Meat bird processing procedure - any suggestions? Want to be sure meat is safe to eat.

[Goldenwahintofboss]

Joel Salatin is a well known expert in all things chicken (and all things homesteading for that matter). I learned to process my birds from this video. He is respectful of the life and of its total value.

Ya he is very cool. I watched Justin Rhodes do it a couple times now. Felt ready after that

 

[Cryss]

Best video ever on how to process a chicken from beginning to end. Clear concise instructions

 

[Jenny4]

I'm new to meat bird processing, and to processing of any animal. I've processed three Cornish Cross chickens, and have 20 to go. They are 6 weeks old, so now is the time. I have a number of questions and I was hoping you guys could take a look at my procedure and see if you have any thoughts for improvement.

A) Why do we use ice to cool down the bird after scalding? If I'm just doing one chicken in coolish weather, can I just use cold water? How long should the bird rest in the cold/ice water after scalding? If it stays there too long, will it become hard to pluck? My icewater container is a 5 gal bucket.

B) What is that round dark red globular organ that looks the color of a kidney but is enclosed in a membrane? It's the size of a nickel maybe.

C) What is that pale intestine colored sac that is globular that attaches directly to one end of the gizzard? Can I just cut it off the gizzard and cut the intestines off the other side of the gizzard? How do I ensure bacteria from the gizzard doesn't pose a problem for the gizzard meat I save? Is washing it off after peeling it sufficient?

D) Total processing time from slaughter to finished bird going into the fridge is probably an hour and a half or so. Is this a problem from a bacterial growth perspective? I've had trouble finding info on this.

E) Which steps should I be particularly careful with? I already know not to puncture the gut. If I do, avoid getting it on the carcass or immediately wash it out well is the only things I know to do.



Below is my procedure for processing. Do you guys have any recommendations? Mainly want to be sure the meat is safe to eat (I'm worried about bacteria) and I don't want to waste their lives and all my effort. I thought I'd have additional help, but I don't so I've been doing 1-2 birds a day, and also I have a few questions. Trying to move up to 4 birds a day. Had one today with leg issues, so will have to process again tonight.

1) Broomstick method/English method followed by draining the blood for 5-10 minutes. It's 50-60F outside.
2) Hang it by its feet and wet it with water and some dish soap and scrub it all over like I'm giving it a bath to get off the poop and some of the dirt. Not a great cleaning cause I"m doing it one-handed, but at least remove most of the visible poop. Spray it down with the high powered sprayer on the hose.
3) Scald at 145F until wing pinfeather comes out easily. Scald water has 2-4 drops of dish soap in it, a few bubbles.
4) Plunge bird into cold water or ice bath to cool down skin and body that was just scalded. Maybe 5-10 minutes until it feels mostly cool to the touch.
5) Hand pluck bird. This takes maybe 20 minutes.
5a) Rinse bird again with sprayer, then plunge into the same icewater as earlier because it started to feel a bit warm again. 5 minutes. Re-rinse bird with sprayer.
6) Remove head, neck, feet, wing tips, peel skin off feet. 5-10 minutes.
6a) separate out windpipe and esophagus from neck, carefully peel back skin from around crop (I haven't been starving my birds as I've had to process without planning ahead much). Remove crop, cut esophagus and windpipe between crop and body cavity of chicken.
7) Open abdomen without nicking guts (this is hard!). Carefully reach inside and pull everything out. Remove gizzard as I find it, heart, and kidneys. Cut gizzard off of entrails, open it, and peel it. Rinse it off and add to stock parts bowl. Remove kidneys from entrails without disturbing bile duct. Cut veins off of heart. Save kidneys, heart, gizzard, feet, and neck for soup or feeding back to my eggers.
8) Finish removing entrails, finish cutting around vent, remove vent and (if it's not already removed) tail from bird.
9) Cut off testicles and pop out lungs. Remove whatever those are in the backbone of the bird that looks like kidney when squished out. All told, entrail removal step 6a to now probably takes 20-30 minutes.
10) Rinse out inside and outside of bird with high pressure hose sprayer. Try to cool it down some.
11) Place bird in large ziplock bag and onto shelf in refrigerator.
12) Place stock parts into regular ziplock bag and onto shelf of refrigerator.
13) Age bird in refrigerator for about three days or until leg joints move easily again. Cut it up and vacuum pack or freeze it whole.

I haven't even gotten to parting a bird out yet.

What are you guys' thoughts?

 

[Jenny4]

The globular piece you can't identify is the spleen. And the part on top of the gizzard is the stomach, also called the proventiculous.