The Old Folks Home

[Ol Grey Mare]

Interesting parking job


Anybody else flashing back to the movie Cars?!

Yikes - at least they didn't hit that house!

Looks like it to me...

No, not a fan... I live with a die hard though...

DH is a big fan, I was for the first 1 -1 1/2 seasons but have totally lost interest at this point.

I wouldn't mind getting a broody again, could hatch out some more chicks.

Too bad you're way over there -- I'd make you a heck of a deal on my broody Welsummer. I went away last week hoping I'd come home to find she had magically decided to get over it all on her own, but she is still BROOOODY - so looks like I'll be setting up a broody buster. I'd love to give her some eggs, but not really practical right now.

Sure wasn't the Vulcan statue. I don't see a big posterior up there.

Well I got to PA on Thursday. I am "settled" in my temporary apartment. DD and granddaughter came down yesterday and spent the night. They are on their way back home now. I am still a little tired from the drive but I think I will be back up to full speed by Monday when I start work. We have had two showings on the house in Utah so far but no offers yet. I hope someone wants to buy it soon.

So glad that your trip was uneventful -

for a quick sale on your other home.

This year the kids voted for no veggie garden, only chickens and berry plants

For some crazy reason the birds aren't too bad with the raspberries, gooseberries, and serviceberries. I do have trouble with the strawberries... And I haven't found a good solution there. The rodent horde are also major strawberry eaters.

chickens and berries.....my kind of garden!!!! Haven't seen anyone mention gooseberries in years, many memories of the gooseberries in our back yard - picking them, mama making things from them......never was a fan of them myself, but loved picking them.

The feathers do not look EE, they look like gorgeous pencilling.

Depends on the breeds used in the EE recipe for this particular bird - I've seen some really neat looking ones produced by people who understand how to select for/get specific results as far as plumage, etc.

 

[vehve]

@Ol Grey Mare That's the way it goes - when you want eggs you get broodies - when you want broodies you get an overflow of eggs. Or then everyone is just molting all the time, which is the worst alternative

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

***WARNING***
​

Anyone queasy about killing best scroll on past...NO be reading dis or yer gonna go blick and be sick...you bin warned, eh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I use to howl when people literally did the "She'll be coming round the mountain" rendition of rooster preparation...like you kill the old red rooster (

) and eat him right up that night...

Rubber chicken...

old red roo = <<boink boink>>

<<boink boink>>
​

Tougher than nails...simmered an old red roo for broth or at worst, chicken & dumplings simmered slow all day long...maybe palatable er not so much...

What made me laugh, your grocery store mush meat is "in transport" for how long before it gets to the plate...when you can twist the bones outta their very sockets with the greatest of ease...that be a looooong commute from even just the kill floor to the grocery store, never mind your fridge and then your famished mouths. Let us hope the "in-transit" of fresh meat is in a cooled environment, so logically, your poultry, beef, pork, fish, lamb, bun buns, bison, elk...all takes time to arrive and in that chill out time, it is breaking down, tenderizing, getting out of rigour and then the breakdown of striated muscles, skeletal fibers, and connective tissues...even a frozen stewing hen would have taken time to prepare and would have been treated to a good time RESTing...so meat is made tender resting...breaking down, etc. Never mind that the factory farm products are physically and chemically treated too for tenderizing.

There are also other trade secrets to tenderizing meat...past just resting the carcass...

​

When dealing with rigour, there is also how you "hang" the beast to consider.

Them Jacob ewes, just hanging around, eh ​

With sheeps...we have from the U of Texas, the Tenderstretch method.

​

I have this historical drawing of my ancient primitive breed of sheep, the Jacob...it is almost like they KNEW this method already...

​

In a summary, your objective to tenderize MEAT is to lengthen the striated muscles...disrupt the skeletal muscles....breakdown the connective tissue...makin' the meat mushy...

There are tons of methods used to do this...


So as stated already, we are gonna focus on three areas....

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1) Make the sarcomere (basic functional unit of striated muscle) longer, not shorten them (tighter = less tender).

- To prevent cold shortening: various methods like 16C for 16 hours after slaughter....minimum depth of carcass fat since fat is insulation (duh!) and would inhibit temperature alternatives (both heat and cold), noting that chilling the carcass incorrectly may lead to sarcomere shortening, plus correct electrical stimulation of the carcass will drop the muscle pH and speed up rigor mortis setting in (you want it to happen so it can UNhappen!).


- To make the Sarcomeres stretch: Three methods are mentioned...the Tenderstretch, the Stouffer's Stretching Devices (Tenderstretch only more so with stretching rods & clamps), and the TenderCut (connective tissues and bones are cut allowing the muscles to be stretched).



2) Disrupt or breakdown the myofibrils (contractile fibril of skeletal muscle), you want to increase the activity of endogenous enzymes that breakdown the fibers.

This may be done by:

- Aging in coolers...one to six weeks at minus 3C.

- Two suggestions of higher temperature storage, the first one already mentioned is PRE rigour (16C for 16 hours) and another one of 20C (room temperature) for 24 hours is done POST rigour. I have done this one myself when I harvested a heritage turkey and my week had gotten away with other must do's before I realized, hot dang...holiday feast and the center of the table was not put by--AGH! I usually harvest a holiday Turk on the Monday and do the warm temp for 16 hours (give or take--think of the time you spend after the kill, blood letting, plucking and degutting, eh...how slow do YOU go?) and then in the fridge for the rest of the week until the holiday celebration of cooking them Sunday morn....this round I was harvesting my 25 processed weight Tom on the Friday and kept him at room temperature for Saturday and cooked him Sunday morn as norm. Delicious, tender, never noted period I had processed and done this method over my usual week er so affair. So can attest, the hurry up and leave at room temperature method does work but I prefer the 16 hour rest, the fridge rest for the few days and the big Turk din on the Sunday.

- Electrical stimulation so pH declines quickly and causes chemical reactions that simply put, breakdown the myofibrils.

- Injection of Calcium chloride into the muscle so that it increases the chemical reactions that breakdown the myofibrils.


Another method used to breakdown the myofibrils is to:

- Use Exogenous enzymes (think of it like barley malt that is used to take cereals and make them into beer and we are not talking roots either!). Plant enzymes are used by sprinkling or injection (live animals) so they are heat activated (and I never EVER ponder why homegrown and happy meat processed by YOU is so much better for all concerned!).


Then you can also SEVERE the myofibrils...fourth methods on that...

a) Violent electrical stimulation which causes the myofibrils to tear - so one "electric chairs" yer meat...good golly, you got that?

b) Needle or bladed machines are used to physically tenderized the meat. Issues have surfaced on how these machines are cleaned and the fact that one bad piece of meat may contaminate the whole lot.
c) Physical slicing and dicing...chopping, cubing and grinding...as in like hamburger? Bwa ha ha...
d) Process called "Hydrodyne" where they put meat in a sealed water chamber and set off explosions...yeh, truly bizarre in my books...you blew the steak up did yah?

3) Disrupt the connective tissues.

- Even if'n you fudge up your tenderization regarding rigour...you can use schemes like marinating (salt, vinegar & water), or tropical plant enzymes (pineapple, fig, kiwi, or papaya) or even fungal enzymes (Rhozyme) to save the day, eh.

- Stromal proteins are severed with methods mentioned above like needle/blade tenderizations or mechanical severance methods. One needs to study the mechanisms and methods that make meat tough and those that make it tender...you can beat the meat with a mallet...rump roast or brisket...hee hee...thumper becomes flatter and tastier if'n you screw up and after all this learning, you have not been able to make it tender.

- Moist heat cooking changes the collagen to gelatin... so long time of stewing, simmering or braising can tenderize what was not so tender to begin with.

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Anyhoo, probably WAY more than you EVER wanted to read but DO always keep in mind...the dark meat and the tough meat are a result of the extra GOOD animal husbandry skills we exercise...yer birds or beasts had REAL LIVES, ran about and squished mud between their toes...and that in itself makes happy meat. That had a happy life and we all know that happy meat tastes GOOD! The fact that we don't contaminate our homegrown meat with tainted meats and we don't need to blow it up, electrify it, soak it with chemicals (so who knew?), other than putting JUST the MEAT on our plates...yeh, there is a large bout of science on the subject of tenderizing meat...some good, some not so good.

Food processed AT HOME is by far and large kinder and better in my books...less stress for all parties because you know their history from birth to death...when one day, you walk up, one is whisked away and TADA...done in, cleaned & rested, and then served up cooked as in DE-licious. Jest sayin'...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[chickadoodles]

 

[chickadoodles]

Last Wed. I took my broody Buckeye hens nest away from her. She does not know how to sit eggs. She thru out the good eggs and kept the clear one.

So I took her nest from her. I kept her on that side of the coop for 2 more days and then Fri. before we went camping I put her back with the flock. She is out of it.

I am so happy about it. This was her 3rd time trying and she just can't figure it out. Poor girl.

 

[Beer can]

Ahh, rigger...Never gave it a thought, I've always just cooled then froze rabbits and poultry, never gave it a thought. I have heard some leave their chickens in the fridge for a few days before freezing, say it makes them more tender, didn't realize it's because of rigger. I've been brining them lately.
Deer I've always waited a week, hung in the garage if the temps good. If it's freezing or too warm I quarter them up and put them in garbage bags in our extra fridge. Waiting a week on venison definitely helps a lot.
I've dry aged venison a few times when the temp is good. Makes them super tender and tastier, but more work and some waste filleting the crust off the outside.

 

[chickadoodles]

Ahh, rigger...Never gave it a thought, I've always just cooled then froze rabbits and poultry, never gave it a thought. I have heard some leave their chickens in the fridge for a few days before freezing, say it makes them more tender, didn't realize it's because of rigger. I've been brining them lately.
Deer I've always waited a week, hung in the garage if the temps good. If it's freezing or too warm I quarter them up and put them in garbage bags in our extra fridge. Waiting a week on venison definitely helps a lot.
I've dry aged venison a few times when the temp is good. Makes them super tender and tastier, but more work and some waste filleting the crust off the outside.

I worked at a restaurant that only served aged steaks. They aged the beef and the Manager cut the steaks fresh daily. It was pretty neat.
I have only eaten venison twice that I liked it and it was a roast that had cooked all day in a mixture of soups. Maybe aged venison would taste better to me.

 

[perchie.girl]

Ahh, rigger...Never gave it a thought, I've always just cooled then froze rabbits and poultry, never gave it a thought. I have heard some leave their chickens in the fridge for a few days before freezing, say it makes them more tender, didn't realize it's because of rigger. I've been brining them lately.
Deer I've always waited a week, hung in the garage if the temps good. If it's freezing or too warm I quarter them up and put them in garbage bags in our extra fridge. Waiting a week on venison definitely helps a lot.
I've dry aged venison a few times when the temp is good. Makes them super tender and tastier, but more work and some waste filleting the crust off the outside.

Sounds like Venison takes about the same amount of time as beef.

The process of Rigor in Chicken and rabbit I would assume is about the same time. It would be a worthwhile experiment to process then time it all.

What Felix does with the vacuum bags and putting them in the refrigerator for a day or two is probably spot on. I say probably beause all I know is from stuff I read. And watch on TV. I am a constant researcher.

for what its worth I remember a time when mom would get "stewing" chicken in the grocery store. When she brought those home she cut em up into pieces parts and put them in a pressure cooker. Along with rice and veggies. Then when it was done she would drop spoonfulls of bisquit dough on top to cook. She called it chicken and dumplings.

But pressure cooking is an excellent option for older tougher meat of many types.

deb

 

[Alaskan]

WHY would the university of Texas be doing meat/slaughter research??? That has got to be loopy wrong.


Now, if that info had come from A&M....

 

[CanuckBock]

Ahh, rigger...Never gave it a thought, I've always just cooled then froze rabbits and poultry, never gave it a thought. I have heard some leave their chickens in the fridge for a few days before freezing, say it makes them more tender, didn't realize it's because of rigger. I've been brining them lately.
Deer I've always waited a week, hung in the garage if the temps good. If it's freezing or too warm I quarter them up and put them in garbage bags in our extra fridge. Waiting a week on venison definitely helps a lot.
I've dry aged venison a few times when the temp is good. Makes them super tender and tastier, but more work and some waste filleting the crust off the outside.

And I personally never thought about the time that I was draining blood, taking feet off, de-feathering, and gutting the carcass as probably part of THAT sixteen hours at 16C (60F) pre rigour setting in! I always choose an non-blustery day (make a big feathery mess) when Rick will be away (he don't make a good killer, er witnesses to carnage, eh!) to do the dastardly deeds. Now I don't want it so cold your fingees won't work...but not a hot stifling time either. Funny how what I do naturally by processing a "carcass" would fit that 16 hours at 16C...I don't do the dunk in ice water where you are attempting to chill it quickly. I run a bird under cold water after plucking to clean it up, but that is no ice bath.

I also DRY pluck which many don't...nothing more disgusting to moi than that "WET DOG" smell of a scalded/blanched carcass to handle or trying to avoid burning my fingers ... yetch! NO thanks. If you time your putting by to when the birds are easy to pluck dry, it is no more work as I have tried both and chose dry over wetted. If you time during a moult where pinfeathers are forming, what a nightmare that can be, especially with waterfowl.

Never used an automated plucker, maybe that is where you hafta do the wet scalding...dunno.

Never tried wax either and heard that is nice as you can roll all the feathers off, you heat the wax up again, strain out the extras and may use it again to save costs.


I was a tom boy so read Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard...anyone else a fan?

Remember the movie, probably done by Disney...I forget the details...but please leave me to my delusions thanks.

For some reason I remember something about maybe the main character's (thought he was an orphan...makes no sense now!) sister dating a duck hunter...sure was a daffy duck hunter...he was so proud to bag a duck and then he hung the duck by the webbers in a cool porch and said the duck was ready when it rotted off its legs (didn't he plan to have dinner with this gal and his Mama too?)...course Big Red (I think) harvests the dead duck, runs off with the dinner...at least in my old mind I think this is how it went. Not sure because in my mind, letting a bird dog consume the quarry, wouldn't that be a no-no? Oh well...

I cannot imagine hanging the duck till it rots off its feets...blah.

Mighta come from another book in the series, like Outlaw Red or Irish Red. Were fun books to read.

...

But pressure cooking is an excellent option for older tougher meat of many types.

deb

Yeh totally remember the pressure cooker Mom had on the stove...past the worry of the dang thing blowing...many a cheap cut of meat was made palatable by the pressure cooker.

Kinda like "pulled" meat...pulled pork, beef, chicken...all has me laughing...how dainty and quaint to make it sound like its some sorta "common sewer" dish when in reality, cheap cheep cheap piece of meat cooked long and slow--in some cases in that pressure cooker too.

WHY would the university of Texas be doing meat/slaughter research???

That has got to be loopy wrong.


Now, if that info had come from A&M....

Aren't they the one and the same...big place Texas but yeh, thought University of Texas WAS A&M...

Oh well, plead ignorance as not my country...

They call themselves "Texas A&M University" so I guess me trying not to type some steps ended with confusions... Never any saving grace, always gotta type it all out...agh...