Poultry and game are generally classed together, poultry being applied to domesticated birds raised for their flesh or eggs or both. Wild birds are all classed as game.

Digestibility

Chicken may be introduced early into the dietary of the convalescent, for it is one of the most easily digested of meats. Chicken is more easily digested than fowl, but is not as nutritious. The white meat of the breast is particularly free from fat, has short fibers and small amount of connective tissues, and is easier to digest than the dark meat.

Squab, quail, pigeons and the white meat of turkey are also easily digested.

Duck and goose contain a large quantity of fat and are not as easily digested.

1 For further information, note "Poultry as Food." Farmer's Bulletin, No. 182, Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

Game is comparatively easy of digestion but too highly flavored for most invalids. The cuts from the breast are the best for an invalid.

Test For Selecting A Chicken

The cartilage at the end of the breast bone must be soft and pliable, the skin smooth and the feet soft. There should be an abundance of pin feathers. Chickens are used for broiling and roasting.

Test For Selecting A Fowl

The cartilage at end of the breast bone is firm, the feet are hard and dry. The pin feathers are largely replaced with long hair. An old fowl, not too fat, is best for broths. One from one to two years is best for roasting, or where the meat substance is desired. The proportion of bone to meat in chicken under this age makes them expensive eating.

Principles Of Cooking

In general same as for cooking of other meats.

When the layer of meat over the bones is very thin, as in young chickens or squabs, broiling is preferable to roasting.

An old fowl can sometimes be made tender without having all its flavor stewed into the broth, by cooking in a small amount of water in a double boiler for a long time, or in a fireless cooker.

A general rule for roasting chickens or turkeys is twenty minutes to the pound. Ducks and geese, having tougher fibers, require a longer time for thorough cooking.

General Rule For Cleaning Poultry

Cut off head and feet and pull out pin feathers. If the bird has not been drawn, make an incision below the breast just large enough to admit the hand (or finger for the small birds). With the hand or finger, draw all the entrails out at one time. Care must be taken not to break them, especially the gall-bladder. Turn down the skin of the neck, cut off neck close to body and pull out wind pipe and crop. Cut out the oil bag. Cut through skin of the leg a little below the joint (not cutting the tendons), press against table and break and pull off foot with tendons, which will come out in breaking if chicken is young. In fowls you may have to pull them out separately with skewer. Singe the bird by holding it over a tablespoon of burning alcohol, or paper (holding over sink). Wash by allowing the cold water to run through and over it, and dry well inside and out and prepare further for broiling or roasting, etc.