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Poussin (chicken)

butcher's term for a young chicken

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ14473756
Source-derived summary

In Commonwealth countries, poussin (pronounced is less commonly called coquelet) is a butcher's term for a young chicken, less than 28 days old at slaughter and usually weighing 400–450 grams (14–16 oz) but not above 750 grams (26 oz). It is sometimes also called spring chicken, although the term spring chicken usually refers to chickens weighing 750–850 grams (26–30 oz). The word is the French language term for the same thing. Normally a portion is a whole poussin per person.

In the United States, poussin is an alternative name for a small-sized cross-breed chicken called Rock Cornish game hen, developed in the late 1950s, which is twice as old and twice as large as the typical British poussin.

External links

The British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair' definition of poussin and coquelet

The British Assured Food Standards organisation's definition of poussin.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Poussin (chicken)” is butcher's term for a young chicken. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Poussin, chicken and butcher's, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 143-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Poussin, chicken and butcher's is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “butcher's term for a young chicken” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14473756. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Poussin (chicken)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Poussin (chicken) primary sources, Poussin (chicken) archive and Poussin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Poussin (chicken)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Poussin (chicken)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.