Birds Guide

Ducks amongst other poultry

The Poultry-dealer, after Cesare Vecellio.

Poultry is the class of domesticated fowl (birds) used for food or for their eggs. These most typically are members of the orders Galliformes (such as chickens and turkeys), and Anseriformes (waterfowl such as ducks and geese).

The word poultry is often used to refer to the meat of these birds. In a more general sense, it may refer to the meat of other birds, such as pigeons or doves, or game birds like pheasants.

Types of poultry

Cuts of poultry

The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called breast meat, and the walking muscles on the first and second segments of its legs, called the thigh and drumstick respectively.

In chickens and turkeys, the flight muscles, not adapted for sustained use, have less oxygen-carrying myoglobin than the walking muscles, and are thus lighter in color. This is the distinction between "white meat" and "dark meat". Waterfowl are adapted for sustained flight, and their breast meat is dark.