Yield of Cooked Edible Portion of Young Roasted Turkey

CURRENT interest centers on the yield of cooked meat obtainable from turkeys of different sizes and shapes—from the small-type bird designed for the home kitchen to the large meat-type turkey custom-built to institutional specifications. Recent requests for information on yields prompted us to revaluate the results of tests conducted in our laboratories in 1939, 1940, and 1941, and to make additional tests in 1947. On the basis of the earlier data collected on 40 turkeys of different varieties, sexes, ages, and weights, it was stated in the annual reports of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics in 1940 and 1941 that yield of cooked edible portion of turkey was directly related to New York dressed weight (bled and picked), that is, the heavier the turkey “as purchased” the greater would be the proportion of cooked meat. In 1943, Harshaw, Kellogg, Rector, and Marsden of the Bureau of . . .