26 PRELIMINARY COLD STORAGE STUDIES. 



themselves until their final verdict had been rendered. The data thus 

 noted were collected and summarized in order to determine whether 

 or not there had been any consensus of opinion respecting the impor- 

 tant points to be considered. 



A careful organoleptic examination of the chickens was also made 

 before cooking, but in this case, inasmuch as the chickens were seen in 

 the state in which they had been removed from storage, it was, of 

 course, perfectly easy for each inspector to determine which was the 

 fresh, which the drawn, and which the undrawn bird. These inspections 

 consisted in a careful study of the external appearance of the chicken, 

 and also of the body cavity, in both the drawn and the undrawn 

 chickens after the latter had been dressed for cooking. It is perfectly 

 easy in such cases to distinguish between a fresh and a cold-storage 

 chicken by the external and internal appearances. The odor, external 

 and internal, was also noted. The recession of the eye of the cold- 

 storage chicken, the changes of the color of the blood, the change to a 

 certain extent of the color of the interior of the bird and its flesh, the 

 development of blueness around the muscles of the legs, the ease with 

 which the flesh is detached from the bone, the odor of the bird, the 

 shriveled appearance of its skin all are highly indicative of the 

 changes which have taken place. It may be said that a careful inspec- 

 tion of cold-storage fowls, whether drawn or undrawn, before cooking 

 would do much, to destroy any appetite which might otherwise have 

 been manifested for these birds when cooked. The process of cooking, 

 however, does very much to eliminate the differences between the fresh 

 and the cold-storage fowls. To such an extent is this true that at 

 the end of the first three months there were very great differences of 

 opinion among the jury regarding the identity of the samples tested. 



It is generally considered by connoisseurs that a certain delay be- 

 tween the killing and the consumption of chickens and game birds is 

 necessary to develop the proper tenderness and flavor of the flesh. 

 This is a problem, however, which can not be discussed very exten- 

 sively at this point, since in the old-fashioned way the hanging of poul- 

 try and birds, for a certain length of time was considered necessary for 

 the purpose of "ripening," so called. They were not subjected, as a 

 rule, to as low a temperature as that found in cold-storage warehouses. 

 The common method, especially in Germany, was to hang the Christmas 

 goose or turkey from a back window for ten days or two weeks previous 

 to the serving of the meal, and thus it was subjected sometimes to 

 temperatures below freezing and sometimes to those above. At the 

 same time the birds thus exposed were hanging in the free air and 

 were relieved of the danger of being left in the stagnant air of a storage 

 warehouse. It is said that one of the best methods of sending the 

 wild duck across the water in the winter is to nail them to the mast of 

 a slow-going vessel. Their exposure in this way is said to place them 



