e ) oe BULLETIN 467, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 7 
between the flavor of fresh and of properly handled stored birds. _ 
While frozen poultry will keep in good condition for several days after _ 
thawing, the flavor is better if the bird is cooked as soon as possible 
after the frost is out. 
The way in which frozen birds are thawed makes a great difference 
in the length of time they keep in condition. It used to be cus- 
tomary to thaw them by soaking in cold water, but this has been 
proved undesirable not only because the water is very likely not to 
be clean, but also because soaked birds ‘‘go off” in quality very 
rapidly. Soaking in hot water, as is sometimes done in market for 
a ‘‘rush order,’ is even worse. A much better way is to keep the 
birds for 24 hours at ordinary ice-box temperature (45° to 50° F.). 
As has been already stated, the sooner the birds are used after thaw- 
ing, the better, and whenever possible birds should be bought stiff 
and thawed at home. This means buying poultry a day before it is 
needed, but it is the surest way of having it properly thawed. In 
warm weather it should be put in the refrigerator to thaw, but in 
cold weather a moderately cool room will do as well. If it is impos- 
sible to do the thawing at home, the marketman should not be 
allowed to do i¢ until a short time before delivery. 
Although frozen poultry is hardly to be chosen when fresh birds 
are in the market, it undoubtedly has the advantage of furnishing 
chickens, turkeys, and other birds when the natural supply is lacking 
- and thus increasing the variety of the meat list. It also does some- 
thing toward keeping prices more uniform than they would other- 
wise be. 
te a Ea ee aes Et Sl gat ae - aS 
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MARKS OF GOOD TABLE POULTRY. 
FRESHNESS. 
In a freshly killed bird the feet feel moist, soft, and limber, and 
if it was dressed with the head on, the eyes look bright and full. As 
it becomes stale the eyes shrink and the feet dry and harden; when 
too stale, i. e., when decomposition is well under way, the body turns 
dark and greenish or becomes slimy. The flesh should be neither 
flabby nor stiff, but should give evenly and gently when pressed by 
the finger. It is very difficult to distinguish between good cold 
storage and freshly killed poultry. 
AGE. 
One of the commonest ways of testing the age of dressed poultry 
is to take the end of the breastbone farthest from the head between 
thumb and finger and attempt to bend it to one side. In a very © 
young bird, say a ‘broiler’? chicken or a green goose, it will be 
easily bent, like the cartilage in the human ear; in a bird a year or 
