First time processing, two questions

[EmmaDonovan]

After scalding, most of the feathers came right off except for those feathers that look like 1 cm long wet hairs. There were a lot of those. What's the best way to remove them?

I watched so many videos where people just reached into the cavity and pulled out the internal organs as if they were already detached. My chicken's guts seemed like they were cemented in. They would not budge. Is there a trick to removing them easily?

 

[FunClucks]

1 cm long hairs: you can ignore them and not eat the skin. Burn them off with a kitchen torch so they at least don't stick out. Remove with a pinning knife (should be info on this site - videos and pics and such - if you search for it). Remove with a table knife (same as pinning knife but cheaper). Remove using needle nose pliers or tweezers.

Ease of entrail removal:

Depends on the geometry of the bird and your hand, age of bird (toughness of connective tissues), whether you can get a good grip, your previous experience, etc. I found I got faster the more birds I did. For a newbie, go slow.

Carefully puncture the skin and fat and membrane over the rear gut cavity (just south of the vent). Work the small puncture hole larger, then cut down the sides of the bird. (Bird is on back, vent facing you, cut from above the vent down the side of the cavity a few inches, cut out towards the leg, without puncturing internals). I say cut, but I do it with a small sharp knife having a rounder tip so I don't puncture the guts. Or you could use scissors.

Once this is done, pull the cavity open some if you can, by gripping the end of the breastbone and the butt of the bird, and seeing if you can open that cavity up some. Work your hands around the breast and sides of the cavity, seeing if you can detach the liver, heart, intestines, etc.

Once you know what you're feeling, you can reach all the way up the neck and feel the heart, lungs, and those rubbery white connective tubes that go into the lungs. I've only been able to get a good grip on all that once or twice, so I grab the heart and liver, and pull out what I can, then go back for the lungs, push those out of the ribs with my fingertip and pull out, then work my way from the neck to the rear of the chicken, detaching the connective tissue along the back of the bird and sides. Remove the innards in one big pile - by the time you get to the white lima beans (for males, these are the "balls") most of the entrails should be sitting on the table outside the bird. Eventually pull everything out but the bit where the intestines are connected internally to the vent.

I like to cut through the meat of the butt around the vent, removing part of the tail also, in order to remove intestines entirely. Then harvest gizzard, liver, heart.

Just go slow and work your way around in there, once you've done a number of birds you'll get a better feel for things. If you pull the wrong thing too hard the intestines could tear or bust, so I only pull quickly and firmly once I feel confident that the connective tissue is all disconnected or very soft/pliable (like for younger birds). Partial pulls are okay.

 

[swamphiker]

I just try to pull out as many of those hair thingies as I can, some people will also carefully burn them off. I find that they disappear when they bird is cooked, so I don't put in that much effort since it's for personal consumption.

The organs need to be detached from the membrane on the inside of the body cavity. I use my fingers to pull the organs away from the sides of the body cavity and then pull everything out.

 

[Klutch]

I don't skin, but after I pluck I then go ahead and singe the carcass by holding it over a propane burner. Then I remove the crop and the skin on the neck. 2nd I lay the bird on its back and make a incision between the two thighs and then lift up the breast to get to the organs. 3rd reach in and pull on the esophagus and trachea out of the carcass and with a little knife loosen up what ever attached to the inside of the bird. I do only about maybe a hundred birds a year, soory for the shorthand.