Letting freshly butchered meat "rest" before cooking?

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littlels

littlels

Chirping
8 Years
Oct 27, 2011
121
1
91
We have 4 dual purpose roosters to butcher today. We did one during the summer and the meat was really rubbery. Of course we would like to bypass that with all of these roosters and we heard that we should have let the meat rest before attempting to cook it. Is that true? Will it help the texture? How long does it have to rest?
 
Yes you should let the meat rest for a few days. However if the roosters are mature, they will probably be tough anway (even after resting). They are probably only good for stews.
 
I always like to let stuff rest AND marinade at the same time
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Even if I'm just gonna make a stew or gumbo out of it, I let it soak up flavorful stuff for a day or 2...seems to come out better when I do
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The first 24 hours are the most important but I usually rest at least 3 days before cooking or freezing. It makes a world of difference.
I also read research that leaving the bone in during the rest period helps so I wait to debone.
When time to cook forget cookbooks on temp/time.
Low and slow. If I cook a whole bird my oven is at 280 for 4 or 5 hours or till meat is separating from the bone.
Pieces are easier because legs will take much longer than breasts. Your birds have actually been using their muscles unlike store bought.
 
So, we butchered four of them and they are in the fridge. Is there an easy or easier way to get the skin off of them? We left one with the skin on and the rest we pulled off but it was quite a chore. On one of the birds, the skin was like rubber and was rather separated so I could just pull most of it off but once I got to the legs and wings it was much more difficult especially on the other ones.
 

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