Processing Day II: skinning advice needed

[Buster52]

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I guess it could work, but it is a lot of work just to avoid having to reach in and pull out the innards. That is one of the easiest parts of the processing, in my view. Once an opening is cut, I just reach in along the top of the body cavity and scoop it out. Most of it comes out the first try that way, then there is just the scooping out of what is left. So far in my case it has been a fairly neat operation, with no to very little blood.

I would be afraid of cutting the innards while I was splitting it. That seems much more difficult to me.

As I said, it is all much easier than you think. It is very easy to make it much more complicated in your mind than it is in actuality.

And as ohiofarmgirl mentioned, once it is dead, it seems more like food than a living creature, food that just needs to be prepared. Your processing is merely part of the cooking process.

 

[halo]

My concern, being as how I havent done this before is that "reaching in" is doing it blindly, whereas cutting it down the breastbone, or even turning it over and cutting down the side of the backbone, at least lets me see what Im reaching in for. I keep reading about making sure not to let any of the innards break open and taint the meat, and Im afraid if I can't see what Im doing, that I might tear something that shouldnt be torn.

 

[sonew123]

I skin mine and jst cut out breasts and legs. I pinch the chest up-make a small incision and then pull back the skin towards the outside. The breasts are completly exposed-I then make a cut on both tops to where the leg skin starts-all the way down to the ankles and peel the skin back-I pull the legs back to "crack" the legs away from body-cut the leg thighs off at the top and bottom of ankles-between the bones. I cut slowly the breasts out-I never punture any organs and I barely if ever get any blood on myself-the whole carcuss is intact-no plucking-takes 10 minutes pere bird tops-I did 3 yesterday in 1/2 hour..

 

[halo]

Ooooh, now that sounds interesting. I may try that...lets see, whos the first victim......ga GAWKKK!!!

 

[sonew123]

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It is very easy. I took a cone-handed it with chicken in it and gave it to my father in law-he did the whacking of the head-we do it right next to the burn pit so I get rid of any feathers/unwanted parts and peices immediately- I let them drain upside down for 10 minutes or so-then I lay them on their backs--I pull up on brest skin and make a good cut through skin-pull out both sides-walla-open chest exposed-you may have to cut away existing tissue-I do sometimes to make sure Im not including that in my breast meat. I peel the feathered skin all the way beyond the ankle-when that is done the ankle joints are exposed and you can visibly see where you need to cut the feet off-Im serious it is a peice of cake-of course you egt stray loose feathers that get on the meat while doing this-but no no no plucking involved-I am going to have to make a video of this because everyone asks me how I do it with getting blood on myself and no plucking-I wont have anymore roos to do this to for a few more weeks-I have 7 BO-RIR 7 week olds and Im pretty sure 4 are roos so they are next-and I will video it when I do!!

 

[halo]

Please make that video! I would love to see it.

 

[sonew123]

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I have alot going on today but if I can pick out another roo I will today-now youll have to excuse me Ive never done Utube or posted a video so it may take me some time to figure it all out But I will for sure make that video-

 

[Buster52]

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Well, in my vast experience of doing 6 chickens...

I haven't found it to be all that complicated. The opening is large enough once you cut and tear it a bit, and as long as you keep your hand along the walls of the body cavity and work slowly, it seems to me it would be difficult to tear something.

But let's say you do. So what? So you ruin one bird. In the unlikely even that happens, go on to the next and look at it as an educational experience. You just know not to do whatever you just did next time.

Really, I know what you are going through. It wasn't that long ago (as in weeks) that I had different but similar worries of my own and they all turned out to be for naught.

Just do it.

 

[antlers]

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With game birds we usually skin as mentioned above, then fillet the breast meat, cut the wings and leg quarters off and never mess with the innards. All that is left is the back and rib cage. Unless you are making stock they aren't of much use anyway.

Don't do this with chickens though. My favorite parts are the neck, heart and gizzard.

I feed my dogs raw chicken parts, so Im thinking this would be perfect for them, back and rib cage included, so thats why Im wondering if I could just basically skin it, split it in two and scrape out the innards that way. Id then end up with 2 chicken halves, basically.

Doesnt seem like rocket science, does it?

But Im still a bit squeemish...

I'd be careful here. I think it depends on how you split them. Lets say you take an old band saw and just zip em neck to butt down the middle. Your going to be opening a lot of guts up in there that have a lot of E Coli in them . Might not be a good thing. On the other hand if you have a way to cut the breast bone and back with out ripping the digestive system to shreds, it might be slick.

My 2 cents.

 

[halo]

I wasnt thinking anything so strenuous as a band saw...I was thinking more along the lines of some strong scissors, or a sharp knife. I wont be doing full grown roosters, at least not at this point, in the experimental stages. I just have some young 2-4 month old roosters that I know I wont be needing, so Im thinking while they are so small and their bones so soft, it would be a good time to experiment with this.