My husband and I have a small self-sustaining mini farm which includes heritage turkeys (Narragansette), chickens (Buff Orpington), and dairy goats.
We have been butchering for meat for awhile. The goats have worked out very well. The poultry, however, has been a real problem. Specifically, the meat is tough - that's putting it lightly. The dark meat (muscles) are so tough that it's like the rubber on the tires of our truck. Some I cooked was so bad, that I thought I'd give it to the dog to eat, but it was too tough for my sharp knife to cut off the bone. There's no way the dog could have eaten it!
There are several reasons why we cull poultry:
* When a hen is stops laying eggs continuously, we cull her out of the flock. I can understand that meat being tough because she is old.
* When we hatch chicks and poults and have an excess. These would be 6-12 months old. The dark meat of these poultry are also too tough to eat.
The turkeys free range. The chickens have a penned area at least 30 feet square plus additional space for nest boxes, so their muscles get to exercise.
While we butcher, we place finished carcasses in cold ice water (is this wrong?) Then we cut it up, package it up, and let it sit in the refrigerator for two days before freezing it. When I thaw it to prepare a meal, I let it set in a salt/sugar brine overnight. Then I cook it very s - l - o - w - l - y , the turkeys in a plastic roasting bag, because they are too large to fit in even my largest covered roaster. The chickens are either put in the crock pot or slow boiled on the stove.
What are we doing wrong? We are about to give up butchering chickens.
PS: I see on television all of the time how the pioneers chased a chicken around with a hatchet, chopped its head off, and then fried it up. Is this a Hollywood myth?
Thanks.
Replies
It's rigor mortise. Either soak your chicken in salt water for 24+ hours in the fridge, rinse and cook it or freeze it and then thaw it and cook it. That offsets the rigor mortise effects. Same goes for rabbit and other like meats. Doing this will make any meat, regardless of it's age, tender.
Of course the other suggestions about the length of time and temps also have an effect. But the main thing is rigor mortise, particularly when sitting in the fridge in just plain water. Try the salt method and you'll notice a HUGE difference. And for a chicken, I'm talking about a full cup of salt in the mixture.
Another point is that after you butcher it, put it in cool water, not ice water. Ice water speeds up the rigor mortise too. Just some thoughts...
Thanks for suggestions.
You mentioned a cup of salt for a chicken. How much for a turkey? What about sugar? I've seen that listed as an ingredient in the brine, and I've been using it, but not sure what it does??
Another point of interest is this... We've killed three goats and eaten them. There has never been a problem with tough meat.. Of course I usually crock pot. ... Perhaps I'll experiment with alternate cooking methods to see if it surfaces as a problem????
Donna
It's probably a white meat thing. I've cooked old roosters and used this method and they were as tender as a young hen. I've never used sugar. Remember, the salt is to prepare it to be tender. After you soak it in salt sufficiently, you can rinse and soak it in whatever flavoring marinade you'd like. It's just part of the process...
Old birds are tough, if you do not want tough then it is best to stew them, hence the term Stewing Hen. Chickens older than 12 weeks are going to be tough, the older the tougher.
It is that simple.
It sounds like you're doing everything right. Are your turkeys tough, too? What temps do you cook at and for how long?
Protein rubberizes at high temperatures, and tenderizes at lower temperatures, so we, like you, cook slowly. When I roast mine, I start at 350 to kill any bacteria that are on the surface of the bird, then in 20 min or so I reduce the temps to between 250 and 300 degrees, depending on my mood and the time I have. It takes a good 2 - 2.5 hours for a 5lb chicken at 300 degrees. When I rotisserie, it takes at least that long as well.
On a good day, I plan my cooking time so it finishes an hour before serving for two reasons: Just in case it needs more cooking, and to give it time to sit in its juices. Meat will reabsorb juices and become more tender.
As for the farmers frying, only young chickens would be friers. I have an old cookbook from the 30's that talks first about selecting the meat based on age. It then goes on to plucking... Few of the recipes use temperatures or times, instead is says things like, "simmer until tender." (So much was assumed!) However, to roast a chicken it says to start in a hot oven (500 degrees) for 15 minutes, then reduce to 300 degrees until tender, about 25 min per pound. For a 5lb bird that's almost 2.5 hours.
So the Hollywood version is a partial myth. My great-grandma would go out on a Sunday and wring a chicken's neck for that nights dinner. They didn't have meat every day. And I suspect they weren't as finicky about their food as we are.
When I cook the turkey, I generally start at 350 as well to get the oven hot and start it cooking (30 minutes). Then I turn it down to 325 the rest of the way. I've never cooked anything under 325, because I didn't know how low I could safely go?
The first turkey we cooked was really tough until we implemented these processes. Now the turkey is tender enough to eat, even the dark meat, but not as tender as a commercial one - which is alright.
The chickens have been the worst. I was not exaggerating about the meat being too tough to cut off the bone with a sharp knife.
We've though about trying to find a way to breast chickens out and bypass the dark meat altogether (for older chickens). ??
Would roasting be better for the chickens (as opposed to boiling and crockpotting)?
Thanks
Donna
We want poultry to get to 185 degrees throughout for safety, but that doesn't mean it will be tender when it reaches that temperature. It may need to cook longer, even after it gets to the 185 internal temperature. I've cooked poultry as low as 250. Technically, once you do the 1/2 hour at higher temps to kill surface bacteria, you can cook it at 185 the rest of the way. Not that I'd do that, but it could be done. :)
This issue might be in how long you're cooking it for. A crock pot for 7 or so hours should do the trick, but I have had meat come out more tender in the oven than crock pot.
Before you give up, try this:
If this works, start experimenting with different methods of cooking.
As far as old timer's stories about killing a bird to eat that day...I also think that they weren't "used to" the tender modern-day cornish crosses either. More dual-purpose birds and extra roosters of the laying breeds were used to eat on the homesteads, I imagine. Now in 2012, we've experienced the super tender meat one will get from a VERY young bird. It's kinda hard to beat that...let alone come close to the tender meat with birds that are older.
Another thing you could try is to give the bird a few more days in the refrigerator before cooking. I find they are still completely fresh and perfect up to a week in the fridge after processing.
I totally agree, Bethany. We're pampered by being exposed to "perfect food." Their food wasn't perfect, but it was real.
That said, my poultry does cooks up very tender; I just give it time. I do think the flavor of our pastured birds exceeds that of our bag-fed meat birds, though. There's something to be said about greens, seeds, and bugs. :)