26 BULLETIN 467, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Not much is accurately known regarding the digestibility of poultry 

 cooked in different ways, but there is little reason to suppose that the 

 differences are great enough to be of significance to healthy persons. 

 In some recent experiments with man it was found that boiled chicken 

 left the stomach more quickly than roasted. This does not indicate 

 that the boiled chicken was more thoroughly digested, but merely 

 that it was more quickly acted upon by the digestive mechanism of 

 the stomach, and that, therefore, it might be a more desirable form 

 for persons suffering from gastric indigestion. Fried chicken, like 

 fried foods in general, has the reputation of causing more digestive 

 disturbance than that cooked in other ways. It is not yet definitely 

 known to what extent this is true, or, if true, the reason for it. One 

 suggested explanation is that the layer of fat surrounding the food 

 prevents the gastric juice from acting on it and delays digestion until 

 the fat itself is acted upon in the intestine; another is acrolein if 

 developed in overcooked fat is irritating to the lining of the digestive 

 organs, just as in the fumes from burning fat it irritates the eyes and 

 throat. 



One occasionally hears of poisoning from chicken pie. Many per- 

 sons believe that such trouble is due to the fact that the pie was baked 

 without having holes made in the crust, but this theory seems to 

 have no foundation. In an experiment in this office in which two 

 pies exactly similar except that one was made with an unpierced 

 and the other with- a pierced crust, were baked at the same tempera- 

 ture, it was found that they lost equally in weight during baking, 

 cooled at practically the same rate, and were in every way identical 

 except that less juice ran out of the one with the pierced crust. 

 Undoubtedly there are occasional cases of chicken-pie poisoning, 

 but they are probably no more common than poisoning from other 

 "made" dishes, including some which contain no animal food. All 

 such poisoning is due to microorganisms which have accidentally 

 gained access from dust, dirty fingers, or in some similar way. They 

 may have withstood the heat of cooking or entered the food after it 

 left the oven. In chicken pie, the meat might have become infected 

 between the first cooking and the time the pie was made. Fortu- 

 nately such poisoning can be prevented by care and cleanliness in 

 handling the food. 



COST OF POULTRY. 



The cost of poultry, like that of all meats, has been rising more or 

 less steadily during the last few years, but as no complete records are 

 kept of the market prices of different varieties, it is hard to make 

 accurate statements regarding the actual price. The only definite 

 figures found are those for chickens, collected by the Bureau of 

 Labor Statistics. For the year 1914 the retail price of chickens of 

 good quality, marketed dressed, ranged from 15 to 28 cents per 



