Fairer fowl

Fresh chicken for the stouthearted carnivore

by John Buntin

SPRING CHICKENS: Mayflower Poultry's birds are so fresh, they're practically still clucking.

The poultry industry has a dirty secret. We're not talking about the foul conditions of America's hen houses; we're talking about fresh chicken. Fresh chicken is hard to find. The shelves of your local Star Market may be full of the ubiquitous bird, but most of the chicken in the supermarket isn't fresh in the common sense of the word. It's been "hard chilled" to 26 degrees or lower and then thawed out for display.

In 1996, the US Food and Drug Administration tried to end the charade by requiring birds that had spent time in the freezer to be labeled "hard chilled," but the powerful poultry industry ended that effort. (When Tyson Foods talks, both Bill Clinton and Trent Lott listen.) Consumers were left in the dark, unaware that the seemingly fresh birds they were buying had actually been frozen. And people wonder why a succulent roast chicken is so hard to pull off.

There is a way out of the big lie, however: the Mayflower Poultry Co. in East Cambridge -- the store on Cambridge Street with the unmissable LIVE POULTRY, FRESH KILLED sign. It sells fresh chickens at prices that will make you wonder why you ever ponied up so much money for Perdue. It's not a store for the faint of heart -- chicken parts abound, there are dead birds in abundance -- but for the thrifty gourmand, it's a find.

Mayflower Poultry sells roasters, whole or split breasts, wings, and drumsticks, not to mention guineas, geese, squab, pheasants, quail, and other exotic game birds. But pullets -- plump young hens less than a year old -- are this store's real prize. Every morning the store brings in a truckload of these sweet young things from a farm in New Hampshire and slaughters them on the spot. Buy a bird ($7) and the butchers will be happy to prepare it the way you want it. Need a chicken breast, split in two, with the skin on so you can stuff it with yummy things? No problem. That'll set you back about $3. It doesn't get much fresher than that.

The Mayflower Poultry Co., located at 621 Cambridge Street, in East Cambridge, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (617) 547-9191.