A question for those who process their older birds...

[ChickensRDinos]

If it's not your "thing" then don't do it. The meat is fine to eat without but it is my understanding and personal experience that letting the bird rest in the frig a few days makes the meat less tough. Biologically it allows the lactic acid in the muscles a chance to dissipate. The resting period makes a bigger difference in larger game but I have found it also makes a difference in my older hens. The first time I processed I did not rest and the meat was extremely tough.

If you google butchering techniques and resting there are numerous articles.

 

[charthorn]

I've canned tougher cuts of other game animals and it turns out great, would this work for the older birds as well?

 

[chooks4life]

Not a fan of meat that's been left to break down over days... I know it's not rotted, but I loves it fresh. Each to their own. Some people let their beef etc sit or hang for over a month. Gross. Why not just add something that'll act as an enzyme and predigest it that way... Pineapple/passionfruit/papaya/lots of other fruits and plants will do it. So will good cooking methods.

I prefer eating birds over a year or more old due to the greater flavour and nutrience in the flesh, skin and bones. Can't be beat. Don't have good recipes for you though because I'm the kind of barbarian who likes their meat chewy.

Off topic, your older flock are doing you a service in the pathogens they will drop in their faeces. You'll later lose your weakest stock to it, but all the rest will be stronger and hardier because they will have been exposed from a young age to whatever your older flock has been exposed to and survived, so your future bubs will build up decent immunities too. I would recommend giving garlic raw as part of their staple diet. Beats vaccinations and medications as a general immunizer, you will never lose a chick to coccidiosis, and you won't have any birds overrun with either internal or external parasites while kept topped up on garlic. Birds can thrive imperviously in the midst of fatal diseases and dangerous parasites in their environment if their system is protected with something as simple and natural as garlic. You can see the difference in the adults if one chook had garlic in its first week and the other didn't. Amazing, a lifelong impact.

 

[popsicle]

Get Julia Child's original book for Coq a Vin.

There is a newer book Forgotten Skills of Cooking that has Coq a Vin and a few other suggestions for old hens.

 

[Elke Beck]

Yeah, letting fresh meat sit in the fridge 3 days is not my thing, this will need a biological explanation....

When the chicken dies, there is clinical death where circulation, respiration and brain activity cease, however, the cells in the body continue to live for a while. Without going into a lot of technical detail (you can Google the rigor mortis process just as easily as I can), as the cells use up oxygen and nutrients, the substance responsible for tightening muscles is released, making the muscle fibers contract. Without nerve signals to tell them to, the cells do not release calcium to cause the muscle fibers to relax. With the muscle contracted, the fibers are more densely packed together and there is less room for moisture to be retained, so the meat tends to be tough and dry. As the chicken rests, enzymes start cutting the muscle fibers. Once enough fibers have been cut, the muscles relax, and this makes the meat more tender and allows for moisture to be retained = tender, juicy meat.

This is similar to the practice of hanging game birds for a few days so that they will be more tender.

I have not run into any problems with putrification with keeping the chicken for up to 5 days in a refrigerator that stays at or below 38 degrees (always keep a thermometer in your frig!).

 

[stevodod]

When the chicken dies, there is clinical death where circulation, respiration and brain activity cease, however, the cells in the body continue to live for a while. Without going into a lot of technical detail (you can Google the rigor mortis process just as easily as I can), as the cells use up oxygen and nutrients, the substance responsible for tightening muscles is released, making the muscle fibers contract. Without nerve signals to tell them to, the cells do not release calcium to cause the muscle fibers to relax. With the muscle contracted, the fibers are more densely packed together and there is less room for moisture to be retained, so the meat tends to be tough and dry. As the chicken rests, enzymes start cutting the muscle fibers. Once enough fibers have been cut, the muscles relax, and this makes the meat more tender and allows for moisture to be retained = tender, juicy meat.

This is similar to the practice of hanging game birds for a few days so that they will be more tender.

I have not run into any problems with putrification with keeping the chicken for up to 5 days in a refrigerator that stays at or below 38 degrees (always keep a thermometer in your frig!).

Yeah, I'm eating one tonight I harvested Thursday, so that's four full days- I'm sure it will be fine!

 

[BCMaraniac]

Yeah, I'm eating one tonight I harvested Thursday, so that's four full days- I'm sure it will be fine!

Anyone who eats chicken from the grocery store is eating chicken beyond the 3 day time frame being discussed. Consider a commercial poultry business: the chickens are slaughtered, plucked/skinned/eviscerated/chilled/packaged. Then this packaged chicken makes its way via a semi truck to your grocer's distribution center, where is it then dispatched to the various stores. From there the package is placed in the meat case with a sell by date, a few days into the future.

So "fresh" chicken purchased at the grocery is, by definition, chicken that has never been frozen. It doesn't mean that it was killed just a few hours earlier. That chicken has "rested" , refrigerated, at least 3 days from the slaughter date, even though it may have been transported across the country.

So the resting recommended by most people following home-processed poultry is no different than that in the commercial poultry industry, and may in fact be less than commercially available poultry.

 

[Elke Beck]

Anyone who eats chicken from the grocery store is eating chicken beyond the 3 day time frame being discussed. Consider a commercial poultry business: the chickens are slaughtered, plucked/skinned/eviscerated/chilled/packaged. Then this packaged chicken makes its way via a semi truck to your grocer's distribution center, where is it then dispatched to the various stores. From there the package is placed in the meat case with a sell by date, a few days into the future.

So "fresh" chicken purchased at the grocery is, by definition, chicken that has never been frozen. It doesn't mean that it was killed just a few hours earlier. That chicken has "rested" , refrigerated, at least 3 days from the slaughter date, even though it may have been transported across the country.

So the resting recommended by most people following home-processed poultry is no different than that in the commercial poultry industry, and may in fact be less than commercially available poultry.

Exactly. The chickens and other meats may have traveled days to get to the store, and then may sit around for a few days in their walk in before it even makes it out into the refrigerator case.

I fried 3 Red Rangers Friday night (Fry-Day, snarf!) after they had rested for 5 days, and they were scrum-diddly-umptious! I have what we did not eat in the freezer for future quick dinners. I pan fry in cast iron, and one of the bonuses of frying chicken is it re-seasons the pans so nicely. I don't allow myself fired chicken very often anymore, so when I do have it, it has to be really good.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I pan fry in cast iron, and one of the bonuses of frying chicken is it re-seasons the pans so nicely. I don't allow myself fired chicken very often anymore, so when I do have it, it has to be really good.

Is there any other way to fry chicken????

Pan fried chicken in cast iron is REAL fried chicken!!!

 

[Elke Beck]

Is there any other way to fry chicken????

Pan fried chicken in cast iron is REAL fried chicken!!!

And it does not use half a gallon of oil!

I have a stack of 7 cast iron fry pans in various sizes, and my brother once gasped saw me pick up the stack with one hand. I told him that is why when I tell you to get out of the kitchen, you should run! A mugger might get me outside my house, but let me have my 12 inch frying pan in my kitchen, and he better have a gun because otherwise I promise the confrontation will end with a very satisfying and humorous "gooooiiiinnggggg!"