Looking for more details on processing chickens

[629864]

This summer we plan on processing some of our chickens. While there will be a period of getting used to the culling part, I'm not as worried about that as all the steps after. I think I'll use hot water and manually defeather them. I've watched a pretty detailed video on how to take out all the insides. But lately I keep running across references to letting the meat rest, but no detail on why, for how long, or whether this "resting" needs to be done prior to or after gutting.

Any further explanation (or other tips learned from experience) would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Molpet]

After butchering the bird will go into rigor mortis. It needs to rest until rigor pases. The joints will move freely when it's rested long enough. Usually 1 to 3 days

 

[629864]

That makes sense. So, in a tutorial like the one in this link, they just skipped including the resting stage? Or did they butcher it so quickly after culling that rigor mortis hadn't set in yet?

Also (and sorry for what are probably to experienced butchers kinda dumb questions), when you buy a chicken from the grocery store, I was taught it needs to be cooked within 24 hours or frozen right away. Does the freshly defeathered chicken not begin to stink/rot if left to rest in the fridge for a few days?

 

[Molpet]

That makes sense. So, in a tutorial like the one in this link, they just skipped including the resting stage? Or did they butcher it so quickly after culling that rigor mortis hadn't set in yet?

Also (and sorry for what are probably to experienced butchers kinda dumb questions), when you buy a chicken from the grocery store, I was taught it needs to be cooked within 24 hours or frozen right away. Does the freshly defeathered chicken not begin to stink/rot if left to rest in the fridge for a few days?

It seems like they stopped after parting out. If it's parted can't tell by the joints. If you're really quick, less than a half hour, you can cook it.
The birds at the store are usually butchered somewhere else, shipped to the store. So it been days before they are put out for sale. The store by me has the sell by date a week out.The blood and giblets are the first to start to smell.

 

[ladybrasa]

No it doesn’t if you rinsed the carcass well and didn’t get any fecal matter on it (or rinsed it off really well). If I understand correctly, other meats like beef are “aged” for many days - ie hung up in a cold room.

As far as aging, the very young Cornish cross don’t technically need hardly any aging at all. The older the bird, the longer you want it to set not only for rigor passing, but also to hopefully have some of the tough muscle fibers to start breaking down. If you are going to make ground chicken though, doesn’t really matter.

 

[cassie]

That makes sense. So, in a tutorial like the one in this link, they just skipped including the resting stage? Or did they butcher it so quickly after culling that rigor mortis hadn't set in yet?

Also (and sorry for what are probably to experienced butchers kinda dumb questions), when you buy a chicken from the grocery store, I was taught it needs to be cooked within 24 hours or frozen right away. Does the freshly defeathered chicken not begin to stink/rot if left to rest in the fridge for a few days?

I keep my store bought chickens longer than 24 hours. A lot of time it says on the packaging how long you can safely keep it before cooking. The resting stage simply means you put it in the fridge for a day or two. When I lived with my aunt back in the early '50's I many times saw her butcher a chicken and cook it right away. The chicken was never tough. My grandmother would do the same. If unexpected company came farm women would often go out to the chicken house and grab a chicken for dinner. I think it was because the chicken was cooked so fast rigor mortis didn't have a chance to set in. I never tried this myself.

Up until the early '50's, chickens sold in the market were defeathered but that was all. They had their head feet and innards intact. You drew (gutted) them when you got home. If you look in some of the older cookbooks you will find directions on how to draw a chicken.

 

[MotherofOrpies]

That wasn’t a very safe procedure! As mentioned before, the innards are the first thing that breaks down, I wouldn’t advise ever leaving the innards in, I pluck the chickens and then get the innards out , after that, you wash the meat thoroughly and put it in a fridge

 

[BigBlueHen53]

This summer we plan on processing some of our chickens. While there will be a period of getting used to the culling part, I'm not as worried about that as all the steps after. I think I'll use hot water and manually defeather them. I've watched a pretty detailed video on how to take out all the insides. But lately I keep running across references to letting the meat rest, but no detail on why, for how long, or whether this "resting" needs to be done prior to or after gutting.

Any further explanation (or other tips learned from experience) would be greatly appreciated.

You probably gathered this from your video, but you don't want to leave your bird in the hot water very long for the defeathering process. Certainly not long enough that the bird starts to cook at all. Just enough so the skin relaxes. Good luck to you!

 

[cassie]

That wasn’t a very safe procedure! As mentioned before, the innards are the first thing that breaks down, I wouldn’t advies ever leaving the innards in, I pluck the chickens and then get the innards out , after that, you wash the meat thoroughly and put it in a fridge

It couldn't be too unsafe because that is the way poultry was marketed for hundreds of years. If you check, I think you will find game birds were hung in a dry cool place for several days and they weren't drawn either. Do you remember that Norman Rockwell picture of the old lady at the butcher shop buying a chicken? The one where the butcher has his thumb on the scale pushing down and the old lady has her finger under the scale pushing up? Look at the chicken on the scale. It is defeathered but it has its head and feet and it obviously had not been drawn either. You may be too young to remember that but your grandparents probably can.

 

[629864]

Thanks so very much to everyone for your experienced and insightful responses! I feel a lot less apprehensive about the whole process now.

The video I mentioned was very detailed and helpful. The one thing I hated about his technique is he killed his bird by beheading it and letting it bleed out right there within the flock. Call me too sensitive, but I feel the other chickens shouldn't be witness to their flock member being killed by the person they trust to care for them.

We have a station we set up outside over a paved driveway with a cook stove and large table for canning. I plan on using the same set up, but with a waterproof vinyl cover for easier clean up of the table. I also plan on letting the bird bleed out over a bucket to minimize mess that will attract predators...and then bleaching and jet hosing everything afterwards.

We will likely burn the blood and any bits (not the feathers) we don't plan on utilizing. Does that sound ok or would you change anything? What do you all do with the feathers, if anything, besides discarding them?