Questions about the CX I just processed

[MontyJ]

I posted this on BYC as well, but thought I would put it here too.

I processed the first of our CX flock on Saturday. There were five roosters in the group of nine. Each weighed seven pounds and were seven weeks old.

The processing went very well. I made a killing cone and it worked perfectly. I kept the five roos calm in a large crate covered with a blanket. I removed the feed the night before. I cut the artery and vein in the neck, just below the jawline and bled the birds out. The scald water was kept right at 150 and 30 seconds of dunking was perfect. I plucked them by hand, which only took about 5 minutes or so per bird. From there it was straight to the cleaning table. After watching several videos and reading many articles ahead of time, I was pretty confident. The gutting went perfectly, taking only about 10 minutes or less per bird. Once gutted the birds were rinsed and went straight into a large cooler filled with ice water. Later that evening, I rinsed the birds again and replaced the ice water.

I only processed one bird at a time.

Here is where the problems showed up.

1. After chilling for four hours I cut one bird up, there was a slimy material between the thigh and body. This isn't the normal connective tissue I would have expected. Imagine seperating a large egg and dumping the egg white in there. That was the volume and consistancy; like egg whites. I cut up a second, and it had the same thing. Is this normal?

2. Yesterday, I grilled one of the cut up birds after aging for 48 hours. Some parts of the bird had a pretty strong, gamey taste. The wings were the worst, followed by the legs, thighs, and breast, with the breast having very little of the gamey taste. Is this the taste that people call chickeny? Because it sure didn't taste like chicken.

I noticed after processing that the birds had a strong smell to them. The taste is like that smell.

Did I do something wrong somewhere?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I subscribed to your thread over there. I see you use a different screen name. I want to see what the experts say.

I dont do Cornish X and I cut mine into pieces as I process them so I cant help a lot. I have seen some of that gel but never paid any real attention to it. Its usually not that great a volume. Maybe it builds up over time?

The taste thing has me totally baffled. I dont know if you took out all the internal organs down to the lungs and crop or left some things behind, but even that would not explain the wings being the most gamey. At 7 weeks Id have expected then to be pretty bland compared to my older ones.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

sounds like a real home raised chicken when it comes to that taste. most store bought chicken has injected solutions of water and salt in them, usually no more than 1% though. ever noticed that some packages mention that there is added/retained fluids? what you could also do is make a brine solution of apple cider vinegar mixed with salt, water and ice to help cool the bodies after being processed. i'm sure there will be others to give you info on this since i've only processed turkeys using this method a few years ago. i rarely process roosters and my dh tends to roast/stew them when we have one.

the 'fluid' that came from the joint sounds like you were starting to get edema from fluid buildup. look up Ascites, this is usually the cause of the fluid buildup in CX chickens being raised for meat. http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/poultry/facts/00-101.htm their bodies grow so fast that other parts can't readily keep up with the growth and the fluid can build up to cause leg and heart issues.

now that i re-read the part about the wings also having that off taste. it does sound like something was done differently. could they have been thrashing too much just before you did the deed? could they have not bled out as quickly as you needed them to?

 

[journey11]

I've butchered and consumed all kinds of full grown roosters, CX and old spent hens. I wouldn't have considered any of them gamey and the CX were the mildest flavored of them all because of their young age and limited diet. What they eat can affect their flavor and flavor deepens with age (that's why old hens make the most excellent chicken broth.) Allowing young roosters to run around can make the meat tough, but not gamey in flavor. CX don't do hardly any running, so they wouldn't get tough at that age. I am puzzled on this too, because it sounds like you did everything right in the butchering process, which would be in my opinion the most likely cause of an off taste. Even on birds that hadn't bled out well, I've not noticed any off flavor, but you will see gooey blood come out from the bones when you bake or fry the legs/thighs. Most people will tell you that CX lack the "real chicken flavor" that other home-raised breeds have...so that can't be it. Although they most certainly taste way better than store-bought.

Did you place your birds directly in the water or did you bag them first? 1 gallon Ziploc bags will work. I bag mine so the meat won't be permeated by the water. And keep them in the bag during the cure period in the fridge. Perhaps if you didn't, they may have picked up unwanted flavors/odors there? They only need to be in the water long enough to chill the bird down to 40 degrees quickly (for food safety, to prevent bacterial growth), then off to the fridge they can go to "rest" for up to 2 to 5 days.

Some people will brine CX, but I find it completely unnecessary. Brining is to make the meat more tender and juicy, but because of their age, CX don't need it. The factory raised birds are brined in a solution of bleach and salt to kill off all the salmonella from the intestines that were slung around in the mechanical separation process and they also brine them to increase water weight and thus their profits. I can't eat store-bought chicken anymore.

 

[vfem]

I'm really baffled too. Sounds like a cut and dry cleaning to be.

You don't think you broke open any of the organs that may have tainted the meat during cleaning?

I'm really unsure, but unlike you, I did the brining with ours.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Hmmm....You did everything just as we do. The only exception for us, after cleaning we put them in icy water and salt to pull out more blood, etc from the chicken for about 30 minutes, then we put them in a clean ice water tub.

Ours have had no gamey taste.

Perplexed

 

[MontyJ]

Chickie--I looked up Ascites at the link you posted. I don't think that's it. There was no fluid in the body cavity. This was between the thigh and body. I just finished cutting up the remaining 3 and all had it. The hearts appeared normal. They weren't thrashing at all. I was careful when I picked them up out of the crate and they went straight into the cone. They seemed to bleed out completely...there was a lot of blood.

Journey---Yes. I placed the birds directly into the ice water. I don't think it came from the water though because I could smell that gaminess while I was processing the birds. I was very carefull to not puncture any organs.

This has me completely lost. It isn't a "more chickeny" flavor. It's definately a nearly unpleasant gamey taste. I invited my buddy and his wife over yesterday for the taste testing. He agreed that the wings had a gamey flavor. My DD also came over. She ate both legs and said they did have a very light gamey taste, but said they were good. We all had some of the breast, and it seemed fine. I also had a wing and part of a thigh. The wing was definately gamey, but the thigh less so. DW had a thigh and said it seemed fine to her. Maybe I taste it more because I am relating it to the smell. I don't know.

I'm processing some more on Saturday. Some of those will be hens. Maybe I'll notice something different. I may go with a straight off with the head approach instead of the jugular/carotid cutting. In fact, I think I'm going to go with a completely different killing system. I think I will get one out, let it calm down while I slip a loop around a foot. A quick whip of the knife will sever the head before it even knows what's happening. Then I can quickly hang it. I'll try that with the first one and see what happens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I haven't seen a lot of help for you over on BYC.

I can't believe it was anything they ate. I've had fresh milk from a cow that ate wild onions so I know what they eat can have an influence, but I think it's going to be pretty subtle in the actual meat. Especially if the wings were more affected.

I'm not totally clear what you did or did not remove during butchering. The only things I can think of that might cause a bad flavor are maybe the gall bladder (that small thing on the liver that has the green fluid), maybe the testicles, or any direct part of the digestive system. But you said you kept them off food before you butchered them so that's not likely to be it.

What does that leave? Storage. Journey may have hit on it. Was anything strong-flavored in the fridge stored next to them. Maybe fish or something like that? Did you keep it submerged or did it dry out?

That leaves your cooking. I've got more confidence in you than that. Has to be something to do with storage.


I see you posted while I was typing. So you smelled it when you processed them. That leaves me even more confused.

 

[bj taylor]

having never killed a bird yet, i'm little help. the issues I've read about processing relate to the gland at the base of the tail and the gall bladder. thinking in human terms (from an old nurse perspective), the thick fluid between the thigh and body could have been a result of poor body function. they were reaching the max in their natural life cycle - perhaps a genetic link (they came from the same hatchery i'm assuming). just throwing out wild conjecture hoping to help in some way.

why are you thinking you are going to change your killing method? please elaborate

 

[baymule]

I too am puzzled. You did everything right. On BYC, you stated you used Dumor 24%, maybe the protein was too high? I have noticed a strong smell from opening the feed bag sometimes as compared to Purina.

I recently butchered some layer breed roos and the only difference in processing was I didn't put mine in cold water. I took them in the house, washed them in cold water, bagged and put them in the freezer.

I am clueless, dunno why yours tasted and smelled gamy.