STUDIES OF POULTRY. 41 



when water is used for the same purpose. This is a practical problem 

 for the scientific investigator and one of the utmost importance from 

 the view point of fresh, wholesome food. 



If freezer storage is to be applied for long preservation it is the 

 custom of the more progressive packers to air-chill the stock (see 

 p. 30) , though the more conservative men, or those not equipped for 

 air chilling, habitually store large quantities of water-chilled poul- 

 try. Within a few months such poultry can be identified by small, 

 dry, scaly areas, chiefly on breast and thighs, and by a loss of the 

 color and translucency characteristic of fresh birds which have not 

 been water-soaked. After thawing, whether in water or air, the 

 flesh is not so firm nor the color so good as in the case of the air- 

 chilled poultry. 



If water-chilling poultry is detrimental to its good keeping, it can 

 readily be seen that the custom of scalding poultry, which prevails 

 in so many sections, must be even worse. Water-soaking the skin of 

 a chicken destroys its histological integrity by an endosmotic burst- 

 ing of cell walls and lowers its resistance to bacterial invasion by 

 diluting the contents of the cells. The skin of a chicken chilled in 

 water contains at least 18 per cent more moisture than when air 

 chilled; hence the blisters which form after freezing the water- 

 chilled fowls. Scalding the chicken for the removal of the feathers 

 necessarily alters the structure of the skin far more than mere soak- 

 ing. It reduces its protective properties, as far as bacteria are con- 

 cerned, to almost nothing. Undoubtedly, too, its deleterious action 

 is even deeper seated, since the keeping time of a scalded chicken is 

 reduced to a very low figure, comparatively. The nature of this 

 deeper action is now under investigation. 



A study of the behavior of dry-picked and scalded fowls after 

 freezer storage a shows that the scalded specimens vary greatly in 

 condition, even after three months' holding. Loss of color, texture, 

 flavor, and general good quality is more rapid in scalded than in dry- 

 picked chickens. If any delay occurs before storage, or any error in 

 handling is made, the scalded birds show the effect very soon, even 

 if hard frozen. Incipient decomposition, though retarded in a frozen 

 scalded fowl, is not checked to the same extent as in the dry picked. 

 Indeed, under the same disadvantageous conditions deterioration will 

 have obtained a good foothold in the scalded stock before it has made 

 any headway with the dry picked. On entering the freezer a scalded 

 bird may show no signs of active decomposition, yet after six or 

 nine months a distinct greening of the skin may be observed, and, 

 while quick thawing may be accomplished without the appearance 



a Pennington, address before American Warehousemen's Association, Decem< 

 ber, 1909. 

 [Cir. 64] 



