Thermocouple Placement in Chicken Carcasses

Considerable difficulty was encountered in replication of time required to cool during a study to establish accurate cooling curves of broiler carcasses in 32°F. water. Similar problems were reported by Nicholas and Havanesian (1960) who were working with freezing curves. They suggested a technic whereby the carcass was split, thermocouples were placed in exact positions, the flesh was sewn back together and the carcass was placed in a freezer bag prior to obtaining temperature changes. Since poultry carcasses are normally chilled without use of bags this method is not applicable. The purpose of this report is to outline the technic of thermocouple placement which was found most suitable in this laboratory and to compare it with other methods in general use. Thermocouples were mounted on a wooden probe as shown in Figure 1. Affixing the thermocouples to the probe allowed easier insertion and gave greater assurance of…