>>>You must be way too north to know how the Donauschwaben like their hens and their soup :).
>>>
>>>The best ones for the soup are the old ones - we say "matora koka, dobra supa" (old hen, good soup), and that's actually a kind of innuendo when mentioned so that the lady to whom it relates should hear it said accidentally but without obvious intention... I've also heard ladies of certain age declare that themselves.
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>>Donauschwaben, a eastern tribe of southerners stuck to century old traditions? No, I know nothing about them.
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>Neither do I, but you got the description right. "It's so strange to hear a young girl talk like my grandmother"...

grand^n - mother :)
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>>Old hens are not fat, they are chewy. That's why I think there is no much to skim.
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>Depends on how they are fed, though.

One uses a hen not a chicken. :)

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>>Nowadays cuisine is with roast chicken but that's wrong. It's a bit of a problem to get old hens (strange world this)
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>Yes, one needs to know the places to visit to find them.

Problem is that it was usualy a henn from the egg laying sort. What is laying eggs today is not usable. Full of medicine ... And the organic will make the soup more expensive then the roast, to use this german proverb.

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>>BTW
>>We had tasty jacket potatos this evening. After a while my wife came out with a glass of lard! With cracklings! Yum²! A gift from friends that must return to the U.S. They couln'd keep it. Poor folks ...
>
>And they have to have their milk shepherdized or whatever they write the verbized name of that french pastor. That cheese is dead...

Not much differnce in the EU. I have a farmer nearby that sell milk. Unprocessed. It realy became sour, not perish. Like some for your cheese?