HELP! Odd flavored duel purpose meat!

[DevaughnWifey]

My brother's future father-in-law came to me today at church asking me a question, and I honestly have no idea what the answer is.

He butchered out his wife's 15 duel-purpose hens last fall, she canned the meat after letting it rest for 3-days, and they recently opened some of the canned meat to make soup. When they opened it, all of the meat "tasted like feathers", so they opened the rest of it. The entire batch of meat tasted like feathers. I asked how old they were, he told me they were 2-years old, but that they had butchered others out at that age, same breed as they butchered out before...

I've never heard of such a thing! Their family have kept chickens for several years, and although computer illiterate, are not unfamiliar with the in's & out's of responsible chicken ownership... Her chickens have a decent size house, have a covered run etc. and although she has an issue with predators (coons, foxes & coyotes mainly) they are overall a happy by all indications. They would have been fed standard layer with calcium supplement (oyster shell, egg shells etc.) and they've never had an issue such as this before...

I was just wondering if any of you had any idea what happened that caused all of their chicken meat to become "tainted" and taste like feathers of all things?

 

[subhanalah]

Perhaps some feathers or dander made it into the canning process?

 

[enola]

If they used a pressure canner and processed them the proper length of time, spoilage should not be the problem.

Such a shame!

 

[donrae]

Had they canned meat before? I'm thinking it's a processing error, not a meat error. Nothing about age of bird would make meat taste that way.

I've butchered old roosters, and I've canned chicken meat--my own and from the store. Never had a problem like that.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hmm... I can chicken and I've never had that problem, either. I think they were wise in getting rid of the off-flavored meat, though. (I'd have saved it for cat food myself) I agree with donrae that the age of the bird should not have caused that. I've butchered old hens and roosters both and they've tasted just fine. I think, too, that it must have had something to do with the processing of the birds. Maybe one wasn't rinsed off well or something.

 

[DevaughnWifey]

Thank you for the imput! I'll pass the information on. I asked my brother about it later and he is wondering if perhaps it wasn't due to these hens having gotten garbage right along when the other hens they had processed hadn't gotten anything except grain etc.? I have no idea about these things. I'm fairly new to the chicken ownership business, and have never fully processed a bird. I've helped the Amish, just not the entire process start to finish... and have never canned chicken... we can venison in our house, but chicken was never necessary because of always having it in the freezer or whatever.

Thank you again!

 

[donrae]

If by garbage you mean food scraps, that won't make a difference. I feed my birds all my food scraps, cleanings from the fridge, things that would make many of the folks on this board cringe in horror. My birds still taste like chicken

 

[bobbi-j]

If by garbage you mean food scraps, that won't make a difference. I feed my birds all my food scraps, cleanings from the fridge, things that would make many of the folks on this board cringe in horror. My birds still taste like chicken

Mine, too! I don't throw away old food, I just feed it to the chickens, and turn it into eggs!

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

If by garbage you mean food scraps, that won't make a difference. I feed my birds all my food scraps, cleanings from the fridge, things that would make many of the folks on this board cringe in horror. My birds still taste like chicken

Oh, yeah. My chickens get all kinds of things that would make some people call the ASPCA. They got potato peelings last night. Today they're getting leftover Salade Nicoise, including the olives, capers, tuna and anchovies. All covered in a lovely lemon vinaigrette.

 

[DevaughnWifey]

If by garbage you mean food scraps, that won't make a difference. I feed my birds all my food scraps, cleanings from the fridge, things that would make many of the folks on this board cringe in horror. My birds still taste like chicken

I also give my hens all sorts of table scraps. My brother just didn't know if perhaps this was a factor, and since I've not butchered & eaten any of my hens yet I didn't know.

Thanks!