Parts . . . 36 Yield . . . 38 Aging and deboning . . . 39 Aging . . . 39 Rigor mortis . . . 39 Strategies to alleviate toughness . . . 42 Portion control and uniformity . . . 42 Summary . . . 45 References . . . 46 Selected bibliography . . . 46
Introduction
Once birds have been converted into processed carcasses and chilled to the required tem- perature, they can be packaged and marketed whole or they can be converted into some other form such as parts or boneless meat. The many possibilities that exist for a carcass beyond the chiller are grouped together under the area of the plant known as “second pro- cessing.” Cutting the carcass into parts, deboning meat, and portion control sizing are func- tions that the poultry industry has begun to do in an effort to save the customer (home consumer, restaurant chain, or supermarket) time. Processors realized that customers were willing to pay for these services, so it has become a major effort in most companies.
Adding value
With the evolution of the modern lifestyle came a shift toward less disposable time and more disposable income. Two-income families and a hectic lifestyle have resulted in a wil- lingness by today’s consumer to pay extra for the convenience of partial preparation of the
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meal by the processing plant. People did not want to spend their time cutting the carcass into parts before cooking. In addition, consumers became willing to pay for the conven- ience of buying just the parts of the chicken carcass they wanted. If breast meat was all that was desired, then they could buy a package of just breasts, without the wings and legs they would not eat. These two concepts revolutionized the poultry industry in the 1960s. Even in 2000, the predominant form of chicken marketed in the U.S. is cut up parts. Thus, cut- ting the carcass into parts was a convenience customers valued and for which they were willing to pay. Restructured and other further processed products are additional ways to change the form of the product and add value, these products will be covered in subse- quent chapters. Value can also be added by changing other dimensions of the product such as location or time (where and when it is available). An example of these value additions is the higher price of various food items sold in airports or “convenience” stores.
Parts
Many configurations of parts can be obtained from a carcass. It can be simply cut in two halves, as for grilling, or it can be cut into many pieces. A general summary of the possi- bilities is provided in Table 4.1. Some foreign markets demand an even more elaborate line of pre-cut parts. For example, some Asian cultures prefer their parts to be cut so that there is minimal hand contact during eating. Figure 4.1 shows a selection of wing products, some having a handle to make eating easier.
Table 4.1. Commonly Used Configurations for Parts of a Chicken Carcass in the U.S.
Part Description
Half carcass Carcass split evenly into right and left halves
Breast quarter Anterior right or left quarter containing half of the spine,
the ribs, the pectoralis muscles (major and minor), and the attached wing
Leg quarter Posterior right or left quarter containing half of the spine,
the thigh, and the drumstick
Wing The three segments of the wing with a variable amount
of the breast meat (depending on the customer)
Breast The major and minor pectoralis muscles with or without
rib and sternum bones or skin
Thigh The upper part of the leg containing the femur
Drumstick The lower part of the leg containing the tibia and fibula
Drumette The inner portion of the wing
Wing portion The middle section of the wing, with or without the outer
“flipper or wing tip” portion still attached
Whole breast The anterior half of the carcass without wings, with both
breasts still connected in front and with or without the spine connecting them in the back
Keel piece The pointed posterior tip of the whole breast before
splitting (approximately one third of the whole breast)
Breast piece After the removal of the keel piece from the whole breast,
the remaining part is split into right and left halves
Whole leg Drum and thigh with no spine
Back or strip back Spine and pelvis, production of quarters puts the back
as part of the respective quarters
Breast half or front half The entire, intact, anterior half of the carcass
Cutting the carcass into parts is profitable because it is a way to add value to the pro- duct. “Value-added” processing is making some change in the product to increase its appeal to the consumer. This increased appeal is reflected in an increase in price. The price a consumer is willing to pay is a reflection of the value of that product to the consumer. Profitability occurs when one considers that the consumer price increase reflects the added expense of production and an additional margin that reflects the increased, intangible value to the consumer. Cutting a carcass into parts is probably the simplest example of value-added processing for poultry.
Example: 4 lb carcass $0.75 $3.00 25% breast 1.00 lb $2.50/lb $2.50 33% legs 1.30 lb $0.90/lb $1.17 14% wings 0.56 lb $1.50/lb $0.84 17% back / neck 0.68 lb $0.10/lb $0.07 11% giblets 0.44 lb $0.40/lb $0.18 $4.76 Cutting cost $0.05/carcass
Value added during cutting $4.76 (3 0.05) $1.71
In designing parts configurations, it is important to remember that some parts are of greater value and therefore have a greater price and profitability. Therefore, the objective of cutting the carcass into parts is to do it in such a way as to maximize the percentage of the carcass that is put on the most valuable parts. For example, it is more profitable to put as much back meat and bone on the breasts and legs because they are of greater value than the back. This will increase the profit achieved from the overall carcass. This is why it is com- mon to see breasts sold with attached rib meat, and thighs sold with attached pelvis meat. Grading of poultry will be covered in more detail in Chapter 5, but is also a good exam- ple of adding value. A carcass can be downgraded because it has a defect in one of its drum- sticks. The single defect decreases the value of the entire carcass. However, if the defective part can be removed by cutting the carcass into parts, then only the bad drumstick will be downgraded, effectively adding value to the remainder of the carcass which will be restored to premium value.
Example:
Whole carcass Grade B 4.00 lb $0.25/lb $1.00 (with broken drum)
. . . compared to . . .
Broken drum 0.25 lb $0.25/lb $0.0625 Parts Grade A 3.75 lb $1.20/lb $4.50 $1.20 weighted average Grade A parts value
Virtually the same grading cost for the Grade B carcass and the Grade A parts Salvaged (“added”) value $3.5625 ($4.50 $0.0625) $1.00
Grading can add value in another way. The customer gets a certain reassurance of product quality and consistency from purchasing poultry that has been graded. This reassurance has a specific value for which the consumer is willing to pay, over the amount it actually costs the processor to have the product graded.
Cutting poultry carcasses into parts can be done manually with a knife or table saw, or automatically with a wide variety of available machines. With machines, the cuts are made by positioning blades in very specific orientations to the oncoming carcasses. Inherent in such an intricate operation is the need for good maintenance and sharp blades so the cuts are performed accurately. Whatever the method, carcasses are usually cut into two (halves), four (quarters), eight (breasts, wings, thighs, drumsticks), or nine (two breast pieces, a keel piece, wings, thighs, drumsticks) pieces. The latter two configurations are called eight- and nine-piece cuts, and are common in the fried chicken restaurant industry.
Yield
Yield is a measure of efficiency. It can be generally defined as the amount of output obtained for every unit of input, expressed as a percent.
yield efficiency (output/input) 100
There are many different types of yield, and each one has its particular measure of effi- ciency for use in managing the processing plant. The proportion of the live bird body retained through first processing is called the ready-to-cook yield (RTC). This is a direct measure of the efficiency of catching, transportation, unloading, evisceration, and trim- ming. Any one of these factors can cause a loss of product and therefore RTC yield. An average value for this yield is 70 to 75%, and is slightly higher when the giblets are with the carcass than when the carcass is sold without giblets (WOG). This 75% can be used in com- bination with the live bird feed conversion to evaluate the overall efficiency of the verti- cally integrated company. Because only 75% of the live bird is going to be salable, a more useful measure of live production efficiency would be to calculate feed efficiency as feed consumption per unit of salable product. Such a measure would combine the efficiencies of the live production and processing plant arenas. Of the WOG carcass, about 60% is meat and 40% is bone. Of the 60% of the carcass that is meat, about 60% is light meat and 40% is dark meat. These are general numbers and will vary due to processing plant, bird age, and genetic strain. These numbers are useful for projecting available meat volume for some future operation, such as deboning the next day or future product development.
Another form of yield is examination of the proportion of the carcass that goes to each part (see earlier example on cut up parts). As previously mentioned, this yield classifica- tion can be critical to profitability when producing cut up parts.