First time processing question.

[dltc96]

I'm a little late in posting this. We processed our broilers on June 15th; 13 in all. It went pretty well overall. We did all of the cockerels first, then the pullets. When we got nearer the end of the day the last few pullets started to get oily. The last one was the oiliest. It was a pretty warm day (ie. hot). Is this normal?

 

[Saltysteele]

what do you mean by oily? their fat was greasier? the feathers seemed oilier?


if fat, their body temp is hotter than the temperature around my area, so the temp wouldn't affect the fat. as the bird cools, the fat will solidify, though (cool as in cooling off in cold water after processing)

if you're saying their feathers seemed oily, that would make sense because each bird you dunk in your scalder is going to leave oils behind.

did you put any detergent of any sort in your water? we usually put a bit of dish soap in our scalder.

 

[dltc96]

It was the skin that got oily (to the point that they were difficult to hold on to). The scald water makes sense except that we got new water half way through. We did put dish soap in the scalder, but I may have put less in the second time.

 

[Denninmi]

Was the scalding water too hot? Maybe it was so hot it was actually rendering some of the fat from the skin into the water?