Storing poultry
It is best that you purchase what you can consume for the week however if for some reason you need to store your chickens the guide below would be useful for you keeping in mind that common household refrigerators very rarely is cold enough and able to maintain the temperature specified due to frequent opening and closing of the doors.
RAW Refrigerator (2-4° C) Freezer (-18° C)
Whole 4 days 12 months
Pieces 2 days 8 months
Giblets 1-2 days 3 months
Cooked
Pieces 1-2 days 1 month
Pieces in gravy 1-2 days 6 months
Casserole 1-2 days 6 months
Fried 1-2 days 4 months
Thawing
We strongly recommend thawing your frozen chicken by removing it from the freezer compartment and placing it in the refrigerator. A whole chicken will probably thaw in 12-18 hrs. We do not recommend thawing your chicken on a counter in a warm room as the danger of you forgetting the meat and letting it get too warm may result in spoilage. Besides, in our warm climate, the outside layer may thaw and start to spoil while the insides remain frozen. A better way if not the best is to thaw the chicken by submerging the bag containing the chicken into cold water till the meat is pliable, normally taking no more than 2 hours. Please do not leave raw meat out in the open unattended.
Storing Eggs
Storing eggs safely is subjected to two main factors, humidity and temperature. Once again we recommend that you buy what you can consume in a week. You can safely store eggs for up to 3months at 7°C and 70% humidity. In a standard household where humidity is typically low, you can probably keep eggs for up to 5 weeks.
When in doubt as to the age of the eggs, you can place the egg in water, a fresh eggs will settle to the bottom horizontally and a one week old egg will rest at 45° while a stale 2-3 week old egg will settle to the bottom vertically, big end up. This is due to the larger air cell in the egg. A very old egg will literally float to the top.
Another way to tell the freshness of the egg is to break it and observe its content. A fresh egg has cloudy and firm albumen that holds the yolk up high while a stale one has clear, watery albumen that spreads out thinly around the yolk. The older the egg, the greater the likelihood that its yolk will break due to the migration of water from the albumen to the yolk stretching and weakening the yolk membrane. The albumen of a fresh egg contains carbon dioxide that makes the white look cloudy. As an egg ages, the gas escapes and the white turns more transparent. A yellowish or greenish hue to the albumen of a fresh egg indicates the presence of B vitamin riboflavin.
Nutritional Value of Eggs
Forget the bad press, eggs are considered the perfect food containing almost all the nutrients for life lacking only vitamin C. Egg protein is complete containing all the essential amino acids, it is among the highest quality protein found in food second only to mother’s milk.
Raw eggs
One of the proteins in raw eggs is avidin, avidin ties up the vitamin biotin as one of an egg’s defenses against bacteria, since most bacteria can’t grow without biotin. Pets are sensitive to the effects of avidin and shouldn’t be routinely fed with raw eggs. A human will have to eat 24 raw eggs a day to be affected. Avidin is inactivated by heat.
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