Have I contaminated the meat during processing?

[woodlumn]

Hi,

We decided to cull our beautiful RI Red rooster - he loved attacking us but never seemed to put much energy into attacking the occasional possum or raccoon while the hens ran for their lives. Yesterday was the day, and I chose to try the cone/slit throat method. This was only the second time that I've processed a bird.

It went straight from the cone to de-feathering (I didn't scald it). While pulling feathers around the vent I saw that he had pooped, so I got that on my gloves. I periodically dipped my hands in water to clean off the poop and feathers. So that's the first instance of possible contamination.

The next instance(s) came during the gutting. I think that the liver broke during this, but the bile duct was intact. Also, his crop ruptured and a little bit of feed got on the neck skin.

Of course, I rinsed the carcass thoroughly under cold water when I was done.

It's now resting in the fridge for a few days, and I intend to slow cook him for 5 or 6 hours Sunday. Is there any reason to think the meat may no longer be safe after all of this?

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

 

[Ridgerunner]

All that is not all that uncommon when processing. It's not especially appetizing to think about, and you do want to avoid as much of that as possible, but sometimes things happen. The only part in all that where I would have any concern at all that is the poop part and you said you cleaned your gloves. Sometimes when you cut the vent part off and pull the guts out, they get cut or break. I just rinse that off and keep going, not worrying about it at all.

The stuff in the crop had not had time to become contaminated and the liver was as sterile as the other internal parts of the chicken. You rinsed the whole chicken off, you should be fine.

 

[ChaoSS]

The liver doesn't leak anything when it "breaks". That's fine.

The poop shouldn't really matter. Think of it this way, they sit in poop, they tend to have poop germs on their skin anyway, and you aren't sanitizing the birds. I'm sure you rinsed it off pretty well, and you are going to cook it.

As for the crop, that's just partially digested food. Something of an "ick" factor for some people but it's not going to hurt anything.


Eat up.

 

[woodlumn]

Thanks y'all. That's what I thought, but I just needed a little reassurance.

I need more practice...it took me a long time

Looking forward to the enchiladas!