Poultry

Poultry exhibit at Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport
Ducks amongst other poultry
The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio

Poultry is the category of domesticated birds that people keep for the purpose of collecting their eggs, or killing for their meat and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails and turkeys) and the family Anatidae (in order Anseriformes), commonly known as "waterfowl" (e.g. domestic ducks and domestic geese). Poultry also include other birds which are killed for their meat, such as pigeons or doves or birds considered to be game, like pheasants. Poultry comes from the Latin word, poule, which means to hang.

Contents

Examples

Bird Wild ancestor Domestication Utilization
Chicken Red Junglefowl Southeast Asia meat, feathers, eggs, ornamentation
Duck Muscovy Duck/Mallard various meat, feathers, eggs
Emu various, 20th century meat, leather, oil
Goose Greylag Goose/Swan Goose various meat, feathers, eggs
Indian peafowl Indian Peafowl various meat, feathers, ornamentation, landscaping
Mute swan Mute Swan various feathers, eggs, landscaping
Ostrich Ostrich various, 20th century meat, feathers, leather
Turkey Wild Turkey Mexico meat, feathers
Domesticated guineafowl Helmeted guineafowl Africa meat, pest consumption, and alarm calling
Common pheasant Common pheasant Eurasia meat
Golden pheasant Golden pheasant Eurasia meat, mainly ornamental
Rhea Rhea various, 20th century meat, leather, oil, eggs

Cuts of poultry

Cuts from a plucked chicken.

The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second segments of its legs, called the thigh and drumstick, respectively.

White meat has less oxygen-carrying myoglobin than the dark meat, and is thus lighter in color. Dark meat comes from muscles more heavily exercised, which therefore have more fat stored in them. This accounts for dark meat's reputation as being both unhealthier and more flavorful than white meat. Birds that fly rarely (domestic turkey) or sporadically (chicken) have white meat breasts, and birds that fly frequently or long distances (ducks, geese and doves) have dark meat breasts. Quail breast meat is intermediate in color.

See also

External links