Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-01-07
WHEN SELECTING POULTRY FOR
 USE 0N TABLE:
Method of Determining Food Values Discussed by
 Federal Specialists.


 else, food and care as influencing ten- derness and flavor in poultry is point ed out by home economics specialists of the United States department of agriculture in a professional paper, Bulletin 467, just published.
 There is much less difference, the bulletin states, in the digestiblity or healthfulness of the meat of different kinds of fowls than is commonly SUD- posed. Nearly all the nutrients and eenrgy of poultry, as of other meats, it is pointed out, are utilized by the healthy normal body. In all kinds of poultry table quality deepnds prim- arily on tenderness and flavor, and these, in turn, are influenced by age. sex, exericse, and care. Freshness is also an important factor, but this is not merely a question of how long a bird has been dead, but rather of how far developed are the chemical and meteorological changes which, when they are carried too far, cause what we call sopiling or decomposi- tion in the meat. The microorganisms which cause dangerous changes are likely to be introduced by careless and dirty hadling, and for this reason cleanliness should be insisted on. The changes take place most rapidly in the presence of warmth and moisture. Hence cleanliness, cold, and dryness are at the bottom of all the emth- ods of caring for poultry on the farm. in the warehouse, at the market, and in the home.
 Methods of Cooking.
 The methods of cooking poultry are, in general the same as those for othcr kinds of meat. The tougher the bird, the more cooking will be needed to make it tender and easily dgested and the larger it is, the more heat will be required too cook it thoroughly. Canned and potted poultry are pre- pared in much the same way as fresh- ly cooked dishes, then sterilized and sealed and when properly put up do not differ essentially in food value from similar fresh foods.
 In regard to the general considera- tions to be observed in choosing pull try, the bulletin calls attention to the fact that while the relative cost of diff ferent kinds of poultry depends prim- arily on the price, the proportion of edible to inedible material and the thoroughness with which the edible portions can be utilized should also be kept in mind. Well-grown birds with good-sized masses of moderately fat flesh are more economical than either young or overwhelmed ones. At ordi- nary retail prices, full grown chicken is the only poultry which compares in real economy with the cheaper cuts of beef and pork, but young chicken, medium sized turkey, goose, and guinea fowl are often as economical as the more expensive grades of oth- CT meats.
 How to Recognize Good Table Poultry.
 The following statement of the methods by which good table poultry can be recognized by the purchaser is made in the bulletin:
 ''In a freshly killed bird the feet feel moist, soft, and Timber, and if it was dressed with the head on, the eyes look bright and full. As it be- comes stale the eyes shrink and the feet dry and harden; when too stale, i. e., when decomposition is well un- der way, the body turns dark and greenish or becomes slimy. e flesh should be neither flabby nor stiff, but should give evenly and gently when pressed by the finger. It is very diff ficult to distinguish between good coldstorage and freshly killed poul- try:
 "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 vry young bird, say 'broiler' chicken or a green goose, it will be easily bent, like the cartilage in the human ear. in gird year or so old it will be brittle. andin an old bird, tough and hard to bend or break. Unfortunately there are sometimes tricky dealers who break the end of the breastbone before showing the bird, an dthus render the test worth less. If the feet are left on the car cass, they furnish mark of age. in a young bird they are soft and smooth. becoming hard and rough as the bird grows older. The claws are short and sharp in young bird, growing long CT and blunter with age and use. Spurs geenrally occur on male chickens. On male broilers and tender roasting chickens they are small; on older, hlgher-flavored ones they are proml- nent but flexible: on cocks they are long and attached to the bones of the legs; on capons they seldom develop until the second year of age. :, Turkeys up to a year old are said to have black feet, which grow pink up to three years old and then gradu- ally turn gray and dull.
 The age of pigeons can sometimes be told by the color of the breast which becomes more and more purpl- lsh as the bird grows older Red feet are also to be sign of age in a pigeon.
 "In ducks and geese the flexibility Gt tsn the wi S%ndp1e is mark .d of y0uts when the bird is young, but later grows rigid and fixed. If the tips o1 the quills at the end of the wing arc sharply pointed the bird is probably young; the blunter they are, the older