[OC] I bought and cooked 5.5 lb of chicken quarters. This is the breakdown of the weight throughout the processdreaming-in-colour OP t1_iw8g19v wrote
SOURCE: I bought chicken and baked it in the oven. I recorded weights using a kitchen scale at every step of the process, including weighing and saving grease from the pan, and weighing bones after eating. All percentages are [portion] ÷ [starting weight]
TOOLS: Microsoft Excel
Water in package - there is an absorbent pad (diaper?) in the bottom of the packing, which was 7% of the weight that was advertised.
Trimmed fat and Recovered fat - Removed and discarded some fat prior to cooking, left some in pan. I weighed the mass of the trimmed fat, and after cooking, the fat/grease in the pan was recovered into a mason jar and for future cooking and weighed. The total weight of trimmed and recovered fat was 12%.
Evaporated water - The difference of the raw weight + grease and cooked weight + grease. This ended up being 23% of the total weight.
Bones and inedible content - I ate the meat and weighed the bones and inedible content after. "Inedible content" includes tendon. This is 14% of the total weight.
Edible meat and skin - cooked weight (without grease) minus the bones. The weight of skin wasn't separated from the meat, but its was cooked well and crispy, so it didn't weigh much. Edible content was 45% of the total weight.
NOTES:
This experiment was done in 2 trials (different meals) from the same single package. The weights of evaporated water, meat, and bones varied by 10%-15% between the trials. This depends on the size of the quarters and how the bird is split.
The evaporated content will vary based on how you cook chicken. I used an oven, so there was plenty of evaporation. If you used a crock pot for soup/stew, you wouldn't lose much to evaporation, and it would become juices in the soup/stew.
Evaporation will also vary based on how long you cook the chicken, temperature, size of bird. In theory, you could evaporate all the water have very little mass of meat remaining. My result after cooking was a delicious piece of chicken, not too dry, so I will say that I cooked it "enough" and 20%-25% evaporated weight seems appropriate for nicely cooked chicken.
ben_db t1_iw8kfg7 wrote
> which was 7% of the weight that was advertised
That's way more than I expected
_mynd t1_iw8tq4f wrote
Sounds about right. Noticed this one of my first trips to SAMs Club. Got a huge package of boneless skinless breasts, came home to separate into freezer bags, and used a kitchen scale to split up evenly. Think there was a good pound, iirc, of water in the package (diaper).
LunDeus t1_iwamu9q wrote
Yet another reason costco is superior. No diaper.
Blueskys643 t1_iwaoln9 wrote
Costco uses diapers in their cut meat likes steaks and roasts. The chicken is prepackaged. Also its still the same amount of water in the package and one of those diapers dry weighs next to nothing.
Atlas-Scrubbed t1_iw9w74u wrote
Package weight is NOT supposed to be part purchase weight. If your grocery is doing that, report them for fraud.
EntertainMeMthrfckr t1_iwa0wwz wrote
The diaper isn't part of the weight. The meat is weighed, then packaged, then liquid is absorbed by the diaper. The liquid in the diaper is what they're referring to.
IrocDewclaw t1_iwa5e1m wrote
Agreed. At store I managed, chicken was weighed before packaging and the price reflected only the product wieght not the packaging.
If anything, the pad's weight equals the loss weight of the meat.
If they are packaging the chicken then setting the price by weight of the whole unit, they are committing fraud.
MoogTheDuck t1_iw9axrt wrote
Found J Kenzi Lopez-Alts alternate
KronikDrew t1_iwahnt7 wrote
... so... J Kenzi Lopez-Alternate?
[deleted] t1_iwau3v9 wrote
[removed]
dml997 t1_iw95x5y wrote
Great analysis u/dreaming-in-colour
since you spell it "colour" I guess you're not american? (like me too)
mcmonkey26 t1_iwa8343 wrote
and they also use kg
jankyj t1_iwcdmy8 wrote
Like the rest of the world.
APIPAMinusOneHundred t1_iwakq6z wrote
I regularly bake chicken thighs so that the kids and I have something that's both quick and relatively healthy. I'm annoyed to no end by how much of the weight is obviously water injected into the meat to plump it up and make it weigh more.
ScrotumSlapper t1_iwc56zl wrote
Look into air-chilled chicken.
phryan t1_iwan5q7 wrote
Make broth or stock from anything inedible.
StringTheory31 t1_iwjzt5t wrote
So all of the individual weights added up to the advertised total weight, indicating the seller labels these according to what they weigh after they are packaged instead of weighing the meat by itself before packaging? I'd always assumed it was the other way around, based on how cooked meat purchased from the grocery store deli is weighed!
Thank you for data that is not only beautiful, but useful!
Nmaka t1_iw9n0tb wrote
i know when i worked at a grocery store, we didnt zero out the package weight, so you should include that too in the weight you pay for
marfaxa t1_iw9st8f wrote
Every package I've seen has a tared weight on the label. My state has a Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. I'd alert them if I knew the store wasn't taring the container weight.
Nmaka t1_iwagth7 wrote
shruggie it was a while ago and im not american. idk if im remembering right or of the store still does ot that way
DropoutBrewing t1_iwacgm8 wrote
Tare weight can be automatically programmed into a store's labeling system.
HarryMcDowell t1_iw9bw88 wrote
>Water in package - there is an absorbent pad (diaper?) in the bottom ofthe packing, which was 7% of the weight that was advertised.
This sounds like a false, misleading, or deceptive trade practice. Any of which is a violation of the FTC Act and the consumer protection laws of every State and Territory in the United States.
You should report this to each of the following: a local consumer advocacy attorney, your jurisdicition's Attorney General's Office, and the FTC.
I am a lawyer, but I am not your lawyer. This post doesn't create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing I've written here should be relied upon as legal advice. Each of the organizations I've linked will be able to tell you if there is, in fact, a case here.
centizen24 t1_iw9exf6 wrote
But the pad weighs that much because it absorbed liquid that came out of the chicken. It's not some grand conspiracy.
pug_subterfuge t1_iw9fjb5 wrote
How is it misleading? They packaged the chicken at the listed weight and some of the moisture in the chicken seeped into the packaging.
OnlyNeverAlwaysSure t1_iw9fvx9 wrote
Sir or madam I like my chicken meat PRE-DRIED!
showponyoxidation t1_iw9k5pv wrote
Yeah, imagine buying chicken and not expecting moisture. It's not Turkey.
Intelligent_Moose_48 t1_iw9n7gz wrote
Turkey is only dry because people waaaaay overcook it and don’t use meat thermometers. Don’t go over 165F internal and it’ll be nice and juicy.
marfaxa t1_iw9swp6 wrote
And brine it.
Locke_and_Lloyd t1_iw9tmgh wrote
150F is the sweet spot.
ul2006kevinb t1_iwa8ier wrote
The fact that a lot of the country is desert doesn't help either
Bennito_bh t1_iw9zgzo wrote
Lawyers only got 1 speed man
Intelligent_Moose_48 t1_iw9hqx4 wrote
Most packaging in america will say something like ‘up to 10% saline by weight”
Half-a-Fork t1_iw95e9z wrote
>2 trials from the same single package
Not a large enough sample and it would break the assumption of independence of observations were we to run any tests against this data
dreaming-in-colour OP t1_iw96cq1 wrote
If you can find any better analysis than this on the internet, please provide a link. I did this study because I couldn't find answers to my questions.
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