After animals die, rigormortise sets in, it reaches it peak in about 4 to 6 hours, and after 24 hrs it's mostly gone. These times can very. so 48 hrs rest before cooking or freezing is used by some just to make sure.
The main idea behind the ice water it to keep the bird down below 38 degrees, when poultry is below this tempeture the growth of bateria slows down greatly. You can also place in a refriderator to keep the tempeture down.
As an additional step some people make brine water to soak the birds in. This adds some flavoring to the birds, Originaly in the old days, before freezers ere common, it was used as a preservitive method. But if you use table salt it is not good method for preservering meat . You would need to use canning salt in your brine for much of any preservation. Brining does allow the salt water to penetrate deeper into the meat when the bird is cooked. Brine can also be injected directly into the birds.
Soaking in water whether it's brine or ice water. The reasoning for this is to allow water to get down into the meat between the actual muscle fibers. When you are cooking it is thought that this allows a more even cooking of the meat. It is also has been suggested that when you freeze the meat after soaking, the ice crystals will penatrate the muscles tissues to help tenderize it.
What we do:
We have on of those small square apartment freezers, that stopped working, so I took the freezing parts out. We fill between half and 3/4 full of water then place 1 gallon milk jugs with frozen water in it. Once we get done with the butchering all birds go in it for 48 hrs minum, we keep checking the temp so it's below 38 degrees. ( some feel that you must change the water several times, we don't because it's below 38 degree)
Once the 48 hrs has pasted we bring into the kitchen and wash off the birds, and remove any pin feathers left. If they are going to be frozen whole, we put in a bag and then the freezer. Or we finish cutting up the bird and either smoke or freeze.
For the meat we will be smoking we rub seasoning salt in to the meat and try to let it site in the refridgerator for at least 4 hours.
So far this has worked whether it's a young birds or 1 year old free ranged rooster. So far the only problem we have had it the wife thinks she has to cook them for 7 hours in a roster and she does not.
