First butcher today: questions

[Sammi<3chickens]

*sigh of relief* Butcherd our first two roos today, and we got through it alright. Its funny because I had the worst anxiety gutting them out. I thought hubby would kill and gut, I would de feather and clean. Well I could not deal with killing. DH ended up feathering because our son woke from his nap early, I had to deal with him, while DH had to finish what we started. Well I was going in and out checking on son, and out checkin on dh. dh was getting frusterated with cutting them up, and I was ittchin to get in there to "do it the right way." So I took over the rest, guttin it out. Then dh cleaned it up after. Mostly opposite of what I pictured. I think he was playin the "I cant do it right, so you have to" card LOL.

So anyway I have some questions.

1. when you start cutting in to the cavity and the cuts are exposed, is it supposed to have an odor? Sort of smells like the musty smell of a chicken coop. We didnt cut into anything we were not supposed to, like the bile thing ect..

2. Timing: So we killed two at the same time. As we were doing the first one, it was a learning process. I kept going back and forth from the chicken to the computer to look at directions and pictures, trying to figure it all out. The first one took about 45 mins to finish. The second was was sitting there defeathered on the table waiting. It started to stiffen up....Is it still good?

3. DH mentioned salmonella. How do we know its okay. I have no idea about this topic. My thoughts (which I could be wrong) first, they are healthy farm raised chickens. Second they are procsed in an area where its not concentrated chicken bacteria ALL the time, less likely for the germs to back up and sit there, and third, we are cooking them. Any store bought chicken can have salmonella, but you have to cook it to kill it? Can anyone talk about this subject more?

TIA

 

[dawnchick]

1. Sounds like the usual odor to me.

2. It's still good They will all stiffen up (rigor mortis) then relax. That's why it's best to refrigerate about 24 hours before freezing, to let them relax. They will be tougher if you cook them when rigor mortis is in place. I've never killed two at the same time. Do you have a pet carrier or something you can hold them in til you're ready to kill? I'm not saying you did it wrong, but it would take some of the pressure off. We have even chawsed them down with a fish net to process the next one.

3. Salmonella is carried by some chickens, regardless of farm raised, cleanliness, etc. It's simply why you must cook chicken thoroughly, as this kills the salmonella.
Also why you hear so much about things like good handwashing and separate cutting boards and such when handling raw chicken. Really nothing to be afraid of, just clean up good and cook it to temp.