Baked chicken: historical facts and other curiosities about chicken
Interesting Chicken Historical Facts
The modern chicken used for baked meat and other dishes is believed to be descended from the red fowl of the jungle. This species of bird was first domesticated in North India and Southeast Asia more than 4,000 years ago.
Also about 4,000 years ago, the Egyptians built very large incubators made of bricks. The incubators could house up to 10,000 chicks at a time. Around the year 600 a. C., the Babylonians represented chickens in their carvings.
During the Middle Ages, chicken was the most popular meat. People believed that meat was easier to digest.
In the 1980s, breast meat made up 10% of the total chicken weight. For 2007, that number has increased to 21%.
During World War II, chicken consumption in the US increased because there was a decrease in the availability of beef and veal.
About 95% of restaurants in the US have chicken on the menu. The most popular dish is fried chicken, which accounts for more than 50% of chicken entrees ordered in the US.
In 2003, the average number of pounds consumed by an American in a year is 81.5 pounds. In 2007, the number has increased to 84.9 pounds per year. Cornish and White Rock are the most popular breeds for consumption in the US.
Other interesting curiosities about chicken
There are workers called chicken sexers. What their job entails is separating the females from the males. To do this, a sexer holds a chick up to a 300-watt light bulb to examine external patterns. The females are kept for egg laying, while the males are raised for consumption. A professional sexer can examine a thousand chicks per hour with an accuracy of 98%. That’s 8,000 chicks per day.
In the year 2000, China had the largest chicken population in the world. About 3.6 billion of them lived in China. The next largest population was found in the US, where there were 1.7 billion chickens. It was followed by Indonesia (1 billion), Brazil (950 million) and Mexico (476 million).
Gainesville, Georgia is the “Chicken Capital of the World.” There, eating meat with a fork is considered illegal.
Chicken skin color varies from yellow to cream. The color of the skin depends on the type of food that is given to the animal.
You can freeze chicken meat for up to two years and it will not change color or flavor.
Baked chicken is one of the easiest and healthiest dishes of all. When the internal temperature of baked meat reaches 160 – 170 degrees F (measured with a meat thermometer), it is considered safe to eat. The pink tint of baked meat is caused by hemoglobin in the meat tissues that has been converted to a heat-stable color.