HELP!!!! The meat was TERRIBLE!!! What did we do wrong?

[steffpeck]

Today was D-Day for our 20 cornish-crosses. They were 7 1/2 weeks old. We had a gentleman come to our house and dress them for us. We brought them in after they were done and my hubby cut one up and fried it. The meat was tasteless and so incredibly tough and rubbery, I knawed a bite of my fork and that was all I was able to eat. I am just so devastated. I was so excited to have our own meat birds, but there is no way we can eat the rest if they are like the one we cooked today. Both our neighbor and the guy who butchered them for us told us they looked great, just like they should, and that whatever we did we did it right. We fed them the high protein meat bird feed, took it away from them at night, and they always had fresh water. What did we do wrong?????

 

[Arklady]

A guy once told me that they need to be sitting in the fridge 3 or 4 days before freezing to age. Its all about breaking down the meat prior to useing it for food. Chicken is very tasteless as far as I am concerned and needs a huge amount of salt. I have always had to salt the bird a lot. I don't think you did anything wrong. Just let the bird age a bit before cooking. My mom said her mother used to just wring a birds neck and dinner was on the table that night. But she would make dumplings. So for fryers its a bit different I would imaging.

Keep working on it we all need to learn.

Good luck.

Arklady

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Yes, you need to let the meat age first so the enzymes in the meat can start to break it down. The texts I have read say a minimum of four hours, most people give them a day in an ice bath or refrigerator before cooking or freezing.

 

[BirdBrain]

Another thing to consider is that at 7.5 weeks of age, these Cornish Rocks are not really "Fryers". They are just too big. I was disappointed witht the first one of our we roasted (baked) but then I realized that if I baked it longer that the meast was considerably more tender. I put it on a rack in a roasting pan BREAST SIDE DOWN. Otherwise it would dry out too much. I did not put anything other than salt and pepper on the bird and it turned out great---much better than my first attempt. At 5 pounds per bird there was plenty of meat to go around for a family of 5 and have some left over for a chicken salad lastnight. HTH

 

[justusnak]

steff......we made the same mistake. We cooked one on D Day. It was chicken jerky!! LOL Tuesday night, I took out another...plopped it in a bowl if water, and sprinkled it with salt. Set it in the fridge overnight covered with plastic wrap. Yesterday morning...took it out of the salt water...and rinsed well. Put it in a bakeing pan...covered with butter, salt and pepper...and baked for 2 hrs, on 350 degrees. It was tender....juicy...and SO YUMMY!! Dont lose hope. THey will bake up just fine. Let them rest for a few weeks.

 

[steffpeck]

I'm so glad to hear there is hope!! We had the best laugh over the whole thing last night. We were so excited and so proud and then for it to be so nasty was just to funny. I have them in the fridge right now cooling down, and will move them to the freezer on Saturday and then in a couple of weeks, we will try again. Thanks everyone!!

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, if you use them fresh, they are stew quality. Try tomorrow and enjoy!

 

[jiminpa]

I butcher mine and put in either ice chests or a kids swimming pool. water and ice to cover the birds. you got to get the heat out of the bird! bag the next day.

 

[Mosey2003]

Yeah, you didn't rest it. You cooked it at the height of rigor mortis, is the problem.

Take the meat off that one you cooked and grind it up and make chicken salad. Then leave the rest in the fridge for two more days before you cook them.

They're going to be a bit bland tasting because they're broilers, that's just how it goes when they get butchered so young. They'll take any seasoning, so make sure you season them up and you'll be much happier

 

[aart]

Ancient thread alert.