THE ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF THE FLESH OF THE DOMESTIC FOWL

Abstract

Determinations have been made of the moisture, fat, ash, and protein content of 34 chickens. The samples consisted of the skin, fat and flesh of the entire carcass. The methods of analysis used were: moisture, drying in vacuo at 50 °C.; fat, hydrochloric acid digestion; ash, ignition at 700 °C.; nitrogen, Gunning modification of the Kjeldahl; protein, by difference. The percentage composition has been found to be:Moisture Fat Ash Protein NitrogenAverage of 32 65.33 13.99 0.89 19.79 3.298Standard deviation 4.10 4.99 0.05 1.59 0.507Maximum 71.81 28.92 0.98 22.33 3.528Minimum 54.23 6.35 0.77 16.08 2.981The fat content was found to be inversely proportional to the percentage of moisture, the correlation coefficient between the two being − 0.962. A comparison was made of the hydrochloric acid digestion method and the Soxhlet extraction of fat, the former being found to be much superior in reliability of results and in economy of time.