All the talk and videos about processing, you never mentioned...

[BoomChickaRocka]

scented hand soap does the trick for me

 

[Denninmi]

Dish soap in the scalding water doesn't leave soapy-flavored chicken or chicken skin later on?

 

[NancyP]

Not for me cause I pluck under running water, then soak chicken in ice water till I am ready for final wash before packing bird for freezer. edited to add maybe that is why the smell is not bad for me. I use lots of water throughout the process.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I wear dishwashing gloves when plucking - but it is not for the smell - it helps me grab the wet feathers better.




Scald water 150 degrees, dish soap in the water, dunk, swish - count to about 20 or so and then try pulling a wing feather. If the feather slips out easy - you are ready to pluck. If it resists, the bird needs a few more seconds.



You can try rinsing your hands with vinegar, then washing your hands to remove any odors

 

[Woofless]

Quote:
LOL! This whole thread is great but this post especially had me laughing really hard....I can totally relate LOL

During pheasant season I work for 2 hunting lodges as the bird cleaner....(or as I prefer to be called, the "Pleasant Pheasant Plucker" LOL) I've spent more than a few long nights alone in the bird-cleaning room doing anywhere from 15 to 90 birds at a time. Fortunately I don't *actually* have to pluck them, I just skin & gut, remove feet tail & wings, then tag, bag & freeze.

If there are a lot of birds I can end up being there through the night for sure. So usually after the lodge serves dinner to the hunters, the chef will make me up a plate & bring it out to the bird cleaning building so I can have a meal & take a break. By the time dinner comes I've usually gotten to the point of being "fully involved" with the blood, feathers and gut-gobbets all over up to my elbows, in my hair, on my face, on my clothes & elsewhere. By then I usually also don't notice the smell anymore- even though I've got a 50 gallon trash tub half-full of tepid bird guts and I'm sitting less than a foot away from it. And I'm usually ravenously hungry at that point too. You know you're accustomed to the joys of poultry processing when you can sit down on a stool next to the gut tub, set your dinner plate on the counter next to a pile of dead pheasants & eat a hamburger with hands that you attempted to wash but still look & smell like bird guts.

I am raising my first meat chickens this year; the first group should be ready to butcher by the beginning of June. Glad to know my job training will serve me well when it comes to not getting grossed out when it's time to butcher. I do remember being pretty disgusted the first time I ever cleaned a few pheasants. It takes a while to get past it I know....my husband has been down to help me clean birds numerous times and the stink still makes him gag, LOL.

 

[booker81]

I do the scalding and gutting in house, and at my class, even the participants noted the smell wasn't too bad....

I do however wash off the birds with a hose before scalding. I get as much dirt, blood and poo off as I can with the hose. I think this REALLY helps cut the stink down. Hot and wet dirt, poo and blood is not a pleasant odor, no matter what the breed of critter is. If you gather up a cup of blood, poo and dirt and dump it into hot water, it's going to reek no matter where it came from. I put a little dish soap in the scald water as well, and that pretty much eliminates any other odor from the cleanish wet feathers.

Pre-rinsing the bird also lets the hot scald water penetrate faster without losing temp, so you can scald more and faster. I found the temp drop before and after a pre-rinsed bird was only about 3 degrees. You also don't lose as much water, since you're putting a wet bird in and taking a wet bird out. Less time to reheat water since it's not dropping temp, and you're not removing water on the bird.

As someone already said - your scald isn't done until you can pull a wing feather out easily. I go by if I can pick the bird up by the wing feather - if I can, it's not done. If the feather pulls out before the bird comes out of the water, it's done.

 

[Bossroo]

If you think that chicken processing smells... try performing a necropsy on an obese dog ( MAJOR GAG

the wost smell of all) or obese cat ( MAJOR GAG

) or a steer that has been dead for 2-3 days in 104* heat that a farmer brings in for an autopsy ( the kidneys and liver just flows through your fingers). MAJOR PHEEEEW !!!

We used rubber gloves on our hands, coveralls, and rubber boots. To top it off, the necropsy room was very close to class rooms as well as front offices where clients are also present. After cleaning the tables and floors with germicidal soap and very HOT water with 1 1/2" pressure hoses, we then sprinkled Pine Sol on them to control odors and germicidal soap to kill pathogens. We then also sprinkled rock salt on the wet cleaned floors. This helped to disolve fats, helped the concrete floors be non skid, and also helped in preventing pathogen growth. Then we took showers with soap and hot water. We then walked the University halls without ofending anyone.

 

[okieinalaska]

All very good info! But I have a worse smell than all of you...dead whale necropsy. Ugh.
Have a friend who is a vet and I only smelt it second hand off her but let me tell you it lingers for days.

 

[Bossroo]

Quote:
That whale must have been already ripe when it washed up on shore !

Yea ! I necropsied a 18' Killer Whale about a day after it died at a Water Park. ( wild caught and about 2 weeks later commited harry karry by ramming it's head numerous times on it's water tank walls due to parasite infestation in it's sinuses).

2" of blubber under the thin rubbery skin, and the very dark red meat has oil oozing out of the muscle right after it was cut. Kind of sweet smelling while still fresh, but turns rancid fairly soon afterwards. We had a huge walk in type cooler with chain hoists to keep the carcasses untill the disposal truck can pick up large (and small animals) animal carcasses for incineration.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

How big was this bird? I usually let my DP roos grow up a bit more than 12 weeks, they're not worth the trouble to butcher until at least 18-22 weeks. Also, at that young age they're growing in a bunch of feathers, no wonder there were so many spiky pins. But those can usually be scraped off with a dull knife, rubbed across the direction the pinfeathers are growing in.

I agree with the other posters, sharper knife, cut lower -- just behind the point of the jaw bone, where there is just skin, not feathers. And nice hot water, around 150 degrees, agitating & swishing the bird up & down to get the water down to the skin. When a wing feather sliiiides out real nicely, you're ready to pluck. And it should go as easy as wiping the lint out of your dryer trap, not like pulling grass!

I don't know what to tell you about the smell, I think it bothers some folks more than others. I do use disposable gloves for both plucking & gutting. Sometimes I'll put a pair of cotton gloves with the rubber gripper dots on over my rubber gloves & that helps the hand-plucking go even easier.

I hope you enjoy your chicken dinner after all this trouble & fuss!