Meat from my chics taste terrible

[MillersFarm]

I've never heard of that way of slaughtering chickens, when it comes to me i make sure they havent eaten all day and when it comes to the killing point they're upside down in a cone. just putting them upside down calms them and i use a very VERY sharp blade and and slit their throat just under where you can feel their jaw, they only feel the part were you cut through the skin and after that there always dead right after the start bleeding

 

[Ridgerunner]

I assume you keep things sterile where you butcher, keep everything clean. That means cleaning up afterwards so you don't have things to go bad in that area. Have you noticed the smell being worse if you butcher soon after you butchered another. Is the area contaminated?

Is it the water you are using to wash and rinse? I appreciate it is some and not others.

When do you notice the smell? Right after you butcher or after it's been in the fridge for a while? Is the meat absorbing smells from something else in the fridge?

Are you feeding them anything that might flavor the meat like fish or garlic?

Are you storing it in an ice chest of something else that smells?

As long as you rinse the meat well it should not smell, not even if you do cut the gall bladder and turn some of of the meat green or open parts of the digestive track and get some of that on the meat. I use a lot of rinse water when I butcher. And I cut them into serving pieces at that time, I don't see where that could be an issue.

Do you pluck or skin? If you pluck, how do you scald? Scald water can smell pretty badly after it's used a few times. Do you burn the pin feathers off of the carcass after plucking?

What parts do you keep with the bird? I'm thinking mainly of the liver but do you remove all internal organs including lungs and either dispose of them or use them separately? Do you rinse the inside of the cavity out really well.

When you butcher do you kill a bunch before you start cleaning them or clean as you kill?

People kill them all kinds of different ways; killing cones, pithing, axe and stump, wringing the necks, the broomstick method, some shoot them in the head with a .22. That should not make any difference to the way the meat tastes, especially as you are bleeding them out.

I'm kind of grasping at straws. I can't tell what's going on across the internet. From what you said it happens sometimes and not others. Age doesn't seem to matter. It has to be something that you do sometimes and not others. I'd concentrate on the meat absorbing smells from something else somehow to start with.

 

[Birdinhand]

rjohn39, that's a great video, thanks for sharing!

 

[rjohns39]

rjohn39, that's a great video, thanks for sharing!

Watching his team work on processing day is amazing. They can do about 2000 birds in a day.

 

[rjohns39]

I don't know if it helps or not... But here are my process steps, before after and during processing. For me the key is keeping it clean. I'm probably working at a larger scale but the concepts are the same. It takes the same amount of labor to setup and cleanup to do 50 birds as it does to do 300, so more is better.

I take my birds off feed at noon the day before processing, crate them and remove water at 4:00 PM the day before processing. I don't stack crates to avoid the obvious.

1. Everything from kill cones to chill tank are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
2. Kill cones & stand and blood catcher all sprayed with olive oil.
3. Fresh tub with fresh water on first station, bowels with ice water on the evisceration station.
4. About a quarter cup of dish soap goes into the scalder when filled with fresh water, covered and started to heat up. I use a featherman pro setup.
5. Two pounds of ice per bird, plus 20 pounds of ice go into chill tank with water once the scalder is up to temp.
6. We kill 4 birds at a time and let them bleed out, then again 4 at a time go to the scalder.
7. Then into the plucker, which is rinsed out throughout the plucking process and after.
8. Out of the plucker, Feet, Head and Oil Gland are removed, feet saved in separate bucket with ice water. The birds are rinsed and placed in the first tub.
9. I retrieve the birds from the first station eviscerate one at a time awful goes into a bucket under my table, Heart, Liver and gizzard go into bowels with ice water. Bird goes into a laundry tub with fresh water, station and knives rinsed with fresh water. Four birds go to left sink then four birds to right, one is always filling with fresh water while the other soaking. I use float valves which rinse the tub and birds during draining.
10. Five or so minutes after the last bird goes into the tub, the tub is drained each bird is rinsed and QA checked and submerged into the chill tank after a final rinse.
11. Once the birds reach an internal temp (should be 40 minutes or less) of 40 degrees, they are transported into the house in clean lugs. There they are either cutup and vacuum packed or shrink wrapped whole. Livers, hearts and feet are cleaned and vacuum packed. Gizzards are covered and go in the fridge overnight. All of the packages (I generally leave one out in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner), go into an upright freezer that has a battery powered fan in it for quick freezing.
12. All biodegradable stuff goes to compost pile.
13. Everything from kill cones through chill tank is drained, washed and disinfected. Scalder and chill tank are covered.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Is your refrigerator cold enough? Are the birds in hot sun when butchering and not put in ice bath immediately? The meat should not be tainted at all. Other than stored too warm can't see why the meat would be tainted. You should rest the bird in fridge (after butchering completely of course) for 2 to 3 days. I always rest mine 3.

 

[Faraday40]

Just wondering .... how long does freshly processed raw chicken last in the fridge? Min of 2 days, but max of _?_ days.

Also, if it's frozen right away, will it need to "rest" after thawing?

 

[rjohns39]

Just wondering .... how long does freshly processed raw chicken last in the fridge? Min of 2 days, but max of _?_ days.

Also, if it's frozen right away, will it need to "rest" after thawing?

I don't remember what Joel said on the subject, but he covered it in one of his Youtube vids. My thoughts would be anecdotal at best and I've never found the outer limit. If memory serves, Daniel stores all birds in a chicken only walk-in fridge over night. And then does follow-on processing the next day. Depending on a whole lot of factors, I sometimes will keep birds iced and covered overnight and do final processing the next day. I know Joel's had issues with USDA processors for pork and beef as grass fed animals need a cooling off period for optimum flavor. I thaw my birds in the fridge for 3 days and they taste better than fabulous.

Sorry, late thought... I do know this: Birds that have not been frozen, in the heat will go south in 3 to 4 hours. Maybe less, maybe more. I picked up some fresh birds for my daughter and didn't have enough ice in the cooler. When I got to her house 3.5 hours later, the birds were done--but it was over 100 degrees and the cooler was in the bed of the truck.

Also, there will never be any doubt in your mind. If you throw a bad chicken under heat of any kind, you'll know you have a bad chicken.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

I put them in the refrigerator for one day to relax the meat. If it is too old, I slow cook it in the crock pot. If juvenile, I quarter it for fried chicken. The chickens I have butchered have a lot more flavor than that mess from the grocery store. Farm raised chickens have a lot more and distinctive flavor than store bought, which tastes like cardboard in comparison.

 

[feedman77]

Thank you for your reply.

It is not that it tastes different than the ones you buy. I really appreciate homegrown chicken meat. Both the old ones that I have to boil for a long time, the young ones which is oh so tender and the roosters with very dark meat.

But this... I can't describe the taste. It's like... not rotten. But as bad as rotten.

I guess I most be doing something wrong somewhere in the proces, which goes like this:

1. butchered by an axe
2. hanged up side down to let the blood run out
3. I tried different resting time from none till one day
4. Eviscerating closely following instructions from knowledgeable people
5. I don't cut them into smaller pieces (unless it is a large rooster which cannot fit in to the freezer)
6. Sometimes they stay in the fridge for a day before I freeze them and sometimes i freeze them right away. (Havn't tried to brine them).
7. prepared according to race, gender and age.

I think the cause is the eviscarating; I think the meat gets contaminated but I'm really doing my best and following instructions very closely.

There has been good advice and questions already asked.

If your steps are followed in this order are you resting the bird before evicerating it?

How long do you let them bleed?

The only time I smell birds that are (ripe) Are usually birds that have been shot while hunting and been packed around for awhile or waiting on the rest of the group to finish before Being processed.

In that time the enzymes in the stomach start to break down the inards.