T HIS paper is the third of a series reported by Alexander et al. (1948) and Alexander and Schopmeyer (1949) on the yield of cooked edible portion, particularly muscle, obtained from poultry and various meats. It contains data on yield of cooked muscle (total white and dark, excluding neck and giblets) and skin with adhering fat for turkeys of different varieties, sexes, ages, fatness and breast type, together with data on cooking time, and cooking shrinkage. Cooking methods included roasting, oven braising, simmering, and steaming with and without pressure.
REVIEW OF LITERATUREThe literature was surveyed for information relating composition of uncooked and cooked turkeys to variety, sex, age, and grade.Harshaw and Rector (1940) published data on the physical composition of uncooked crossbred small-type turkeys of both sexes at 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 weeks of age. They concluded that between 28 and 32 weeks the gain in weight was mainly fat, and as a result the percentage of raw muscle (total of breast, leg, and other) was depressed when calculated on the New York dressed weight basis. Data of Harshaw et al. (1943) indicated that the content of raw muscle in proportion to New York dressed weight was smaller at 30 weeks than at 28 in Broad Breasted Bronze, standardbred Bronze, and White Holland males and females, with the exception of standardbred Bronze females which were very slightly heavier in muscle at 30 weeks. Data on Beltsville Small White turkeys were reported only for birds 28 weeks of age. Further utilizing the data on Broad Breasted Bronze and Beltsville Small White turkeys, Alexander et al. (1948) reported that the broader the breast type the greater was the percentage (New York dressed base) of raw breast muscle, and the plumper the leg fleshing the greater was the percentage of raw leg muscle. After Broad Breasted Bronze and Beltsville Small White turkeys were cooked, the same direct relation was observed between breast type and percentage of cooked breast muscle but there was in general an inverse relationship between leg fleshing grade and cooked leg muscle, Alexander et al. (1948).Published information relating variety, sex, and age to yield of cooked edible portion for roasted turkeys is summarized in Table 1. 187 at Michigan State University on June 15, 2015 http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from
