In buying poultry select that which has clean, unbroken skin and is as
fat as possible. Young chickens have often a darker appearance than old,
owing to the fact that there is less fat under the skin or that the skin
is thinner. They have few hairs, many pin-feathers, and the end of the
breast-bone, toward the tail, is limber and cartilaginous. In old
chickens (fowl) this bone is stiff, there are many hairs, few
pin-feathers, and the scales on the legs are hard and horny. The wing
joint is firm in old chickens, but is sometimes broken by poultry
dealers in order to make the purchaser think the poultry younger than it
is.
Chickens are frequently kept in cold storage for months, or even years,
and they undergo decided changes during these periods. The effect of
eating such storage poultry is still under debate; but, while there is
uncertainty as to whether they may not be responsible for some obscure
intestinal disorders or other disturbances, it is well to know how to
tell them from fresh-killed birds. In an article entitled “Changes
Taking Place in Chickens in Cold Storage,” in the Yearbook of the
Department of Agriculture, for 1907, we read that the fresh chicken is a
pale, soft yellow, without any tinge or suggestion of green in the
colour of the skin, while there is enough translucency to show through
it the delicate pink of the muscles underneath. It can be plainly seen
that the pink tint is not of the skin itself. While the skin is
perfectly flexible, and is not adherent over any part of the body, it is
well filled by the tissues below, so that areas distended by either
fluids or gases are wanting. The feather papillæ are perfectly distinct,
and, though of the same tint as the skin, are plainly visible because of
their elevation. In those regions where the papillæ are most numerous,
or support heavier feathers, they lend a much brighter yellow hue to the
skin. The neck is smooth and well rounded, the comb and gills red, and
the eye full.
With storage birds the skin becomes somewhat dried, and finally quite
leathery and stretched in appearance; is less translucent than that of
the fresh, and the feather papillæ tend to flatten and disappear. In
time the colour of the skin alters in places to browns, reds, purples,
or greenish tints.
_Care of poultry._ Poultry should be drawn as soon as purchased, if it
has not been already done; it should be wiped out with a dry cloth, if
not to be cooked immediately, and kept in a cold place. Old chickens can
be made as tender as young chickens in a cooker, and will have more
flavour.
_To draw poultry._ Cut off the head, turn back the skin of the neck and
cut off the neck close to the body. If the crop has food in it, remove
it from the neck, otherwise it will come out with the other organs. Cut
off the windpipe. Make an opening above the vent with a small sharp
knife, cut around the vent, being careful not to cut into the intestine.
Put the hand just inside the wall of the body and work it carefully over
the whole inner surface of the body, detaching the organs in one mass.
When the hand can pass freely all around them, draw them all out
together. The lungs and kidneys, imbedded in the bones, will remain
behind and must be removed separately. Cut out the little oil bag on the
back of the tail. Singe the chicken, and wash it well inside and
outside. The heart, liver, and gizzard are the giblets, and are boiled
and often used in the gravy.
_To cut up a chicken._ After it is drawn, a chicken may be cut for stew
or fricassee, into thirteen pieces. First remove the neck, then the
legs, by cutting the skin, etc., that holds them to the body; then cut
on either side down to the joint which lies almost at the back. Bend the
leg out from the body and this will break the ligaments that hold it.
Separate the two joints of the leg in large chickens. Remove the wings
by cutting around the joints and bending them out as the leg was done.
Next cut off the wishbone by placing the knife across the breast and
cutting close to the end of the breast-bone toward the neck. If desired,
remove the meat from the breast in two fillets, beginning to cut at the
top and following the bone closely, separating the meat from the
breast-bone and sides of the chicken. Next cut from the back to the
front, through the ribs. Separate the “side bone” from one side, and
break the back in two where the ribs end.
[Illustration: Figure No. 11.