Tender & Delicious Capon Chicken

A capon is a rooster that has been castrated before reaching sexual maturity. The reason a rooster is made into a capon has mostly to do with the quality of the meat. But also, a capon is less aggressive than a rooster and is easier to handle. Capon meat is tender and flavorful, compared with rooster meat, which can be quite gamy. Capon meat is also relatively fatty, and has a high proportion of white meat. The difference between capon meat and rooster meat is due to the absence of sexual hormones. The process of making a rooster into a capon is called caponization. A capon is usually castrated at around 8 weeks of age or earlier. Capons are generally slaughtered at around 10 months of age or younger (as compared with around 12 weeks for a regular roasting chicken).

From About Food by Danilo Alfaro

I brined and roasted one of Jim Schiltz’s 7.5 pound capons according to a simple recipe by Gabrielle Hamilton of New York City’s Prune restaurant, and the first taste was a revelation. The flavor was unusually rich and complex, distinct from any chicken or turkey I’d had before, and the texture both moist and firm.

From Modern Farmer, apons: Are Chickens Without Their Testes a Forgotten Delicacy or Disturbing Luxury?By Alex Yablon on April 11, 2014

Schiltz Foods

In 1944, Marlin Schiltz was given five Toulouse goose eggs found by his wife, Kathryn, and her sister. He hatched two goslings and grew them to twelve pounds, selling them for 12 cents a pound. That started the Schiltz family in the goose business. Currently, Schiltz Foods is the largest goose producer in the Americas. Because of a warm fall, this years geese are smaller than usual and we offer only 8 to 10 pound birds serving 6 to 10 people. 

Alex Seidel, head chef at Fruition & Mercantile