Capon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008) |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008) |
A capon is a castrated male chicken. Surgical caponising (complete removal of both testes) is performed when the chicken is 2 to 4 weeks old. Capons are marketed at 15 to 18 weeks, commercial broiler chickens at six to eight weeks, and roasters in about eight weeks. See University of Florida IFAS Extension Fact Sheet PS-54/PS051: Capons by Jacqueline Jacob and F. Ben Mather for detailed information about the process of caponisation and statistics of production.
Caponisation produces a bird prized for its tenderness, and takes the stringiness out of a male chicken's meat. But the operation is a major and painful one to remove internal organs. The bird is first taken off food and water, then given antibiotics, but there can still be complications such as air pockets appearing, and cannibalization by other chickens. Because of cruelty issues, capons are illegal in the UK, but they remain a traditional food for festive occasions in some other countries. See Practically Edible: Capons for culinary information.
Other birds have been caponised, but the various breeds of chicken are the only commercially produced ones today, and even that is almost nonexistent in the USA, as there is only one small company in Iowa producing capons.
Capons are also used as broodys. When the testes are removed, the male instinct disappears, letting the "mothering" instincts show. Capons are popular as broodys because they are not as aggressive as hens are.
The Romans are credited with inventing the capon, as a method of observing the letter though not the spirit of the Lex Faunia of 162 BCE, which forbade fattening hens, as a way of conserving grain.[1]
European Gastronomic texts of the past dealt largely with capons, as the ordinary chicken of the farmyard was regarded as peasant fare, "popular malic crediting monks with a weakness for capons."[2]
