Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[FOGELLY]

Folks, there have been multiple comments/questions/etc concerning the "dual purpose" of some heritage breeds, especially as it pertains to using some of them as meat birds.

I've "dressed" a few of my Rocks, but overall I've not been impressed. I'd love to hear how/when some of you process your "culls" for the table. I've skinned everything I've processed and perhaps that's the problem (??). Even in the crockpot, they were a bit "stringy". Maybe they were just too large. Do any of you have a timeframe you use for the age to process them? An age at which they're too old?

Also, I really don't want to purchase a $1000 plucker but would like to put some of the 100+ birds I raise that "Don't make the cut" into the freezer. It would certainly justify feeding so many for so long.

Anyone have advise/experience to share? I'm a hunter and a fisherman, so I'm up to trying about anything

Thanks

Scott,
One of the things I always do is to age our meat in a big 100qt cooler and ice. This is good for any meat you process at home, wild or tame.
I did not do this with our first big cull a few years ago. We killed, skinned, gutted, washed and froze all in a couple hours. The meat ended up tough and stringy. We had processed smaller amounts many times before with good results. I then realized we had skipped the aging process.

After that when we process our birds (20 is about as many as we want to do in one session), they are skinned, gutted, and washed. Then they go into a large 100qt cooler where they are covered with ice and cold water. We also add 1/2 cup of ACV ( old timer told me this will help control bacteria and aid with tenderizing). The water from the ice is drained everyday, adding more ice and AVC. When the water you drain starts running clear ( usually around three days) remove them to the freezer.


Also we skin most of our birds because it saves time, however we do pluck a few for roasting. They are never scalded, I learned years ago from my grandmother that if you pluck the bird as soon as possible it can be plucked easy. This means as soon as it is bled and still warm. Before it can get stiff.
I then use a propane torch to singe them.

Ron

 

[catdaddyfro]

How about around $20 for a plucker? See

We built one but I haven't used it yet. After seeing the video you will understand the following...

Ours is on a 3' threaded rod which we will attach to my husband's electric grinder that he will bolt to his work bench. Also am thinking about a way to capture the feathers as they're plucked so they don't get all over the place as well as me!

There are other ideas out there, a lot of them on You Tube. It would be easier, probably, to make a drum plucker that you just drop the birds into once scalded but I used one once when doing meat birds and there were several times that this machine would break a wing or even a leg. I think that's too rough. I don't want bruised meat. So, one at a time will be best for me. Besides, I don't have 100 birds to process. 20 at a time will be about it.

You can't bruise meat if the heart isn't pumping blood thru the vessels to cause a contusion, yes the plucking machine will occasionally break a leg bone or wing but nothing a good sharp boning knife can't take out if you deem it necessary to remove it. If you find a bruised part, it was caused before slaughter.

Jeff

 

[Robert Blosl]

Does anyone have any good Heritage or Heirloom chicken stories they want to tell. Chicken plucking sound gross to me. I take my culls to the pet store and sell them.

Just kidding. I have not ate one of my chickens in 15 years. Dont have the time to fool with them when I was working.

One thing I learned about eating a chicken is they will be tough and stringy if they are running free on the yard. But if you put them into a pen and feed them give them fresh water their meat will be tender as can be. I have four by four pens and put two to three in there and fa ten them up. In a month they will be perfect. Or I have a eight by eight and have five in the pen and do the same thing.

We use to raise two steers every year on free range two acres of grass. About two months be for my dad would have them butchered he had a pen by the barn that was about two hundred feet by one hundred feet with grass and a big tub of water then he would give them a pound of grain feed 12% protein most likely and then when he had them killed he hung them in the cooler at the butcher shop for a week then cut and double wrap ed the meat. It was as good as the black Angus meat you buy in the store. Original raised by me. He would keep a half for us, the other one in a half cuts of meat where sold to three family's. He paid the man to come out with his truck and kill and process the meat in his butcher shop and paid him and he made money each year doing it.

So that's how he did it. I dont know if there is a better fating feed for broiler cull chickens other than what we buy at the feed store or not but I often wonder what puts a better taste in the meat of a chicken feed or genetics?

Got a interesting phone call this moaning from a guy in Mo. He is a Chicken Daddy that is a opposite of a Chicken Mama or Sock er Mom. He wants to go from a rare breed chicken to my old Rhode Island Red. I told him the story and I think he will be success full. He has five teen years into Heirloom seeds and gar ding. So I am going to try to buy seeds from him and try some of the varieties of old garden plants this spring. He says getting seeds that are true and like getting chickens that are not hatchery stock when you think they are standard breed.

Well off to Lowes to buy me some limb clipper's and some little rose bush clippers to work with.

Have a nice day.

 

[kathyinmo]

Got a interesting phone call this moaning from a guy in Mo. He is a Chicken Daddy that is a opposite of a Chicken Mama or Sock er Mom. He wants to go from a rare breed chicken to my old Rhode Island Red. I told him the story and I think he will be success full. He has five teen years into Heirloom seeds and gar ding. So I am going to try to buy seeds from him and try some of the varieties of old garden plants this spring. He says getting seeds that are true and like getting chickens that are not hatchery stock when you think they are standard breed.

He called me, too. Speaking of heirloom seeds.... do people understand the importance of these treasures? Non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) food - organic - is expensive, because of the predominance of GMOs in our food. Sooooo many health problems are now being identified as related to GMOs.Did you know that many other countries won't even allow us to export our GMO food to them? They won't accept them. I saw one newscast where one country (forgot which one) took an entire ship load of GMO corn or (wheat?) out to sea and set it on fire. Why is our country allowing this crap?
I have read alot and viewed alot of videos. I found this great video that is available to view online. http://geneticroulettemovie.com/ Another great video - available online - The Future of Food. Eye opening....

 

[cubalaya]

we switched to all heirloom this year and saved a lot of seed for next year. i feel like this is the way to go. stop buying hybrid and gmo products. plant heirloom and save your seeds every year and you will have better crops each year. you also save money from buying seed every year.
why is our country allowing this? because of the corruption and crony capitalism that is going on with all elected officials from both parties with the exception of the tea party and libertarians.
we need a new party that represents 'we the people'.

 

[kathyinmo]

I had a bag of scratch that I was carrying out to the feed bins. I dropped it and it broke open. I picked up most of it. A couple days later my husband said, "what did you do to kill all that grass in that circular area there?" It was where I dropped the feed. What does that tell ya?

 

[monnie662]

I had a bag of scratch that I was carrying out to the feed bins. I dropped it and it broke open. I picked up most of it. A couple days later my husband said, "what did you do to kill all that grass in that circular area there?" It was where I dropped the feed. What does that tell ya?

How would you know if the scratch was not right? It is sorta like feeding your dog treats, it says to wash your hands after feeding, hum-m-m-m makes you wonder what our 'critters" are eating.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Watch the videos and you will see..... what we are ALL eating.

 

[ashandvine]

Scott,
One of the things I always do is to age our meat in a big 100qt cooler and ice. This is good for any meat you process at home, wild or tame.
I did not do this with our first big cull a few years ago. We killed, skinned, gutted, washed and froze all in a couple hours. The meat ended up tough and stringy. We had processed smaller amounts many times before with good results. I then realized we had skipped the aging process.

Also we skin most of our birds because it saves time, however we do pluck a few for roasting. They are never scalded, I learned years ago from my grandmother that if you pluck the bird as soon as possible it can be plucked easy. This means as soon as it is bled and still warm. Before it can get stiff.

The safest thing for you to do, which is done in any USDA slaughter house, is to slam those carcasses into ice baths as soon as they are plucked. My girlfriend uses her drill with a home made attachment for plucking and I recommend something like that/what Lacy suggested. I have tendonitis now so its the way we are going in about a month. The ice bath brings the temp down rapidly inside and outside the meat otherwise you run a lot more risks. Maybe there is some 'aging' in there or rapid 'relaxing' but no matter what the benefit is not worrying about being ill because the freezer didn't get the internal temps down fast enough when you threw it straight into the freezer.
Next, or back to plucking. Fogelly is right. I learned how to slaughter and pluck by hand when I was a lot younger. From experience I can say that every feather comes out easier when the flesh is warm. Go for your primaries first as they are hardest (for me anyway) and then roll the feathers right down the breast and back toward the neck. They can be done pretty quickly if you are hanging them to bleed out. The moment they are dead start plucking! Scalding I have found just makes more of a mess. A tarp under your carcasses will catch it all. Fold up and drag away. Turn those feathers into your garden! If you hunt then you know pulling the skin off a deer is easiest when its fresh/still warm and pliable. I don't skin chickens because I cook them down for broth and gravy and what not so I would loose a lot treating the meat that way.
A two person (or more) butchering process is the best. One person kills two at a time, and then you sit down on your bucket to pluck side by side or one person takes front and another the back. Throw em into a cooler or rain barrel or 5 gal bucket of ice water and see if you can't find a third person to come get them out every 15-20 to wrap em while you keep on slaughtering.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I had a bag of scratch that I was carrying out to the feed bins. I dropped it and it broke open. I picked up most of it. A couple days later my husband said, "what did you do to kill all that grass in that circular area there?" It was where I dropped the feed. What does that tell ya?

THAT is really scary!