An update and a question

[Sussex19]

So we finally got around to butchering another cockerel today, and the actual kill went very well.
Thanks @3KillerBs for the tip on standing firmly on the broomstick, I think that was were I was going wrong.
An added bonus was the head didn't come off.
So the question is the guts broke as we were getting them out, is that a problem?
We washed it off well so I doubt it matters?

 

[Morrigan]

I give the giblets go to the dogs, except sometime, I use the livers to make pate. Once the feet are washed and peeled, they look clean and are great in stock. But, watching the feet bubbling in the pot does look a little witchy.

 

[Folly's place]

I use the heart, gizzard, and liver in stuffing, otherwise not. And I too can't bring myself to use the feet, however they look when prepped. No hog's feet either...

 

[Ridgerunner]

The crop is not any worse. Just rinse.

The gall bladder is that sort of blue thing on the liver. It stores bile which helps in digestion. The bile is bitter and can stain things blue. It's unlikely you will break the gall bladder unless you are trying to get it out of the liver. If you eat the liver, which I do, you need to remove it. If I do happen to break it, I just rinse well. I've never noticed any change in taste of the liver from that.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Here's my butcher post, it should be sort of self explanatory. Top picture is skin removed, organs in place (that's the gizzard at top), second photo is most organs removed, testes visible - it was a roo.The kidneys are the red bits under the membrane, either side of the backkbone. Third pic is liver (gall removed - its the radioactive green sack you do NOT want to rupture), heart (trimmed), gizzard (split and cleaned).

 

[bobbi-j]

You can parboil the feet, cool and remove the skin/scales, and then add them to the stock. My mother was big on 'waste not, want not.;

Yep, there are people who can do that. Not sure I’m one of them. I was raised in a suburb of the Twin Cities. To raise, then butcher animals that I have raised was quite a big step. (Although I had a step-dad who taught me to hunt, fish and process ducks and pheasants, so that part wasn’t completely new to me.) The chickens we first raised were CX, because that’s what MIL had when DH was growing up. At the time, all we knew was to feed them free choice. They were icky, dirty, smelly birds who never left the coop, even when they could. In my mind, those feet could be boiled and skinned clear to bone and still would not be clean enough for me to want to eat them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So the question is the guts broke as we were getting them out, is that a problem?
We washed it off well so I doubt it matters?

That happens. I just rinse well.

 

[3KillerBs]

I have never been able to convince myself to use the feet. I know what those things have stepped in!

That's what the article I linked is about.

Once you take their socks off they're perfectly clean and suitable.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

The dirt idea bugged me -- especially the toenails -- until I did it the first time and saw how everything comes off cleanly and leaves no grunge behind.

I processed my first cockerel yesterday. When the toenails slipped off it reminded me of the movie The Fly. I was grossed out but fascinated at the same time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That helps a bit, I don't know if it makes much difference, but all the ones I've done have been cockerels.

One of those photos shows the male organs, up near the vent. The girls don't have those but they do have the ovary, only one is active in chickens. You'll see the yolks around that ovary, some growing to a size that will eventually go into an egg, but a whole lot of tiny balls clustered in there. You could eat them if you wanted to but I usually feed them to the dogs.