Cooling and cleaning during processing

[cbailey]

I am raising meat birds for the first time this Spring. I have read a lot and watched many YouTube videos. Two things I have not seen anyone address are:
1. How do you cool them down after butchering? How long? What temperatures? Ice and water? Just ice?
2. Do people clean their work surfaces and knives between birds?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Spartan22]

I am raising meat birds for the first time this Spring. Two things I have not seen anyone address are:
1. How do you cool them down after butchering? How long? What temperatures? Ice and water? Just ice?

*Iced water with salt (brine solution) for 30 min to an hour, then refrigerate for couple of days before deep freeze

2. Do people clean their work surfaces and knives between birds?

*I do, I just like clean knives, clean hands and clean work surface in bet birds but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s just a good sanitary way espcially running water to wash in between.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Farmer Doc]

1. Cool water in the rinse out...sometimes a baggie of ice in the cavity then right in the fridge for 48-72 hours (bagged with a twist tie) until parted or vacuum sealed whole for the deep freeze.

2. Table and knives are wiped cleaned/sanitized after each two - just our routine. Drum plucker takes two at a time so we scald, pluck, and clean them before cleaning the table and knives for the next two... while I get the next two someone is at the table cleaning. If something looks concerning we stop and clean right then before the next bird.

 

[sylviethecochin]

It helps the carcasses to be soaked in salt water (teaspoon of salt per bird--not a lot) as an overnight rinse (gets rid of the blood, and the salt tenderises the meat)

I don't sanitise my station between birds, but then, I rarely do more than three at a time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have an ice chest with ice and water to put the birds in right after I butcher them, so ice water. I typically do five or so birds at a time. By the time I've finished the ice may have melted but the water is still cold.

I cut the birds into serving pieces as I butcher and put the pieces in a bowl of water on the table as I butcher. The liver goes into separate yogurt cups for the dogs. My routine after I put the last piece in that bowl, I kill the next bird, then rinse my hands. I then put the last bird in the ice water cooler, rinse off the table and cutting instruments as the bird is bleeding out.

I do not brine or age my birds but put them in the freezer right after butchering. I do thaw them early and let them age a few days in the refrigerator before cooking. That works for me. Some of that may depend on age and sex of the birds butchered. I butcher dual purpose cockerels and pullets mostly, with an occasional mature hen or rooster. The older birds get cooked differently.

Aging, brining, and marinating are three different things, though some people combine aging and brining.

Aging is when you keep the bird in the fridge or ice water long enough for rigor mortis to pass before cooking or freezing it. It's probably best to do that before you freeze it but logistically it's easier for me to do that after freezing.

Brining is when you soak it in water with a certain mixture. Many people just use salt (in different amounts) but there are some different recipes that might use something else. Brining will affect the flavor some, depending in what and how much you use, but the salt makes the bird hold moisture. Depending on how you cook it that extra moisture can make a lot of difference. It's probably a really good idea if you fry, grill, or roast it but if you bake, stew, crock pot, or pressure cook it brining probably doesn't make much difference. You can always add salt afterwards.

Marinating is when you soak it in an acid before you cook it. You can make your own marinade, usually based on vinegar or wine, or you can pick up a huge variety of sauces to use at the grocery store. Marinade adds flavor, of course, but it helps break down the fiber, making it more tender. The longer it is in a marinade the more the fiber breaks down. Too long and it might become mushy. To me the Cornish X are butchered young enough that I don't think they need a marinade but it can really help older birds.

 

[Morrigan]

We only do a few birds at a time and this is what works for us.

1. Rinse them thoroughly in cold running water. Pat dry, put in plastic bag and put in chest freezer to rapidly cool down. When we are done with the last bird and clean-up, I move the birds to my refrigerator to rest for 2 days, before doing a last rinse and cutting up/vacuum sealing for final storage in the freezer. Because we are doing only 3 to 6 birds at at time, they are not in the chest freezer long enough to begin freezing and there is room in my fridge for them to age.

2. I do not sterilize between birds. I do wipe the blood off of the knifes and counter between birds with a wet cloth or paper towel. Also, after the birds have been killed and bled, we put them in a big plastic tray with high sides and pluck them in the tray to keep the feathers from flying everywhere. Feathers get dumped in compost pile and tray gets rinsed with water before the next bird.

If we were do a whole bunch of birds at once, I would have to rethink the system.

 

[RoosterML]

This past year was the first year I did meat birds, 25 total.
1) Normal Axe& stump
2) Scald 145° water don't go over 150°(keep a hose near scalder to bring water temp back down to correct temp as needed)
3) Drum plucker
4) Plastic folding table to eviscerate the birds.
Keep a hose and a spray bottle of 50/50 bleach/water solution. Hose table down as needed while you go. Spray table down with bleach/water solution and rinse off if something happens and you want to clean table down.
Set table up with blocks under legs so that it is slightly tilting away from you but not so much that the bird wants to slide. 1 1/2" blocks did the trick keeping water off of us.
5) Once done eviscerating bird hose down well inside cavity and out.
6) We used a (new) large Rubbermaid garbage can with a heavy duty bag lining it. Put finished birds into it and kept water and ice level so that birds were always covered.
7) Once all birds were done we would take several out at a time to hang on our homemade rack to drip off. Once dripping was done we put them into heat shrink bags.
That's about it. Enjoy your harvest!!

 

[rlhagan56]

Ice and water in two big ice chests here too. We do it in the backyard on a plastic foldable table, keep a hose handy and a huge pot of hot water on the ones we pluck, the rest we just skin. I also keep bleach mix in a spray for necessary times. We keep them in the ice water overnight, then do a once over again and shrink bag them. I'm so disgusted with all the vacuum sealers we have tried I don't waste money on them anymore.

 

[UPCluck]

I chill mine in a bucket of ice water for a few minutes before plucking (after the hot soaking to get the feathers loosened up). Seems to firm up the skin to keep it from tearing.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I chill mine in a bucket of ice water for a few minutes before plucking (after the hot soaking to get the feathers loosened up). Seems to firm up the skin to keep it from tearing.

Thanks for this tip!