Selecting and Purchasing Poultry and Game Dishes Lecture Notes:

 Poultry
- Poultry refers to several kinds of fowl that are used as food and the term includes chicken,
turkey, duck, pigeon, and quail. These are usually domesticated raised mainly for meat
and/or eggs.
 Games
- Birds such as smites that are hunted for food are games.
- Game includes such birds and animals suitable for food as are pursued and taken in field and
forest.
 Classification of Poultry and Games (Type and Uses)
- Chicken: Meat and Eggs
- Duck: Meat, Eggs, and Feathers
- Turkey: Meat
- Goose: Meat, Feathers, and Eggs
- Quail: Meat and Eggs
- Pigeon: Meat
- Guinea Fowl: Meat
- Wild Duck: Meat and Feathers
- Pheasant: Meat
 Broiler or Fryer
- A broiler or fryer is young chicken, usually 9 to 12 weeks of age, of either sex, is tender-meat
with soft, pliable, smooth-textured skin.
 Roaster
- A roaster is usually 5 to 6 months of age.
 Capon
- A capon is a surgically desexed male chicken usually under 8 months of age.
 Stag
- A stag is a male chicken, usually under 10 months of age, with coarse skin, with somewhat
toughened and darkened flesh.
 Hen or Stewing Chicken
- It is a mature female chicken which is usually more than 10 months of age. It can also be a
culled layer.
- The egg-laying chickens are called stewing hens once they are butchered.
 Cock or Rooster
- It is a mature male chicken with coarse skin, toughened and darkened meat and hardened
breastbone tip.
 Jumbo Broiler
- This is a large chicken about 4 kg. dressed weight which are on sale especially during the
Christmas holiday.
 Live Poultry
 Selecting Good Quality Poultry and Game
 - Live Poultry
a. It has clear eyes.
b. A young chicken has fine and soft feet. If it is old, the feet are thick and scaly.
c. The bone at the tip of the breast is soft in younger chicken and thick in older one.
d. Small feathers indicate that the chicken is young.
- Whole Poultry
a. Their head, feet and viscera are still intact.
b. They are clean, well fleshed.
c. They have moderate fat coverings.
d. They are free from pin feathers and show no cuts, scars or missing skin.
- Dressed Poultry
a. The skin is smooth and yellow in color
b. The breast is plump
c. The thighs are well-developed
d. It has no objectionable odor
e. It is heavy and the skin is not watery
- Ready-To-Cook: The dressed birds may be cut up and marinated or seasoned
- Poultry Parts
a. dark meat – drumsticks, thighs, wings, neck, backs, and rib cage
b. white meat –breasts
c. giblets – gizzard and heart
 Nutritional Value
- Chicken: 22.6% Protein, 76.3% Water, traces of Fat, Vitamins, and Minerals.
- Dark Poultry Meat: Rich in Fat, have higher Riboflavin and Myoglobin content.
 Preparation of Poultry for Cooking
- Slaughter and Bleeding
- Scalding
- Defeathering
- Evisceration
- Deboning
 Market Forms of Poultry
- Live Poultry: Live poultry should be healthy, alert, and well-feathered. Avoid poultry which
have bruises, blisters and broken bones.
- Whole Poultry: Though not alive, the criteria for selecting live poultry also apply to whole
poultry.
- Dressed Poultry: This is the most available poultry form in the market. Dressed poultry are
actually slaughtered poultry with the head, feet, blood, feathers and internal organs
removed. Good quality dressed poultry should be free from slime, off-odors and
discoloration.
- Drawn Poultry: These are dressed poultry that have been chilled or frozen. They are usually
available in groceries.
 - Ready-To-Cook: These are poultry parts such as wings, breast, thighs, or drumsticks which
have been separately packed in a single container and frozen or chilled.
 Different Cuts of Poultry
- Whole Chicken: are marketed either fresh or frozen
- Halves: is split from front to back through the backbone and keel to produce 2 halves of
approx. equal weight
- Breast Quarters: halves may be further cut into which include the wing. It includes portions
of the back, is all white meat
- Split Breast: a breast quarter with the wing removed
- Split Breast w/o Back: a breast quarter with wing and back portion removed
- Boneless, Skinless Breast: split breast that has been skinned and deboned
- 8 Piece Cut: The whole bird is cut into 2 breast halves with ribs and back portion, 2 wings, 2
thighs with back portion and 2 drumsticks. The parts may be packaged together and labelled
as whole cut-up chicken. These are usually sold without giblets.
- Whole Chicken Wing: the whole chicken wing is an all-white meat portion composed of
three sections; the drumette, midsection, and tip.
- Wing Drumettes: the first section between the shoulder and the elbow.
- Wing Mid-Section with Tip: the flat center section with the flipper.
- Wing Mid-Section: the section between the elbow, and the tip.
- Whole Chicken Leg: the whole chicken leg is the drumstick-thigh combination. The whole leg
differs from the leg quarter and does not contain a portion of the back.
- Boneless, Skinless Leg: the whole chicken leg with skin and bone removed.
- Thigh: portion of the leg above the knee joint.
- Boneless, Skinless Thigh: portion of the leg above the knee joint with the skin and bone
removed.
- Drumsticks: include the lower portion of the leg quarter.
- Giblets: includes the heart, liver, and neck.