Meat Cutting Day 7

1. Meat CuttingDay 7

2. Understanding Poultry Poultry- Any bird domesticated for consumption. • Poultry store fat in 3locations: • In the skinit is called subcutaneous fat. • In the Abdominal Cavityfor cushioning the internal organs and warmth. • Fat pad, which is the butt, tail feather wiggler and sometimes called the popes nose.

3. Age of bird • More important than sex of bird until it is fully matured • Older birds will have much tougher muscle fibers, which decreases it’s uses and renders it only usable for stew, soups, or stocks • Younger birds are more preferred due to less muscle development.

4. Age of bird • The calcification of the keel bone • The more calcified the keel is, the older the bird will be. • Hardening of the trachea (windpipe). • The olderthe bird, the stiffer/thicker the walls of trachea will be.

5. There are 6 Categories of Poultry as identified by the USDA • Chicken • Turkey • Duck • Pigeon • Goose • Guinea

6. Commercial versus Free Range chicken farming • Monday through Friday in the United States alone there are some 100million birds are processed. • Commercialchickens are raised, by law, in 1ft. X 1ft. cages/coops

7. Commercial versus Free Range chicken farming • With this in mind, the common commercial chicken farmer knows that the morechickens they bring to market more quickly, the more money they make more efficiently. • Which leads to dishonest chicken raising techniques • Placing more than 1bird per coop, stacking coops atop one another, removing fecalcollectors to increase efficiency in clean-up, pumping birds with growth hormones and . • In laying farms the malechicks, which obviously have a problem laying eggs, are commonly ground-up to be fed to other chickens to help defray the expense of feed.

8. Free Range Chicken • Farmingis one that is sometimes a bit vague. The law states that birds raised in a free range environment must be allowed to move about freely • Due to the vagueness of the law, many different style of free range farming are taking place. • There are those that continue to store the birds in the 1ft X 1ft coops, but the let the birds out for a short period of time daily. • Sometimes the birds will be kept in an enclosed facility, much like a garage, or warehouse and not in cages. • One of the more common and honest methods of raising free range birds is to contain them in a moveable tent-like structure. This allows the farmer to move the birds around an open area on a regular basis.

9. Free Range Chicken • By implementing this type of farming the birds are better exercised and aid in the aeratingof the soil while contributing nutritional matter back to the soil. Thus producing a much more ethically correct and better tasting bird.

10. Inspection of Poultry • All poultry to be used for human consumption must be inspected just like previously mentioned inspection. • Gradingis voluntary • The US Consumer Grade for Poultry are US Grade A, US Grade B and US grade C. • AGrade birds are free of holesin the skin, consistent thickness of fatand have no deformities. • B Grade birds are used in the making of chicken hot dogs, bologna, chicken mcnuggets, and other processed poultry products.

11. Storage of Poultry • Due to their instability of fats, we pack poultry in ice, to keep them colder than walk-in cooler temperature.

12. Congratulations You have completed another class in your journey to understanding this craft we call cooking. Be safe Be well Good Luck