Hot-Cutting of Broilers and Its Influence on Tenderness and Yield

Three experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of cutting up broilers immediately after evisceration. Data on tenderness and cooked yield of the breast and thigh parts were collected. Broilers cut up immediately after evisceration (hot-cut) were compared to broilers cut up after passing through a sanitary water chiller (chill-cut). The parts were cooked in an autoclave utilizing atmospheric pressure to an internal temperature of approximately 82° C. after various aging times at the laboratory. The hot-cut parts had a higher cooked yield than the chill-cut parts. When the parts were cooked after various aging times, there was a decrease in yield of the cooked parts aged up to 4 hours with the yield then becoming constant after 8 hours of aging. Parts aged for 24 hours had a higher cooked yield than the parts cooked immediately upon returning to the laboratory from the processing plant. The breast and thigh parts from birds with a dressed weight of 0.90–1.00 kg. had a higher cooked yield than the corresponding part from birds with a dressed weight of 0.55–0.64 kg. Thigh parts gave a higher cooked yield than the breast parts. After 24 hours of aging there was only a small difference in the shear value of hot-cut birds as compared to chill-cut birds with the hot-cut birds having the higher values. The taste panel detected this difference in tenderness of the parts. Aging the parts decreased the shear values with the thigh requiring a longer aging time than the breast. Thigh parts had lower shear values than thighs from small birds. The opposite effect in breast muscle was noted by the taste panel.