GB2080665A - Method for the preparation of poultry for cooking - Google Patents

Abstract

Poultry particularly turkey is prepared for cooking by a de-boning technique in which the bones are separated from the white meat in a manner which leaves the white meat substantially in a connected mass. The white meat can optionally be gently treated with a protein extracting agent. The dark meat either together with the white meat or separately is also treated with a protein extracting agent e.g. polyphosphate to form an adhering mass. The treated dark meat, the treated white meat and a frozen shaped mass of stuffing are then assembled and the assembly is then wrapped in the skin and packaged. Fat can be introduced either during the assembly or after assembly has taken place by injection.

Description

SPECIFICATION Method for the preparation of pouftry for cooking This invention relates to methods for preparing poultry, particularly turkey, for cooking.

The manufacture of poultry for mass distribution in relatively ready to cook form has become a substantially increasing industry; for example turkeys are prepared in oven ready form, frozen and then distributed. This could be then ready for use by the housewife, for example, for roasting. Some products are distributed already stuffed. Nevertheless, even such products may require a certain amount of preparation by the cook and furthermore after cooking require carving which can provide problems. It has been suggested that there would be a demand for a product which could be cooked, for instance by roasting after thawing if previously frozen and which, when cooked, could be readily served simply by slicing. Thus it has been proposed to remove meat from a bird, assemble portions of the meat into a shape such as a roll and freeze, perhaps with an outer coating of fat.Generally such a product involves using meat broken up into small pieces or chunks, the white and dark meat being mixed so that the product does not so much resemble the original bird as a loaf our sausage product; such a product generally therefore does not have the taste ortex- tural characteristics of the original bird and therefore, while convenient, is not particularly appealing visually or during eating.

Simply de-boning a bird and assembling portions of the bird thereafter also has the disadvantage that it is difficult to provide a coherent mass.

It has now been discovered that by de-boning in a controlled manner, separating white and dark meat, treating the dark meat and then re-assembling in a specified manner, a product can be obtained which is satisfactory both visually and during eating and maintains coherence during cooking.

According to the invention therefore there is provided a method for preparing poultry for cooking in which a bird is de-boned to leave a coherent mass of white meat of relatively uniform depth, dark meat is separated and treated with a protein extracting agent to form a cohering mass a portion of which is shaped at least partially around a frozen shaped portion of stuffing, the mass of white meat is assembled with the dark meat the two encompassing the portion of stuffing, a portion of skin is applied about the white meat and the product is packaged.

The invention is primarily applicable to turkey as being the bird in major commercial distribution which has a sufficient ratio of meat to bone.

Nevertheless the invention could perhaps be applied to other poultry for example duck or goose. It is not likely to be applicable to chicken because of the smaller amount of meat on the individual bird.

The invention can be applied to various sizes of turkey but in a preferred form is applied to fresh birds which in oven-ready form weigh from 6 to 10 Ibs. Approximately half the bird can then be used for each final product unit. Such an oven-ready bird which has been prepared in a conventional manner including plucking and removal of head and viscera is prepared for boning by removal of the drumstick and mid and pinion wing. The mid and pinion wings and tail meat are not generally employed in this product. From this prepared bird the drumstick is removed. The bird is then de-boned in such a manner as to leave substantial portions of the white meat as an essentially coherent mass. Preferably the mass should include the breast, prime wing and scapula meat while the meat from the thigh and drumstick is separated.By essentially coherent is meant that the meat is held together as a mass by uncut portions of meat although cuts may be introduced to facilitate the spreading of the white or breast meat and associated meat into a portion of relatively even thickness or depth; thus the meat is in distinct form as distinct from processes in which it is cut into smaller discreet portions. In a preferred form, with the bird of 6 to 10 Ibs weight, there will be a single mass from each half of the bird including the scapula and prime wing and the meat will remain at least partially attached to the relevant portion of skin. Maintaining this partial attachment assists in final assem blyofthe product and in permitting location of the meat in relation to the skin.

The white meat can be injected with a moisturising agent for example by injection alone or combined with the technique known as massaging, i.e. agitation with or without alteration in pressure. A poss ible addition would be up to 7% by weight of aqueous agent The thigh or drumstick meat which has been separated is then treated to form the homogeneous mass by treatment with a protein extracting agent. Both the thigh meat and drumstick meat can be employed but it may not be desirable to mix these types of meat in the dark meat portion of the product. The relevant dark meat from the thigh or drumstick can be passed through a mechanical tenderiser and then tumbled with a protein extracting solution. This will comprise a smali amount of water containing known extractant such as salt and polyphosphate.The proportions of the extracting components and water will depend on the desired properties of the final tumbled product as well as the permissible amounts under the relevant Food Regulations. Sufficient tumbling should be provided to give a mass which is easily handled and which on cooking will cohere and join the various portions of the final product into a unitary cohesive mass.

The dark meat can also be subjected to a relatively gentle treatment so that the meat is maintained in fairly large chunks or lumps. For example up to 10% of protein extracting agent can be added some possibly by injection or all as free liquid. The dark meat and the white meat can be subjected to the massaging treatment together or separately. This would depend on the amounts of liquid to be added and the difference in treatment required for the two types of meat. After the treatment, if the meats are treated together then they are again separated.

A stuffing is provided which can be prepared from commercially available stuffing mixes. Such stuffing mixes comprise primarily a cereal or farinaceous material for example breadcrumbs and flavouring agents such as herbs and dried vegetables such as onion together with condiments such as salt and pepper and possibly fat such as beef suet. This stuffing which is usually originally in dry form is mixed with water in a conventional manner and then shaped and frozen. Freezing is essential so that the stuffing can form a central fixed core about which the rest of the product is assembled; preferably the stuffing is formed into a cylindrical shape.

In the manufacture of the final product an advantage of the method of invention is that a final product of fixed weight can be obtained irrespective of the variation in weight of the original bird. Thus, depending on the variation in white meat or breast weight the amount of dark meat can be varied to produce a fixed first target weight and the amount of stuffing added can be then controlled to produce a final target weight. Thus, it is reasonably easy to produce a series of products of uniform weight. After selectiqn of the amounts of the three components, stuffing, dark meat and white meat, the final product is then assembied. In the preferred form the white meat portion with its attached skin is laid out after sufficient release of the skin to provide for future stretching if release has not already taken place.

Release of the skin over a major portion up to three quarters is desirable. The white meat is then cut and folded out over a portion of the skin to provide a reasonably uniform depth. Where the white meat has been treated with a moisturising agent complete separation of skin may be desirable or necessary.

The portion of dark meat is then assembled about the shaped mass of stuffing to give an even thickness and this final shaped mass is placed upon the white meat. The white meat is then folded about the dark meat/stuffing mass as evenly as possible and finally the skin is stretched over the product and tucked and folded to give an evenly finished product.

Thus the dark meat in a readily shapeable mass can be completely formed about the stuffing mass and then the white meat was assembled about the dark meat. Alternatively by the dark meat mass whether in the form of a coherent tumbled mass or in the form of portions rendered adherent by protein extracting agent can be assembled as a mass adjacent to a shaped mass of white meat with the stuffing portion lying between the mass of dark meat and white meat and not surrounded by the dark meat. The latter assembly technique gives a more attractive appearance in the final product in that one has a substantial white mass positioned above the dark meat mass rather than a relatively thin layer about the dark meat mass.In the final product, however, the skin is still so assembled as to encompass the whole of the assembled product Alternatively the portion of stuffing can be placed on the white meat, for example in an appropriate incision, a portion of dark meat can then be placed on the stuffing and assembly completed.

This final product is packaged and frozen conventionally.

Cooking can then be effected simply by removing packing materials and baking or roasting. The skin on the outside of the product provides the attractive appearance of a conventionally cooked poultry product as well as the flavours associated with the skin and after cooking the product is usually sliced, the various portions being held together by the cohesion developed by the dark meat material during cooking.

During the preparative process the conventional conditions required for handling poultry products must be maintained including maintenance of temperature of the material.

Meat from the carcass or otherwise not employed in the product can be recovered for use for other purposes in a known manner.

In another embodiment of the invention particularly applicable to larger birds, the portions of white or breast meat will be separated from the skin.

Depending upon the particular sizes of the birds and the numbers of final products required it may be necessary to have two or three portions of white meat, each of which will be of substantial size and reasonably coherent. Skin and white meat from different birds can then be assembled, a piece of skin sufficient to coverthe desired products being assembled with sufficient white meat for that product; the exact boning technique and selection of meat will depend on the size of the bird.

To assist in cooking the final product particularly for roasting, it is desirable to provide the product with additional fat or other moistening agents appropriate to roasting. Preferably fats and oils of a commercial type appropriate for use in roasting poultry is employed. This can be injected into the bird prior to de-boning for example by injection into the breast area just beneath the skin. A hard fat of the type used for other roasting turkeys may provide a problem in that during de-boning and re-assembly, pieces of the fat which is quite hard at the temperature ofthe bird during processing, may be detached from the flesh or discarded. This can cause difficulties in controlling the correct proportion of fat in the bird in terms of the final product Accordingly a somewhat softer fat which will not separate so easily may be desirable.Alternatively, the correct amount of fat can be incorporated into the dark meat mass.

Either a soft or hard fat can be used for this purpose.

Incorporation into the dark meat mass ensures controlled addition of the fat and placing of the fat in the interior of the bird ensures adequate basting during cooking. Other means of incorporating fat are to provide a thin layer of fat between the white flesh and dark meat mass or a layer of fat between the skin and the white meat, the fat can be applied by positioning portions or layers, or injecting or spraying.

Also fat could be injected after assembly but before final packaging.

Introduction of fat either prior to de-boning of the bird by conventional injection techniques or by introducing fat into the dark meat portion has been found to give problems in that the introduction of fat leads to difficulty in extracting dark meat or white meat if this is done afterthe fat is introduced or a tendency to disintegrate if the fat is introduced after the tumbling of the dark meat. Accordingly, it is preferred that the fat not be introduced during the treatment of the various portions of meat until after the assembly of the portions has taken place. A;'; that time fat can be injected using the convwrnjec- tion technique as described for example in British Patent 1,228,398 using a multi-orifice needle.For example, after the skin has been wrapped round a substantive portion of the product one or two needles can be injected into the white meat portion at a point spaced from the exterior of the assembly and fat injected into the white meat portion. This gives an attractive feathering effect similar to that obtained by the injection of the whole bird. The needles could be injected into the product after complete assembly through the skin but this leads to openings being left in the skin through which fat could escape during cooking.

Other moistening agents could be incorporated in different manners depending on the nature of the moistening agent for example broths or phosphate solutions. The skin is that of the breast and thigh but where a larger bird is being processed and meat and skin from one bird for example from the drumstick could be employed with breast and thigh meat from a further bird. Also the same bird can be divided into more portions.

As stuffing there can be employed a cereal stuffing as indicated above or alternatively other stuffings such as meat stuffings, pate and other stuffing materials can be used. The final product can be surface treated with additional materials such as slices of ham or bacon, glazes, edible decorations and similar materials.

The product can be sold immediately after assembly but will generally be preserved in a conventional way usually by freezing. Packaging may therefore be necessary including placing in a bag of polymeric material which is evacuated, sealed and frozen for example by blast freezing, brine immersion freezing or cryogenic freezing.

Atypical turkey product produced by the process of the invention upon cooking and slicing trans verselywill have the central core of stuffing surrounded by dark meat with breast meat around the outside and then skin, the white meat slicing and appearing similar to meat as it natura'ly occurs on the bird.

The invention will now be illustrated by the following examples.

EXAMPLE I An oven-ready turkey without neck and giblets, mid and pinion wing and drumstick was employed having a weight of from 6 to 10 Ibs, the turkey had been tempered in ice over night; during processing the temperature did not exceed 4"C. The skin of the bird was cut lengthwise back and front and the prime wing bones removed leaving the skin and meat attached to the breast. The skin was loosened from the centre of the back to release from the thighs which were removed, de-boned and set aside. The breast was then removed from the remainder of the skeleton and consisted of the total skin of the turkey except for the portion removed with the drumsticks, mid and pinion wing joints and thus comprise only breast, prime wing and scapula meat. Two units were obtained each corresponding to half the turkey.

The thigh meat was passed through a mechanical tenderiser and then tumbled with 1% salt, 0.25% polyphosphate and 8.75% water by weight of meat for 15 minutes.

A stuffing was prepared by mixing a commerical sage and onion stuffing mix with twice its weight of water. The mix was filled into a cellulose casing to form a cylinder and frozen to -20 C; the casing was then removed. A portion of prepared breast meat and skin was weighed and dependent on the initial weight sufficient tumbled thigh meat was added to bring it up to a first target weight and a cylindrical portion of stuffing added to bring it up to a second target weight.

The breast, skin side down, was then laid on a processing tabie and the meat cut to provide a layer of even thickness. The skin was released from the breast to approximately 75%.

The processed thigh meat was formed about the cylinder of stuffing which was still in the frozen state to provide a layer of reasonably even thickness. The coated cylinder was then placed symmetrically upon the breast meat. The breast meat was carefully wrapped around the product and thereafter the skin around together with stretching where appropriate so asto enclose the product totally.

The product was secured into shape with loops of elasticised string, placed in a bag of polymeric material which is evacuated, clipped and blast frozen.

The oven-ready turkey employed was one which had been injected with fat in the breast by a known procedure used for preparing turkeys for the oven.

The same procedure was followed with a further turkey which has not been injected. To the thigh meat after tumbling there was added 30% of fat by weight of thigh meat and the resulting mixture of fat and thigh meat was employed as discussed above.

The products upon cooking and slicing transversely demonstrated an even structure with a central core of stuffing surrounded by dark meat and white meat. The product was attractive because of the brown colour of the skin, the white meat on slicing behaved in a manner similar to that of a whole bird once roasted and the flavour of the roasted product resembled that of a whole bird after roasting.

EXAMPLE II Aturkey substantially similar to that of Example I was prepared and de-boned as in Example I. The bird was one which had not been injected with fat prior to boning.

A quantity of breast meat was weighed and then injected from the skin side using a conventional multi-needle injector with an aqueous solution of by weight approximately 1.5% sodium polyphosphate, approximately 14% other salts and flavourings and approximately 85.5% water. The meat was then re-weighed the intended increase being 7% by weight. The meat was then treated in a conventional vacuum massager with additional free solution if the desired weight increase had not been achieved. The meat was then subjected to the massaging treatment, i.e. agitation with, if desired, rest periods.

An appropriate weight of portions of dark meat for example thigh pieces were treated in a similar man nerexceptthatthe increase in weight was 10%.

Amounts of white meat, dark meat and a portion of stuffing as prepared in Example I were selected to give the desired final weight of product. A portion of breast was placed skin down on a processing table skin down and the skin spread out as in Example I.

The portion of frozen stuffing was located in an incision in the white meat. THe portion of dark meat was placed centrallyoverthe stuffing. Asinglethigh was found to fit neatly if placed so that the outer membrane faces upward.

The skin was then wrapped about the product to enclose it as completely as possible and after inversion the product was encased in elasticated netting.

The product was then basted with 3% by weight of a water in vegetable oil emulsion. A multi-orifice basting needle as described in U.K. Patent 1,228,398 was inserted horizontally into the white meat portion of the product which was disposed with the white meat portion uppermost The product was then packaged and frozen. The product on cooking and slicing had a slightly more attractive appearance than that of Example I because of the location of the respective portions of meat and stuffing but otherwise had the attractive characteristics of the product of Example I.

Claims (16)

1. A method for preparing poultry for cooking in which a bird is de-boned to leave a coherent mass of white meat of relatively uniform depth, dark meat is separated and treated with a protein extracting agent to form a cohering mass a portion of which is shaped at least partially around a frozen shaped portion of stuffing, a mass of white meat is assembled with the two encompassing the portion of stuffing is applied about the white meat and the product is packaged.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the bird is a turkey.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein a half turkey is de-boned to leave a relevant portion of skin partially attached thereto.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein the scapula and prime wing meat are left joined naturally to the breast meat.

5. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 4 wherein the dark meat is thigh meat or drumstick meat and is tenderised and treated with an aqueous protein extractant containing polyphosphate.

6. A method according to any one of claims 2 to 5 wherein aqueous protein extractant is added to the white meat.

7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the stuffing is in the form of a frozen cylinder.

8. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein fat is added to the poultry meat.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the poultry carcass is injected with fat in the breast portion prior to de-boning.

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the assembled product is injected with fat into the white meat portion prior to final packaging.

11. A method according to claim 8 wherein fat is introduced into the dark meat before shaping adja cent to the stuffing.

12. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 wherein the packaged product is frozen.

13. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the skin is completely separated from the white meat during de-boning and portions of meat and skin from different birds are assembled for the final product.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein two or more coherent masses of white meat are employed in forming the product

15. A method of producing a poultry product for cooking substantially as hereinbefore specifically described in the Examples.

16. A poultry product when produced by a process according to any one of claims 1 to 15.