the younger “game hen” or “poussin” even
more so.
Largely in reaction to the image of
industrial chicken, so-called “free range”
chickens are now sold in the United States,
but the term only means that the birds have
access to an outdoor pen. “Roasting” chickens
and capons (castrated males) are raised to
double or more the age of the standard broiler,
are heavier, and so have given their leg
muscles more exercise; the capon may also be
more succulent thanks to the infiltration of
marbling fat.
Turkeys Turkeys are also members of the
sedentary pheasant family. Meleagris
gallopavo descended from ancestors that once
ranged through North America and Asia. The
modern colossal turkey dates from 1927–
1930, when a breeder in British Columbia
developed a 40 lb/18 kg bird with oversized
flight and thigh muscles, and breeders in the