Info about capons

A capon is a young male chicken which is castrated, causing him to put on an enormous amount of weight rather quickly (they'll reach 8 to 10 pounds). Typically they are fed only milk and bread for their last 10 days of life, so their meat is extremely white and mild. Few producers bother with capons any more except at holiday time, and even then you may not find fresh ones but should have no trouble finding frozen ones at the supermarket. They are intended for roasting - they are not stewing or "soup" hens and are not priced like stewing hens!

I recently cooked my first capon and found it to be completely underwhelming. I prefer roaster chickens (which are just large chickens, around 5 to 7 pounds); they have MUCH more flavor than the capon and are easy to cook to juicy perfection. I found capon meat to be, frankly, boring - but if you are a fan of very bland white meat, you should like capon. In terms of recipes, use the one on the capon wrapper (if you get a frozen or processed one) or if you find fresh capon at a butcher shop, you can use any standard roast chicken recipe or adjust the timing and proceed as if you are roasting a very small turkey.

I love to experiment but one capon was enough! I'd like to hear your results though!