My 1st butcher batch - will you review my plan?

[jennifer0224]

Hi! Tomorrow I am butchering my 15 Cornish X. I've never done more than 3 at a time. Would you mind reviewing my plan? I over-analyze and just want to make sure I've thought of everything..

1. Withhold feed after this evening, and start butchering tomorrow morning. We will use our (new hatchet, thanks to the advice on my prior thread) to cut the heads off, and then immediately hang them up over a bucket. While we let one hang, we will pluck the prior.

2. Go in the house and dunk the bird into the scalding water, then bring it back outside to pluck. I'll keep a hose nearby since the feathers might stick to the bird. Once they are plucked, I was thinking to put them in ice water, in an ice chest, until we have all 15 plucked.

3. I was thinking to take the ice chest, with 15 plucked birds, into the house to gut in there. I have three very young kids and I can't figure out how to entertain them outside all day (small suburban yard) so hoping to do part of the processing inside.

4. After I gut each one, I was going to pass to my husband who will quarter them (he is the cook, and doesn't want them whole). Once they are quartered, I was going to put it all in our garage fridge, let them rest a day (2 days?), then wrap in freezer paper, weigh, bag, and freeze. The backbones and feet / organs I was going to put in freezer bags and start making broth.

Does that sound right? Am I missing anything or doing anything wrong? just trying to be as efficient and quick as possible, while staying indoors part of the time, without a plucking machine. I suppose I could also just bring them all inside after killing and even pluck indoors as well. I did that with my rooster and it wasn't a big deal; we have a lot of counter space.

Thank you!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Um... you might want to re-think this. Scalding them is very drippy and messy. You're gonna be dripping blood in and out of the house all day long.

Process the first one, start to finish before you start the assembly line process. If it's above freezing, set up a hose, and a camp stove, and heat your scalding water outside.

Gutting birds can be a smelly procedure, especially if you nick a gut. It's always my goal to complete processing without nicking a gut, but occasionally it happens. Not a smell I'd want in my house.

At the very best, when I'm working alone, which is always the case, it takes me 20 - 45 minutes to process a single bird. Biggest time factor is keeping that scalding water hot enough.

It's also amazing how quickly a knife will get dull. After 3 - 4 birds, my knife needs a quick sharpening.

Your cooler may not hold more than 6 - 7 birds.

Let them rest 3 days before freezing them.

Reading back, I see that you have already processed a bird, so know what it entails. Still, I'd opt to do all but the final cutting up outside. Any chance you can get a babysitter?

 

[Birdinhand]

I would second the rethinking of scalding/gutting inside. I would highly recommend buying a largish camp stove, the kind they make for car camping that has attachable legs, the type designed to handle large pots of water. the one I use runs a little hot, so I have to add cold water periodically but it has a nice wide base. I leave the legs off and put it on the ground, since large pots of boiling water and kids and tipping over would be catastrophic (I have a 6 and 8 year old). I would take a some wire or rope and a washer and screw it to a tree or 2'x4' and hang the chicken from one leg. I set up two at a time. I got so burned out on plucking that I bought a Yard Bird Chicken plucker on sale at Tractor Supply. I think it was $300 on sale and worth every penny.

I use kill cones, slit the throat, have two screws placed just right to hold the head steady, after a few minutes I dip them into the scalder, then into the plucker, two birds in 30 seconds, all the feathers wash directly into a bucket under the plucker, then hang the birds by one leg for eviscerating. I use razor sharp knives. from there the birds get rinsed off one more time, then into an ice bath till they cool off somewhat, then into an ice chest.

it's really important to drop the body temperature quickly, so have lots of ice on hand, buy it ahead of time and put it in your own freezer if you have one that gets cold, chances are you can get it much colder than the ice they sell at the store. it sounds weird but ice can be super cold or it can be close to melting and all look the same. the more cold it is, the better it will be at dropping the body temp down to deter microbes from breeding.

I assume all my chickens have salmonella, and treat them as a biohazard every step of the way. just because I grow at home it does not reduce the risk of food born illness.

once I have the birds cold and clean, then they come inside, from there I vacuum seal them and write the weight and date on the bag, then back into a cooler with lots of ice for 3 days, monitoring the temp with a laser temp gun at least twice a day to assure they are close to freezing. the extra resting helps to tenderize the meat, but has to be done at a low temp to reduce microbial action. here are a few pics of my set up:
I made the kill cones out of a plastic bucket, I hang 4 birds at a time, send two at a time through the scalder and plucker then hang two.

I hang the birds by one foot, I use the washer to synch the cord tight around the foot. this gives me two hands to work. I have a link to a great video on my Cornish Cross thread to a demo that I liked on butchering. especially I like how the guy dealt with the vent, it can be tricky to keep things clean and not pierce the intestines, but he shows a nice and easy approach, you might want to check it out. I'd dig up the video but I have to run to the kiddos school. hope this helps.

 

[Maeschak]

Like the others suggest, I would try to scald and gut outside or at least in a garage if possible... If you have a helper they can keep water heating on the stove inside and then pour it into a 5 gallon bucket for outside scalding (although it is horribly inefficient and time consuming, as that is what I used to do). I like to scald at 150 degrees- it's hot but won't give u 3rd degree burns if spilled.

If not possible to do those things outside just make sure you have your inside area totally ready for the stink and mess! Maybe put your scald pot in the sink or something so that drips etc remain in the sink and stray feathers can go down into the garbage disposal. Then use an empty bucket to transport the scalded bird outside.

For gutting just get a huge area ready by covering w newspaper and/or plastic. When butchering inside I like to put down tons of towels that completely cover my table/counter top/washing machine and then cut open trash bags and tape them over the towels to the butcher surface. Put cutting boards or plywood on top of all that to butcher bc the trash bags are slippery. (I Also put down towels on the floor area near my butcher surface).
When you are done butchering you can throw away the trash bags and throw the towels into the washing machine.

Anyway, you will figure it out, good luck!

 

[jennifer0224]

Thanks everyone! I would love to keep the scalding water outside, but I don't want to spend any additional money right now on a camping stove. When we've scalded inside in the past, we've just carried a large mixing bowl under the bird to catch any drips coming in and going out. It is still an inconvenience though :-/

Birdinhand, I will search for the tip on how to not slice the intestines, thank you.

When I did my rooster indoors I don't remember any smell, but it was only one bird. I did put trash bags over the entire counter but the plywood on top is a good idea, as the plastic kept getting bunched up. With the smooth counters, I found it easy to disinfect everything afterward, but again, that was just one bird...

I will buy ice but my ice chest, though large, may not hold 15 chickens now that I try to picture it.

 

[jennifer0224]

And lazy gardener, I wish I could get a sitter, but the timing didn't work out unfortunately

 

[rjohns39]

I agree with the above posts. Also, I find it better not to introduce the bird to ice until after it's been fully cleaned. Here's a fairly good video on how I do it, I'm not nearly as good as they are.

Spoiler: Chicken Processing

Best of luck

 

[jennifer0224]

Ah yes, Joel Salatin.. he makes it look so easy! The only reason I wanted to put them on ice through most of the process is because it takes me so long to process It'll be sunny and 60 degrees tomorrow; I figured I shouldn't let them sit out until I had them all done. Unless I did one at a time, start to finish.

 

[jennifer0224]

A question related to my last step... should I let them rest a couple of days, and then quarter them? Or should I quarter them, and then let them rest? I like the idea of just sticking them in the fridge after all that work and dealing with cutting them up later.

 

[lazy gardener]

It shouldn't matter which way you do it. As long as you have them nice and clean, you might even be able to do the final wrapping, then put them in for their "rest". Then just stick the finished packages in the freezer.