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 ftself 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 animalfood. 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. 
Che 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 
