First time processing

[K0k0shka]

I guess they might get filthy if they are cornish x that are unable to move much and sit around in their poop all day, especially close to processing age when they've gotten large and immobile. That's why I don't mess with those mutants, they're gross.

I'm curious, why do y'all remove the lungs? I'd never heard of removing the lungs until I joined BYC (I've been around chickens for most of my life and started helping process them when I was just a kid). There's nothing wrong with them staying on the rib cage. Less work, too. After taking the legs and wings off, I toss the carcass in the pot for soup and the lungs are just part of the deal. It has never occurred to me to try and scrape them off.

 

[NatJ]

I'm curious, why do y'all remove the lungs?

Because that's how my mother taught me to do it.

(I've been around chickens for most of my life and started helping process them when I was just a kid).

Similar for me, but apparently you and I learned to do it slightly differently.

Now that you mention it, I can't see any harm to leaving the lungs, but it's just not the way I was taught to butcher chickens.

 

[K0k0shka]

Because that's how my mother taught me to do it.


Similar for me, but apparently you and I learned to do it slightly differently.

Now that you mention it, I can't see any harm to leaving the lungs, but it's just not the way I was taught to butcher chickens.

Makes sense. I was taught by my grandma. But grandma was very averse to doing unnecessary work, so she never did anything extra like that without knowing why or whether it was actually necessary

 

[JacinLarkwell]

why do y'all remove the lungs? I'd never heard of removing the lungs until I joined BYC

We don't eat any if the organs, and I think my dad would freak out if he found one. He's the most city/store preferred of the family. He doesn't like when we cook rabbit because it looks like a little dog to him

 

[K0k0shka]

We don't eat any if the organs, and I think my dad would freak out if he found one. He's the most city/store preferred of the family. He doesn't like when we cook rabbit because it looks like a little dog to him

Haha. Lungs are so hard to find though. Unless you know where to look, and even then, you have to know what to look for... They are pretty much the most convenient and out-of-the-way lungs on anything you could process... glued against the ribs and pretending they're not even there

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We don't eat any if the organs, and I think my dad would freak out if he found one. He's the most city/store preferred of the family. He doesn't like when we cook rabbit because it looks like a little dog to him

When I worked at KFC, decades ago, the lungs were still in the chicken pieces shipped to store. We'd pop the thigh joint and remove most of the lung with a swoop of the thumb. I don't believe Popeye's goes to that effort.

So he's likely eaten plenty - or at least had the flavor of it - in hus bucket of fast food chicken.

and I always thought rabbit was like stringy pork.

 

[K0k0shka]

We don't eat any if the organs, and I think my dad would freak out if he found one. He's the most city/store preferred of the family. He doesn't like when we cook rabbit because it looks like a little dog to him

Which reminds me... We usually leave everything with the bird when making soup (with the exception of the intestines and the crop), including feet and heads. My city-raised husband's first encounter with homegrown chicken was a soup that my grandma had made, and it was a cockerel... A very, hmm, intact one Unlike the lungs, some other pieces detach and float around. I should've told him that was a kidney or something. Stupid me decided to tell the truth and instantly regretted it. He didn't want to eat chicken soup for years after, unless it was meat bought at the store and "cleaned up". Eventually he started eating homegrown chicken soup again, just as long as I wouldn't tell him what everything was...

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

I was thinking of raising jersey giants for meat instead of cornish for that reason. Plus id like to keep breeding so I only have to buy once. Right now we just have barred rocks. We eat the roos though

 

[JacinLarkwell]

When I worked at KFC, decades ago, the lungs were still in the chicken pieces shipped to store. We'd pop the thigh joint and remove most of the lung with a swoop of the thumb. I don't believe Popeye's goes to that effort.

So he's likely eaten plenty - or at least had the flavor of it - in hus bucket of fast food chicken.

and I always thought rabbit was like stringy pork.

He doesn't eat fast food chicken much (he's constantly trying to diet) and it's one of those "If he doesn't know, it won't hurt him" people.

We eat off the ribs too of our birds, and I imagine the texture at least would look different after it's been cooked. Easier for me to reach in during processing and just scrape them out. I'll probably have to get a lung scraper for the bantams though

 

[CNJ]

Maybe you could give them extra-large amounts of fresh bedding in their pen each day for the last few days before you kill them. That might give them a chance to clean their own feathers & feet and be cleaner by processing day.

You got a point. I have a screen floor pen I can use to clean them up. Thanks.