Table 34 Cost of Cooked Edible and Slicable Meat (McElhinney)

Data for Dressing and Cooking Losses of Different Classes of Poultry Based on Per Cent of Live Weight (Lowe and Vernon)

The term dressed weight is used as in poultry classification and market-ing. A dressed bird is bled and has the feathers removed. Market prices from butcher shops are usually for the dressed and not the drawn weight. The drawn weight is the weight after removal of the head, feet, and digestive organs.

As given in Table 35, the average losses for all classes of poultry are 12, 20, 19, and 12 per cent for dressing, drawing, cooking, and inedible loss, respectively. Thus the cooked meat is less than 40 per cent of the live weight.

For the convenience of those buying poultry from the markets, the data in the preceding table are given in the following table, but based on the drawn weight, which makes the percentages higher.

Lowe and Keltner found that the edible meat without skin, based on the uncooked weight of 116 halves of roasters as prepared for the oven, averaged slightly more than 50 per cent. When the skin was included the edible portion was considerably higher.

The cost of the edible meat and of the total edible portion for the different classes of poultry given in Tables 35 and 36 is given in Table 37.

Roasting of poultry. The percentages lost in cooking poultry reported by Lowe and Vernon, and tabulated in Tables 35 and 36, were obtained by roasting the chickens in tight-fitting covered roasters at 250°C. for 30 minutes and then the temperature was lowered to 175°C. The pans were uncovered for the last 15 minutes of cooking and the heat increased to brown the roasts. In the covered pans used in these experiments, very little browning occurred while the roasts were covered.