What if I don't let it sit for 24 hours?

[carress]

Is it best to cook it right away, or to let the bird sit as long as I can?

To reiterate-
I don't have 24 hours to let the bird rest.
I can cook it as soon as I'm done processing OR I can let is sit for a few hours.

What's the second best option, and how far from best is the second best?

 

[MissPrissy]

I find it is best to let meat go through rigor mortis then to relax and start to tenderize naturally. 24 hours allows the muscles to relax and the meat doesn't have a tough texture.

 

[jaku]

Let them sit awhile. I made the mistake once on a wild turkey I shot to cook it immediately after killing it, wanting to get the freshest meat ever, and I never did it again. Too tough- gotta wait for the rigor to go away, and some of the muscle to break down a bit.

 

[greyfields]

I think someone stated here that rigor mortis will only begin to subside at least 4 hours after processing.

 

[carress]

Is it best to chill the bird right away?
Let it sit at room emp, hen chil
Forego chilling?

 

[MissPrissy]

You want to chill meat ASAP.

 

[greyfields]

They need to be down to 38F within an hour of slaughter in our state if we were to do it ourselves.

 

[JohnG]

I agree let it sit for a little while. The first turkey I processed, I cooked it that same day and it was a little tuff. Looking back now it still had rigimortis. Its legs were sticking straight up while it was in the somker. Next time I am going to let it stay in the frig for a couple of days.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

When we process it is a huge deal. We do at least 20 birds at one time. This is usually a combination of our birds and others. We do three at a time. After processing we put them in those big toy totes that people use for much buckets for stalls. We fill the totes with ice, birds, ice, birds, ice, birds and finally ice. We can get about 10-12 birds in each tote. We cover the top with a light sprinkle of salt to keep the blow flies out. We then cover the top with a heavy blanket and let them set overnight.

Really, it makes the bird taste so much better to keep them on ice for 24 hours.

We then vaccuum pack each bird and immediately freeze it in a hard freezer set at 5 F.