This last Sunday we purchased 2 3lb bags of cut wings, no tips. I was very, very very upset to find out there were hardly any flats. Why would that be? Fact of the matter is, I got them in my meat subscription box. If it was up to me I’d get the whole wings, have all the flats I want, and make the richest, gooey-est stock out of the tips. There should be equal flats and drumettes as that is how the chickens are made. Why would there be more than twice the amount of drums to tips in the pre-cut bag?
I like the flats a whole lot more than the drumettes. How 'bout you?
Flats are better. More skin, and that morsel of meat in between the bones is protected from overcooking.
Why the disparity? I’m guessing it’s because the drumettes weigh about twice as much, so if your bag came from the first few batches out of the hopper, which clearly you did, you got mostly drumettes.
I always see people getting the dummies’ first at the stores hot deli department. I do so as well because the flats are a bit harder to deal with when consuming large amounts of beer. Which is when I usually eat wings, easier to just use one hand for wings and the other for beer. Like god intended.
I ate a lot of wings in college in the late 1980s when wings were cheap (at about ten to twenty cents each). What you’re calling flats, I remember as being easy to eat. It was almost possible just to suck the meat off the bone from one end.
This is where I’m at, other than the fact I can’t stand to spend $3.99/lb for a package of wings. Before they went super-trendy (like bacon) they were a cheapish cut, and I’d buy a bunch for stock-making anytime I ran low. Now I just buy bone in thighs for stock making and fight the horrible, horrible fight of whether or not to make gribenes.
Back to the OP, I’m slightly fonder of the drumettes, but only because I can eat with one hand, meaning that I only have to be careful of the hot-sauce-to-eye contact half as much.
For taste: flats, the drums are somewhat dryer and I consider it partial white meat. When mess, or ‘eating manors’ is a concern however I will go for the drums, or at least drums first to try to stay as clean as I can for at least the first few pieces.
In a different life, we’d be best friends. At least, as far as chicken wings go - this is how I roll, too, when possible. (Stoopit supply chain issues!)
Flats. (Until now, I didn’t know what to call them). There’s a more even skin/sauce to meat ratio and no confusion about what is food and what is cartilage.
I try to buy whole wings when they’re available. Cheaper. Separating the parts is a little tricky, but once you figure out where to cut, it’s not that much more work and you get to keep all the extra scraps.
Mastering the wordy ‘eating chicken wing flat with one hand’ is a pretty easy thing to achieve. You may need to set the wing down to switch front to back but at least your phone doesn’t get gummed up with wing sauce at the bar.
One thing I do feel pretty strongly about is prepared wings being served in flat or drumette form. Serving the three wing parts (drumettes, flat & tip) still attached will cost you at least a letter grade, perhaps more if especially saucy. I don’t want sauce on my cheek under any circumstances and trying to suck meat off a Z is going to do that.
