Effect of Freezing and Marginal Finish Differences on the Preparation of Chicken Broiler Carcasses by Pressurized Deep-Fat Frying

Abstract

Commercial source broiler chicken carcasses were selected from the "drop-out" weight range (1300 ± 25 g) immediate to chilling regardless of strain, sex, and age. Selection required that all carcasses be in the "A" category for conformation and fleshing but specifically of either A-or B+ for finish. Half of the carcasses comprising each finish grade were subsequently either held bagged on ice for 52 hr or frozen in shrinkable film bags (-30°) for 34 hr and defrosted for 18 hr at 14°.Preparation for cooking involved separation and trimming to a "nine-piece cut", hot water rinse, egg-white dip and seasoned flour coating. Cooking used a pressurized deep-fat frying unit operating at 190° and 1 kg/cm 2 for 11 min. Each cooking cycle prepared the parts from four carcasses which were represented by the four treatments with 20 cycles constituting the experiment.Composite losses incurred from initial chilled weight to raw ready-to-cook parts was greater if the carcass had been frozen than held fresh but unaltered by a finish difference. No differences in gain due to coating, cooking loss, and yield of total carcass or its components occurred which could be attributed to the experimental variables except for thigh. Cooking loss and sample moisture content of thigh was decreased by earlier freezing. All alterations in total were small and of questionable impact on product quality.1979 Poultry Sci 58:355-360