So we ate our first chicken........ ewww

[Clay In Iowa]

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GREAT article .. thank you very much for sharing!!!

 

[HEChicken]

That's about the same age mine were when I processed the first three, but I can't say I noticed much of a gamey taste to them. Of course, I'm a vegetarian and ONLY ate my birds because I knew how they had been raised and processed so it has admittedly been awhile since I tasted commercial chicken. However the other members of my family are not vegetarians and did not mention any different flavor.

I rested it for 48 hours and did not brine. I roasted with minimal spices but not for nearly as long as you did - don't know if that makes a difference. From memory I think it was more like 1.5 hours at 325-350.

 

[bibliophile birds]

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i was going to comment on that over on your other thread. i'm a beginner like you and will be processing for the first time this weekend, but, from what i've read, it's better to sever the arteries in the throat rather than chop the head off. i know someone else slaughtered for you, but maybe next time try this technique instead. the benefit, supposedly, is that by keeping the spinal cord intact, the nerve impulses help force the blood out really well.

just a thought.

 

[Buster52]

I really don't get threads like this.

We don't brine, don't slit, raise DP birds for meat, butcher at 5 to 6 months, and yet the meat is consistently delicious and never chewy. I don't even know what "gamey" means, but if that is what my birds taste like, gimme gamey forever because it is far far superior to store-bought.

I have to wonder what you folks are feeding your birds to have these sorts of problems.

 

[LarryPQ]

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I agree they are superior, but you gotta remember most of us here have been eating bland, tasteless, smellless, store bought meat our entire lives.

It is like eating velveeta from birth, and then suddenly being given a French white cheddar made with truffle oil and bits of truffle in it: it is smelly and wierd.

But then we get over it, realize we LOVE it, and can never go back.

 

[debbie.h]

We have never had any gamey tasting chickens. Some have been alittle tough (chewy) from all the running around the yard they do, especially when chasing bugs, but they are far better tasting than store-bought!

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Okay, I will dive into this debate. I have never ate anything but store chicken. My husband grew up very poor and they had chicken in the back yard. He was always telling me about his mother homemade chicken soup and how good it was and when I made it with store chicken it just wasn't as good. So when I got chickens and He processed my 22 week old NHR rooster which was more like a turkey and I let it set for 48 hours in salt water. We cleaned it really good and cut him up and I put him in the freezer. Well he made his soup the using part of the rooster before the rest went into the freezer. He said it was stringy and tough. So when I made his soup a couple of months later I boiled it for 1.5 hours until it fell of the bone and noticed a smell. I could not eat it, it smelled awful and tasted gamey. That was the word I used then and now the more I think about it, it tasted like cooked blood. Yes, I've tasted cooked blood (had a fresh beef one day and was not properly butchered). So, will I try again? Sure, try again. Lord knows I have enough roosters and may be one day I'll figure out what his mother did that I'm doing wrong. Maybe.....

 

[weirdmuse]

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That actually made me salivate.

 

[LarryPQ]

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That actually made me salivate.

I have some in the fridge. Costco had some...

I was speaking from the heart.

 

[comp6512]

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They are fed Purina flock raiser, and just recently switched to Layena. Other than that, whatever they can find in the backyard, grass, bugs etc.

I have not had a homegrown chicken in a long long time. It was a substantial difference in taste and smell from a store-bought.

I agree with everyone who said he was not bled out long enough. So, next time I'll brine the chicken, only because I know DH will not cut the arteries, not because he cannot, but because he now got the "training". I am grateful he is doing the job and I don't have to.