Cold storage poultry is best thawed out by being placed over night in a tank of water.  Poultry prejudice prevents the practice of retailing the goods frozen, though this method would be highly desirable.

Drawn or Undrawn Fowls.

Within the last two or three years there has been a great hue and cry about the marketing of poultry without drawing the entrails.

The objection to the custom rests upon the general prejudice to allowing the entrails of animals to remain in the carcass.  If a little thought is given the subject, however, it is seen that human prejudice is very inconsistent in such matters.  We draw beef and mutton carcasses, to be sure, but fish and game are stored undrawn, and as for oysters and lobsters we not only store them undrawn but we eat them so.

The facts about the undrawn poultry proposition are as follows:  The intestines of the fowl at death contain numerous species of bacteria, whereas the flesh is quite free from germs.  If the carcass is not drawn, but immediately frozen hard, the bacteria remain inactive and no essential change occurs.  If the carcass is stored without freezing, or remains for even a short time at a high temperature, the bacteria will begin to grow through the intestinal walls and contaminate the flesh.

Now, if the fowl is drawn, the unprotected flesh is exposed to bacterial contamination, which results in decomposition more rapidly than through the intestinal walls.  The opening of the carcass also allows a greater drying out and shrinkage.

If poultry carcasses were split wide open as with beef or mutton, drawing might not prove as satisfactory as the present method, but since this is not desirable, and since ordinary laborers will break the intestines and spill their contents over the flesh, and otherwise mutilate the fowl, all those who have had actual experience in the matter agree that drawing poultry is unpractical and undesirable.

As far as danger of disease or ptomaine poison is concerned, chances between the two methods seem to offer little choice.

The Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S.  Department of Agriculture has conducted a series of experiments along the line of poultry storage.  So far as the results have been published, nothing very striking has been learned.  From what has been published, the writer is of the opinion that the somewhat mysterious changes that were observed in the cold storage poultry were mostly a matter of drying out of the carcass.

Poultry Inspection.

The enthusiastic members of the medical profession, and others whose knowledge of practical affairs is somewhat limited, occasionally come forth with the idea of an inspection of poultry carcasses similar to the Federal inspection of the heavier meats.

The reasons that are supposed to warrant the Federal meat inspection are precaution against disease and the idea of enforcing a cleanliness in the handling of food behind the consumer’s back, which he would insist upon were he the preparer of his own food products.