Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Sally Sunshine]

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oh yum! Heck you all will have me out plucking a chicken today for supper!

My aunt gave me an electric roaster, I never used it except for big parties for meatballs and such, it don't brown birds on top so I never used it for birds.
But I guess I dont need to brown them, just so they are good! and I could fit two birds at once and tell the boys to head home for supper!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

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The breast meat I filet from older birds I usually use when doing stir fry or other similar dishes that call for chunked chicken, it can also be marinated in sauce in the fridge after being chunked up and then quickly skillet cooked and it helps minimize toughening.
The chunked white meat can also be added back into soup after all the bone cooking is done.

If I do strip the breast meat off for use when the bird is fresh butchered I let it rest in the fridge for a couple of days in a zippy bag before we freezer pack it. We use a vaccuum sealer.

do you let it rest after you thaw as well?

Very useful for those who have heritage type birds headed for Camp Kenmore:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...raditional-meats-from-historic-chicken-breeds

I will head over after I catch up on the other threads! awesome thank you!

Quote: Those things do look dangerous!

Quote: Pa pot pie of course! However I always liked corn pie mom makes and I love those frozen food section pot pies like actual pies, so I think I should try that too!

I read a lady uses all her "picked meat" from holidays and birds, rolls her dough in the pie shell, adds a can of cream of potato, can of cream o celery and then either fresh veggies or canned peas and carrots, throws the chicken or bird meat on top adds a dash of butter, onion and salt and pepper and covers with more dough. It sounds easy I just never have ingredients but I will put them on the list now

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Meaties, on the other hand. They're so cute when they're babies. Then, they start to grow. And, most of them are nice, sweet, don't grow old enough to be mean.

But they're NASTY! Even mine, who live outside on fresh grass daily. Their feathers aren't full, they're odd shaped.

I've never killed them either, but have done the rest of the processing.

Maybe you should get a batch of meaties to get some practice and get a little used to the process...

I definitely agree with this. Meaties are GROSS! I have 20 in a meat pen right now, plus six EE cockerels (stupid straight run chicks). And the difference is astounding. Meaties are simply made of meat. They're not even really birds--all they do is sit around and stuff their faces and poo, even when there is an acre of lovely pasture to explore. When you hold them, it's not like holding a bird, the way holding a laying breed is. It feels like holding a dressed chicken from the supermarket, even though they are alive. Freaks me out. And they are so gross, I'm always so relieved to not have to feed them or deal with them any more. And I certainly wouldn't want to name one. Meaties, IMO, make processing day much easier.

The good thing about meaties, of course, is taste. They taste SO GOOD that having to deal with them while they are alive and process them is worth it. My EE cockerels will also taste really good, but they will be tough and only good for coq a vin or stock--no way I could roast or fry them, my teeth aren't that good!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

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[Sally Sunshine]

So where do I find what breed meaties to get that are cheap, quick to raise and taste delish?

 

[Wax Myrtle]

My EE cockerels will also taste really good, but they will be tough and only good for coq a vin or stock--no way I could roast or fry them, my teeth aren't that good!

This guy (another st run EE) went on to become stock and a big pile of taco/burrito/enchilada filling. Yum.

ETA: darn it, my signal isn't strong enough to upload the pic. I'll try again when I head into town tonight for shopping...

 

[Wax Myrtle]

So where do I find what breed meaties to get that are cheap, quick to raise and taste delish?

Good question! CX are generally not cheap as chicks, they blow through a lot of feed FAST but... They grow very fast, so total price per pound of meat is the best thing out there. They will have a stronger chicken flavor when home raised than store bought, but still mild due to their young age at processing. Bottom line, lots of mild flavored meat cheap and fast with lots of mess.

DP cockerels will be the cheapest to buy as chicks (my favorite hatchery sells them at $0.27 ea for 100 or more) but they take a lot longer to grow, will never have as much meat as a CX and will tend to be a lot fiestier. Bottom line: a good to poor amount of highly flavored meat for a whole lot more money per pound after a lot longer.

I have both - I like white meat and lots of it fast and cheaper and that means CX. I like strong broth and moist- chicken-and-carb recipes and I've begun hatching and would like to specialize in a particulate breed/variety so that means DP. It's all good.

ETA: particular. Not particulate. Lol

 

[Sally Sunshine]

"After processing, for best meat texture, chickens should be chilled and aged before cooking. Most sources recommend chilling and aging chickens for 24 hours, and up to 3 days before freezing. I think aging at least 24 hours improves the texture, and that older chickens are better with longer aging, up to perhaps 5 days in the refrigerator for fowl. The properly aged bird should retain a very fresh clean smell with no hint of taint. I've read that chickens that are to be frozen need not be aged first if they will remain at least a month in the freezer. However, that advice may have been based on industrial meat lines, butchered very young. For historic breed chickens butchered at 12 weeks or older, freezer aging may not be enough. If a chicken was not aged in the fridge for at least 24 hours before freezing, then after thawing I usually will allow it another day or more to age in the fridge, before cooking."https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...raditional-meats-from-historic-chicken-breeds

Thank you this is a pretty cool article, I like at the bottom reference of cookbooks and the updates, like health issues and not to stuff ahead of time and such! Thanks!

 

[3 NH reds]

HA! glad you turned the tables on the doc and your in great shape too!

oh how cool, just search the book on amazon? My dad said he saw the kind you hold them over, do you put the bird in a tub or have to hold the bird with that kind?
and do you still have to boil the feathers out?

Here is a pic of my tub plucker. Just turn it on and drop it in. 5 seconds later clean bird you need to spray the brid with water while it gets plucked. They say a couple of chickens at one time work better but I do not have the chickens yet. Waiting on ordering one of the frying pan 20 bird specials.

Oh wow I didn't know it was that easy! sugar and salt! No I feel really stupid!

you know my Nana always had her birds soaking in the kitchen sink, I bet a million bucks that's what she was doing with her birds! And I never knew it! I always thought it was gross to see the bird in that nasty grease water

and

Try injecting wine in them its good

How many do you process at a time?

do you choose a weekend to work through them?
also wondering what bag/s are used to freeze hole chickens? ziplocks are too small

Planet whizbang sold a small amount of large Turkey bags and Stromburg's sells chicken bags. When scalding a brid be sure toreally move it up and down quickly to make sure the water gets under the feathers.

Hey CC! our first time we are sending them out and if we can eat them fine I do see some meaties in our near future! So happy we can help support each other! Sometimes I feel really stupid for letting emotions get the best of me and now I realize I sure aint the only tenderhearted nor is it a bad thing! It just needs some work right?

Just picture an ex you broke up with or the jerk who cut you off in traffic and gave you the bird

Oh DO NOT TOSS THE FF! No no no!!

I stopped all that crap! I only do the hot water no strain method now!

I only do mash now, its cheaper and it makes awesome FF! Plus if your trying to "break down" foods for healthier consumption it just makes sense to me to have it mashed already not whole and be wasted!.

Anyways.....

take half of what you have in that bucket and put it in another bucket

add 1 cup of ACV with mother HOT WATER and ADD enough feed to make a thick pancake mix, let it sit (and it will rise from that moment and FF with hot water!)
let it sit for 2 days covered with cheese cloth or a towel MUST HAVE AIR no lid. I don't stir it after that either, I let it sit! Then I take what I need off the top (not stiring) and replace what I took with more hot water and more feed stir good and let it sit till it puffs up the next day for feeding! Its so easy and I am so glad I figured this way out! I had such terrible time with straining and whole grains, now its certainly boozy! and keep two buckets going, using one and leaving a tad in to make the next batch while the other sits until the next day!

I still like the fermented scratch grains for the older ones, my eight chicks are getting fermented mash and loving it. It has aged so I think the booze is gone, Day 4 fo the mash brewingI think they all got a buzz on and slept it off, all that at just over 1 week old.

 

[chiques chicks]

You know I am so guilty of not being able to fry chicken   DH mom is from Montgomery AL and she has yet to make it that I seen either!
I told her she aint no southerner!  I demand fried chicken, fried okra, and hush puppies and some of that spicy soup (whats it called with all seafood and stuff!)


I can cut chicken into strips dip in flour and egg and then bread crumbs and fry kids love that, but not the real chicken I order out!  and then there is that BBQ chicken that isn't wet on the outside with BBQ they use some sorta dry spices! anyone have recipes I would love one!

If you are referring to the "PA roadside barbecue", as I call it, the secret is no tomato or sugar ( they burn).

Basic recipe more the sauce used to baste (they use garden type door sprayera to do large quantities, I just brush it on every so often):

Half apple cider vinegar
Half vegetable oil
Poultry seasoning

I think my measurements are about 1/2 cup of each liquid and 1 tsp seasoning.

I don't measure much.