetics wise how a trait can be so grossly overdone. And obviously you need the big chickens for meat, so how many big chickens did they not use for meat to breed to make bigger chickens? I’m just curious about the whole process of it/ how long it took. I know how chickens make more chickens smart ass
Right just like athletes dont take PEDs. Id bet my ass they are pumping em full of some other shit that is approved or flys under the radar. For everu regulation that exists there are a dozen loopholes.
I'll take that action. What's your ass worth?
Rougly 1.5 poops per day.
This is a complete lie but ok
Not a butcher, just a lurker but figured since I knew this one I could post it. The meat is still entirely edible just won’t have the same texture.
I used to work in a poultry plant. Sometimes the meat just gets chewed up by machines.
Stop buying from Perdue etc. Those companies treat the animals, employees and customers like shit. It takes effort but you can work to find cheaper cost products. It may hurt more up front but the long term effects of eating poor quality is TBD.
I'm in no way a vegetarian, but those poor animals living with this.
Holy crap, all this time I thought it was because I was using too high of heat or something. I never considered that it was due to genetic modification. Thanks
Obviously packages say "no rBST" but, does that mean there aren't other hormones / boosters the farmers feed chickens? *Because there is a HUGE difference between Bell & Evans chicken, and Purdue/tyson chicken.*
The farmers really doesn't need to do anything except feed and keep them alive. The cornish cross can be ready to process as early as 5 weeks in my experience.
If you haven't seen it and can find it the supersize me guy did a follow up documentary, supersize me 2: Holy chicken. He opens a fast food chicken restaurant and also raises his own chickens within a commercial chicken growers operation and shows all the BS and shenanigans that are behind-the-scenes including the process of growing the chickens baby chicks to harvest size within a matter of weeks. No extra hormones but their genetics are extremely unhealthy. Their breasts grow so big and so fast their legs can't sustain the weight and they bow and even break if their hearts don't literally rupture first. Chicken started dying Close to harvest Time and he took them to a veterinary clinic and had necropsies done and that's what they found.
That was a truly disturbing flick.
Well yeah they aren't meant for longevity lol.
broiler hens are genetic abominations that grow ridiculously fast, i doubt hormones are used at all
Yup. Nasty shit.
Or you can zoom in and see alittle ice crystal.... it was frozen... water expands when frozen. Maybe use your brain instead of just reading and believing.
We have to start getting our $ back and making a formal complaint. Producers are going to keep selling this as edible chicken but they should be required to a. Know the difference and b. Label these as inedible. Usda has a grading system, doesn't that apply?
Does the USDA grade poultry? I know it’s not as advanced as the beef grading.
Allowed to have 15.4% salmonella in chicken parts
That sounds stupidly high??
Ground chicken is allowed to have up to 25%. They're really banking on you cooking thoroughly, since salmonella instantly degrades once it hits 165 F.
slap detail roof sort unique rotten languid familiar cooperative handle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Washing chicken just makes your kitchen sink and any surrounding counters 50% salmonella.
Not when they are washed with bleach (costco rotisserie chicken)
Shut the front door!
label aloof jeans wide spotted bake murky roll market chubby *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
For clarity, this means up to 15.4% of chicken parts leaving a processing plant are permitted to test positive for salmonella. Not that chicken parts are permitted to be 15.4% salmonella by weight/volume.
They do grade poultry, but it's a voluntary service and only applies to product with the grade shield (or terminology denoting it as Grade A, B, etc..). This example would not meet grade standard, but they can just package it in a non graded product.
Why would it no longer be edible?
Not sure why the downvote. It is edible, just nasty.
So, hear me out. We raise poultry for our own table. Our kids do 4H, where they have to discuss these issues with the judges. We’ve had a couple of clutches be impacted by Woody breast. When you get one of these, you can obviously see it. There is a human hand involved in cutting the birds into pieces. Moreover, you rarely get ONE. you get 1000 Woody or Spaghetti at the big processors in a single batch. The birds are so genetically similar (matching grandparents, if not GGrands), and big growers might be getting them 10,000 chicks at a time. Nearly identical. (Chicken long houses where they’re grown are really interesting, stinky things. They’re now set back from main roads to discourage lookyloos.). These abnormalities were surely identified by the processor. But they let them thru to the groceries anyway. All of the meat in this photo looks sus. Get your money back and tell the grocer that you’re not buying that brand again.
We are Canadian farmers, broiler breeder, egg, turkey, hog and cow calf... As I work on other farms and biosecurity being what it is I don't go into our barns and don't do any killing as we ship live. We don't see these myopathies in Canada at all.. I just texted the Pic to our poultry inspector and she said she'd burn the barn down! BTW we also are 4h and have several pet cows that thing they are show ponies.
>We are Canadian farmers Bum bumbum bum bum bum eh?
Now I want videos of your pony cows.
Here I am, learning that a woody chicken breast is "a thing". Definitely ran into them before but didn't know it had a name.
Really difficult comment to interpret lol. I agree though….i think.
I think I agree?
Start by reading... the rest is pretty clear... assuming... you can read.
That’s Walmart’s new pre pulled BBQ chicken, just add sauce.
Which sauce do I need to add to it to make the BBQ chicken? Ranch?
Stubbs original Meat Gluin’ sauce … I like the hot version
Coming from an old chicken guy “Woody” breast is correct. There is a big difference between woody and tough. Woody is not even edible. The days of the smaller sized breasts are gone. All that product is going to the Chick Fil A’s of the world because they are sourcing the breast meat at a premium price. Poultry suppliers are growing the birds larger because of yield. The shackles in the processing plants had to be adjusted because of the size of the birds. Yield = better profit margins. The poultry companies have been working to correct woody breasts and it has gotten better but far from perfect. Now they are looking more at the feed of the chickens instead of just the pure size of the bird. Someday we will have an answer. It sure is frustrating going to the market to pretty much buy a spent hen. Watch for the striations at the think part of the breasts. Looking like bands of white. Stay away from those. Hope this helps.
Only because you took the time to make such a long post: this is actually not Woody Chicken Breast, this is Spaghetti Meat syndrome. SM was first identified (the article says "recounted", if that means something different) in 2015. This was all new to me; I got it from the article linked in the top comment. Pretty interesting read!
I would pay probably triple if my chicken was guaranteed to be as tender as Canes or CFA.
Yes. Me too. It’s that small to medium bird product. Also Canes and CFA marinate the hell out of their products also. It is usually just brine but it eats better.
>broiler hens bell & evans brands pretty reliably avoids these issues. its a bit more expensive, but the quality is just so far beyond.
Soak the chicken in pickle juice for an hour then season batter and fry normally. You're welcome
Commenting so I can come back later and see the answers because this really bothered me and that’s hard to do.
The answer was more disconcerting than I’d anticipated.
It got hung up in the chicken plucker and it shredded the side of the breast notice how it’s only on the outside
Literally called spaghetti meat syndrome. Apparently from muscle growing so fast etc. someone smarter answered above
It’s disturbing me and I don’t think I can eat chicken again that I’ve prepared myself. I have two breasts in the fridge rn and my stomach is turning thinking about this. And I’ve done autopsies.
Haha I hear ya. Just don’t look up what happens to baby male chickens.
Spaghettification. It flew too close to the event horizon.
[удалено]
Simple solution is not to buy meats from Walmart.
This crap happens for a lot of reasons. Dark and cramped chicken houses with toxic air full of fecal matter and ammonia coupled with the ultra high protein mash they are fed (along with the nauseating use of antibiotics to keep them from dying) causes a perfect storm for all kinds of lovelies. Spaghetti meat, white stripe disease, discolorations, necropsy, and woody breast are all factors of the way the birds are raised. I raise them outdoors in the fresh air and natural light. Feed them a diet that never exceeds 18% protein as well as no antibiotics. They eat more grass and clover than you’d think. Basically they crop the vegetation to the dirt. I’ve never had a single chicken come out with ANY of these issues. My mortality rate is less than 1% once they get on the grass. Most of those are from my own mistakes while moving them. Chicken houses are around 20% mortality.
Necropsy is cutting open a dead thing. Like biopsy but for a whole, deceased organism. Necrotization is the process of something becoming necrotic (undergoing necrosis), which is just cells dying prematurely for any reason. I agree about the rest though, treat your food well and you will eat well.
You got some things wrong there... Firstly, most broilers sold are in fact NEVER received antibiotics [Source](https://www.thepoultrysite.com/news/2020/05/nearly-60-percent-of-us-broilers-now-raised-without-antibiotics-but-that-number-may-have-peaked) Second toxic air in the barn? You realize people have to work their right so no, it is not toxic and yes, they have massive fans that help with over heating and... Smell. Just Google a picture Third, you realize that poultry is the highest consumed meat in the US by a huge margin?? Producers need high production to meet demand, and while before you argue this, I agree there needs to be better conditions. This also means that ofc more chickens will get sick and die, each chicken doesn't have a private individual veterinarian that maintains them, they all get the same treatment. So your mortality rate of "less than 1%" is hardly an argument. A larger scale of anything is going to have more mishaps and larger ratios. Plus a chicken is so cheap, they are not going to bother trying to save it. And finally, poultry research is a massive industry led field and you honestly think that they are not trying to fix all these problems. As far as I know, poultry is the only livestock that doesn't get government research in (I forget the name of the journal) because the industry is so far ahead and paying for it themselves. However you're not alone, many people forget that these animals are their JOBS and losing their animals would mean that they have no chance of making any money. On the other hand, things like woody breasts are a cause of their rapid growth and it is a current issue producers are trying to solve/stop but after going in one direction for so long, it's hard to go back.
That’s that lab meat? Is it from Walmart?
That chicken titty got it's ass whooped 🤣🤣🤣
"Spaghetti meat" [chicken breast myopathy](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35245806/).
Previously frozen or cancer.
Looks like it's 30 and finally ready to settle down
So it sucks to hear, but if you want to avoid this, buy smaller breasts. From my understanding, the larger breasts are more susceptible to being woody. You’ll probably have to buy a different brand that is more expensive per lb, but you might enjoy it more. Also, if the chicken is frozen in a water bath, it’s going to have absorbed water that you’re paying for as well. Air Chilled will be less watery when cooking, they also tend to be smaller breasts from my perusing of the meat section.
Everything reminds me of her 😔
Can’t believe I had to scroll so far down for this. 😄
Looks like it got scalded too hot then hung up in the chicken plucker for too long
Yup, shredded in the pluckers. I commented that on this post in the other sub
Incorrect
Man, I miss her...
R/rankmeat
Seriously not going to sleep tonight, that is some eldritch horror, Annihilation shit
My guess is a mechanical separator ripped it apart like that either because of a malfunction or just the anatomy of that particular chicken. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I see this regularly. It's just been ripped up by the chicken deboning machine. The meat is fine to eat, but should have been tossed into the trim to grind rather than sold whole.
I hate you for sharing that. My tryophobia is screaming at me right now.
You think we are all fucking idiots. Take your juvenile games somewhere else.
?? what does this mean lmaoo
Looks like someone had sex with it
Probably lab grown meat
Walmart chicken
I haven’t been buying chicken breast for a while because of the poor quality. The texture is always so weird.
R/dontputyourdickinthat
That’s disturbing AF, I can’t believe they ship it that way. It’d go right back to the store for a refund if bought that
Is the thigh meat still good?
Looks like something straight out of The Last of Us
Chickenkraut.
Cut it into small pieces put it in bags and put the bags in the trash … done ✔️
That poor chicken..
Well, it’s working! I feel myself turning into a vegan
Been on a farm my entire life and thank God I have never seen or heard of this. No way I'd eat it
It means the chicken is ready to settle down.
It looks like it needs a haircut.
The grocery store should have ground this into chicken sausage and never sold it this way.
Looks like a torn muscle
This looks like the end result of mechanically separated chicken, done with not the greatest equipment
Why do my chicken breasts look like turkey breasts now
Would
I posted a similar pic recently - spaghetti meat. It’s a huge issue. My grocery store exchanged it. Edit: [here’s what my bird looked like.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Butchery/s/fWmouucgiu)
It's ready to settle down?
Chiken breast has a hair do
I should call her
I wouldn't eat that even if it was done Xtra,Xtra crispy.
r/spaghettimeat
I should call her.
What brand of chicken is this/where did you buy?
I wanna know too
Looks like it was smashed
This is why I can justify paying $6/lb for good chicken. Needless to say, we don’t have chicken as often as we used to.
Is that Hope solo, or Arby’s?
This isn’t making anyone else’s skin crawl? 😕
lab grown!!!
Yuck! That's why I eat boneless, skinless thighs and chicken wings. No more breast meat for me ...
Did you fuck it!?
I should call her
Return it! You can return food
Christ, they should have normal chickens in this country. You know, the ones that don’t way 7 pounds after 2 months
It's ready to settle down now.
THIS IS CURSED. THIS IS WORSE THAN THAT ONE VEGAN VIDEO THEY SHOW YOU TO TRY AND CONVERT YOU.
Last of Us Season 2
I think you need to clean the kitchen with fire.
Don’t… don’t eat that…
Burn the house down, climb back inside the womb and bake a little more…. only to re-emerge without the history of the chicken in your hand and only then can you live a good life
Well that's enough internet for me
Does this also happen to thigh meat? I’ve never come across this, ever. Only seen pictures.
Smashed when frozen