Poultry
Cochin
B tier
Cochin is a large, heavily feathered Asiatic breed with abundant fluff, feathered legs, and a broad, low-slung body that caused a nineteenth-century poultry craze in Europe and America. Originating from Chinese stock often called Shanghai fowl, Cochins come in buff, black, white, partridge, and other colours and grow slowly compared with commercial meat birds. Culinary use is secondary to ornament today, but historically Cochins supplied heavy table meat and winter eggs. The flesh benefits from slow cooking or long roasting; spent or mature birds make rich stock. Bantam Cochins are mainly exhibition, while large fowl still appeal to keepers wanting gentle giants.
Also known as: Shanghai / Cochin ancestral type, Cochin, Cochin, Cochin
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Characteristics
Preparations
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Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
History
Large fluffy Shanghai fowl from China reached Western ports and sparked interest in Asiatic poultry.
British breeders popularised Cochin or Shanghai types during the Victorian poultry mania.
American flocks of Cochins expanded for exhibition, winter laying, and heavy table use.
Cochin varieties were formalised in the American Standard of Perfection.
Extreme fluff for show partly diverged from earlier utility table form as industrial poultry advanced.
Hobby and ornamental breeding kept large and bantam Cochins common despite limited commercial meat role.