Unseasoned meat to buy

[malachi_north]

Hey hey - I'm a gal, not a guy.

Went to K-Citymarket and they'd see if they could find me someone to chat to, and tomorrow I'll go try the kauppahalli. I have enough meat for the moment, but it's still nice to find where I could get it. And also to now actually to know why it's all mostly pre-seasoned.

Here's the recipe I promised, too.

Rotisserie style roast chicken.

Chicken rub:

2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Also: 1 onion, 1 4lb-ish whole chicken.

Wash the inside of the chicken and pat dry with paper towel. Rub the spices all over the chicken (even under the skin) and place a bit inside. Quarter the onion and place inside the chicken. Double wrap in cling wrap (or stick in a ziplock bag) and refrigerate for about 5 hours.

Preheat oven to a low temp (250 degrees F/120 degrees C).

Place chicken in a roasting pan. Bake uncovered for approx. 5 hours*, to a minimum internal temperature of 180 degrees F (85 degrees C). Let the chicken stand for 10 minutes before carving.


*Watch the time on this, as it will vary per stove and per chicken. You can also substitute chicken thighs if you can't get a whole chicken.

[AlexInHelsinki]

I was disappointed that you can't buy regular, unseasoned cuts of meat in the supermarkets when I first got here, too. I rarely eat red meat, but I'd still kill for a decent, thick juicy Chicago-style steak. Even if you order one at a restaurant, they cook the bejebus out of the thing, and the cuts are so thin they curl up at the edges and they still charge you at least 30 euros for it. Blech.

Though oddly enough, I found some random chicken quarters at my local market the other week when I was sick (and have never seen the likes of them there before or since), and was able to make myself some chicken soup from scratch

[rob34]

The so's sister works doing food safety stuff in HKI, and if it's any indication, she won't touch the seasoned meats with a 10 foot pole.

Apparently, the chicken is seasoned to hell and back because it covers up the slight "rotting" smell that chicken will accrue as it nears the sell-by date.

Conversely, the unseasoned chicken is more expensive because it has a shorter shelf life => more of it goes to the trash.

[carolinemaher]

I mostly got to Hakaniemi market as its nearer to where I live, but went to the Wanha Kauppahalli in the city centre today and found chicken drumsticks and whole chickens at the 'Roslund' stall. Also at the 'Markkanen' stall they sell (frozen) whole free range chickens, they weren't cheap at about EUR 16 a pop, but they were Finnish which was great, was talking to the woman who runs the stall and she just reiterated that there is just a limited window to due to the weather in Finland. Anyways, I'd rather treat myself to one of these now and again than eat the other suspect battery chicken covered in sauce.

[Kupcake]

We had a goose at Christmas and it was lovely!!!!! Bought it at Stockmans but the ones at Lidl are from the same place i think - well the packaging looks the same anyway.

It wouldn't fit in our tiny oven, so we put it in the hooded bbq and it worked well. I was worried it would be a strong gamey taste - my mother in law told me that goose tastes like that - but it was beautiful! Made a nice goose stock from the cooked bones, and a soup with that and some of the leftover goose meat.

I'll probably go and get one of those 25euros ones - i paid 52 euros for the one we had at Christmas.

[Karhunkoski]

but it's usually a euro or two more expensive than the seasoned stuff. Why is this?

Think two 500g packs

First contains 500g of chicken, cost price €5/Kg

Second contains 400g of chicken at cost of 5€/Kg and 100g of marinade at around 10 cents/Kg


In 99% of food prouction situations, the meat is the most expensive raw material. The same reason they invented fish fingers, so they can sell breadcrumbs and batter rather than fish (fish fingers only contain around 50% fish, the rest is cheap fillers Think if you would have asked why frozen cod fillets are more expensive than fish fingers?

[Karhunkoski]

The so's sister works doing food safety stuff in HKI, and if it's any indication, she won't touch the seasoned meats with a 10 foot pole.

Apparently, the chicken is seasoned to hell and back because it covers up the slight "rotting" smell that chicken will accrue as it nears the sell-by date.

Conversely, the unseasoned chicken is more expensive because it has a shorter shelf life => more of it goes to the trash.

That's interesting, although not sure if I fully buy it

We used to kill and portion 5 million chickens a week, yup a lot isn't it. The last thing we would want was to have "old" chicken hanging around in our cold stores (=massive storage cost), hence stock moved quickly. However given the large distances involved in the Finnish distribution chain, then perhaps there is some mileage in the theory.

As a general rule, chicken should be cooked before it reaches "kill+5", where kill day is "day 0". After that time it can start to whiff a bit. Must say, I've had more whiffy chicken in Finland than there was in the UK. Some of the "fresh" chicken fillets in Finland also seems to be swimming in water in the packet. That shouldn't really be there and makes me think that the fillets have been tumbled in water before packing to boost their weight.

If your SO's sister needs a qualified food consultant, it's €500/day plus expenses.

[taikinatom]

That's actually quite interesting. Just yesterday I bought Atria chicken (sliced without sauce). Upon opening the packet the whole thing smelled quite bad and, because this has happened before, it crossed my mind to "just avoid chicken from now on". It never crossed my mind to think that it's just about the quality. The slices were swimming in some nasty fluid as well.
The problem is that I've now lived here for so long that it's hard to know if it's normal or not. I suppose you get used to things. I must definitely go and smell some chicken next month when I'm traveling to my home country. In Belgium you can at least still buy a whole chicken.

[carolinemaher]

I have thrown chicken away so many time here in Finland (and on numerous occasions mince too) you can't rely on the 'sell by date' as it can smell rank 3 days before that date, so I also decided 'just to avoid chicken from now on' well from the supermarkets anyway. I do miss being able to get a plump healthy looking free range chicken in the UK for around EUR 8 (organic about EUR 11), which hasn't been stuck in a cage all its life, covered in gunk and e numbers and stuffed full of water, yuk..

[enk]

Don't throw it away, just save your receipts and take it back to the store.
There's no other way they're goign to know their food sucks (or their cold
chain has been broken at some point in time) if no one complains.

For the price I pay for food in Finland, you can bet I'm taking it back if there's
something wrong with it!

-enk

[Karhunkoski]

I do miss being able to get a plump healthy looking free range chicken in the UK for around EUR 8 (organic about EUR 11), which hasn't been stuck in a cage all its life.

Just to clarify, broilers are not generally kept in cages. They're kept in sheds and live for around 38-42 days before slaughter.

[raamv]

After all this conversation, a band of upto 10 immigrants are trying to make fool of a million or more, of the natives and others in this country..
I mean..
C'mon.. the people who buy the chickens and meat in this country are not that stupid..nor naive..and that too a million or more of them..
otherwise, the companies would have been chased away anyways..
considering that even the Minister for Health, Liisa Hyssä, needs to get the chickens and meat from the stores ( Gimme a break that every pekka jussi and janne go to kauppahalli to get their meat))..and is an educated health professional..at least on the dental scale..
and If I think about the neibhoring states, its pretty much similar..
How many people buy that deprecated honey marinated crap?
It must be at least a million a week or a month here..and a million or more in the Nordic states..and more down South.. (They also make and export the same s hit here and there )..
So the few brightly colored brains here wanting to get a "plumpy healthy looking" so called Free range chicken which seems to run abundant in the UK and not advertised anywhere seem to think that the elastic or plastic tasting stuff is for the rest of the many million or so meagre normal mortal earthlings, will be in for a great shock even when they find out that it could be those same farmers who also sell those nasty fluffy ones..
The point I m trying to make is, that if you cant cook a "your definition of a plastic chicken/beef /meat" properly then why cook at all?
especially when most of the people ( exceptions, you know who you are), dont have a clue of how the meat is cut or made..
or what mechanisms are employed to humanely "slaughter" the animals..

[carolinemaher]

Who's trying to make a fool of someone? Certainly not me, there are threads for all sorts of conversations and this was where to buy chicken not covered in marinade and the conversation built up from there, merely a chat about where to find alternatives, so I don't know why your getting your knickers in a twist about it, lighten up!

[Rosamunda]

When I did the Hygiene Pass last year we were told that fresh food bought off supermarket shelves is packed in some special kind of gas (can't remember the name but they call it something like Modified Ambiant Gas?????) We were also told that if you buy meat etc for the freezer it is a good idea to remove it from the packaging and re-wrap before freezing (you don't what to freeze meat sitting in the gas stuff). Maybe it is the gas that smells funny when you open the packages. No idea.

Raamv is right: if more people buy the neon-gunky chicken, then that is what the supermarkets will stock. There have been plenty of articles in HS about gunky chicken, so everyone knows they are being conned (price-wise) and are eating a load of rubbish. Up to them.

I disagree that if you buy a fresh free-range chicken from Hakaniemi or Stockmann deli etc at twice the price, you are eating the same thing as the neon gunky chicken from Prisma. You are not. First of all, you don't get the gunk. Secondly, the market stall holders in Hakaniemi would never risk their reputation by selling rubbish. And finally... it is pretty easy to see the difference as soon as you cook the beast (ie shrinkage, texture, colour). As for flavour, that is a personal subjective thing which has nothing to do with the colour of your passport.

I also disagree that there is a right and a wrong way to cook neon-gunky chicken. To me, it always tastes bad however it is cooked because it has too much salt and sugar in it.

[Jukka Aho]

When I did the Hygiene Pass last year we were told that fresh food bought off supermarket shelves is packed in some special kind of gas (can't remember the name but they call it something like Modified Ambiant Gas?????)

I think you mean “modified atmosphere” packaging. These products usually bear the phrase Tuote on pakattu suojakaasuun. (“[This] product has been packaged in [a] protective gas [atmosphere]”).