3 ms·
Chickens don’t have bones anymore - they grow so fast that there is not time for the bones to mineralise. My brother and I used to always break the wishbone wit
by danieltillett 10y ago
Chickens don’t have bones anymore - they grow so fast that there is not time for the bones to mineralise. My brother and I used to always break the wishbone with each other whenever we had a roast chicken when we were kids. I tried about a year ago to do this with my kids and it was impossible.
- refurb 10y agoEvery chicken I've ever cooked, including the one last night had bones. We're talking bones that take a lot of force to break.
- danieltillett 10y agoThey have pseudo-bones (basically just cartilage with minor mineralisation). These “bones” are nothing like they were like 40 years ago. This cartilage is of course tough, but try cracking a wishbone of a modern meat chicken - it just bends rather than snaps. Interestingly the growth rate of modern meat chickens is limited to bone mineralisation rate. If you breed a chicken with faster growth rates (which you can do) they end up with broken legs as the bone can’t support the weight of the bird [1]. 1. http://japr.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/1/138.full.pdf http://japr.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/1/138.full.pdf