Processing Poultry at Home - Texas Cooperative Extension

7/28/2019 Processing Poultry at Home - Texas Cooperative Extension

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ProcessingPoultry at Home


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Contents

Facilities and Equipment ............................................................... 3New York Dressing ........................................................................3Evisceration ...................................................................................6Chilling and Packing ......................................................................9Skinning ....................................................................................... 10

Federal and state laws require inspection of poultry processed for sale.Producers are permitted to process their own poultry for their own con-

sumption. Producers also may process and sell to consumers withoutinspection up to 20,000 chickens, turkeys or ducks from their production within Texas, if they obtain an exemption . For exemptions and currentinformation, contact Director, Texas Cooperative Meat and Poultry Inspec-tion Division, State Department of Health, 1100 W. 49th Street, Austin, TX78756 (512-835-8101).


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Processing Poultry at Home

With hot water for scalding, icewater for chilling, a sharp knife and alittle time, poultry can be processedat home for dressed poultry shows or home consumption.

A live bird is converted to humanfood in a series of stepskilling,scalding, picking, eviscerating andchilling. It is important to prevent con-tamination of the meat, either fromthe surroundings where the process-

ing is done or from the birds intesti-nal or crop contents. Contaminationlowers quality and shortens the timethe poultry can be safely stored.

Select only healthy birds for processing. Always choose healthy,well- eshed, well- nished birds freeof pin feathers.

Poultry should not be fed for 8 to10 hours before slaughter but mayhave access to water. Commercialprocessing plants usually removefeed and water from broilers 10 to12 hours before slaughter. Fastingreduces feed in the crop and materialin the digestive tract, helping preventcontamination during processing.

Facilities and EquipmentThe processing area should be

clean, free from ies and have anadequate water supply. The process-ing procedure includes three steps:1) New York dressingkilling, scald-ing, picking, and singeing; 2) evis-ceratingremoving head, feet andinternal organs; and 3) chilling and

packaging. To reduce the possibil-ity of contamination, either completeoperations in the rst step beforestarting evisceration or work in aseparate room or outdoors. Arrangeand equip the area for ease of workand cleanliness.

Sharpen knives before startingwork. Boning and cutting knivesare adequate for home dressingof poultry. Special knives with thin,

sharp blades and points make somephases of eviscerating easier. If birdshave pinfeathers, a pinning knife maybe used to scrape them off after thelarger feathers are removed. Someprocessors use kitchen shears for harvesting and cleaning giblets.

Clean plastic or galvanizedgarbage cans make good contain-ers for scalding and chilling water.Line similar containers or boxes withplastic bags for feather and offalreceptacles. Use a sturdy table witha disposable plastic covering for awork surface.

Place giblets in a clean kitchenpan large enough to hold giblets fromall the birds being processed. Usea thermometer that registers in the120-degree to 160-degree F rangeto adjust scald water temperature. Apocket model with a protective caseis less subject to breakage when notin use. Have an adequate supply of packaging materials so birds can be

packaged for handling and storageafter they have been processed andchilled.

The birds to be killed can besuspended, placed in a killing coneor hung on a shackle. Probably theeasiest method for killing a few birdsis to hang each bird by a cord from aline such as a clothes line. The cordholding the bird could even be at-tached to a table or chair leg and thebird held on the ground. If supported

in the air, an easy means of attach-ment to the holding cord is a smallboard on the end of a line.

*Information for this publication was originallyprepared by J.H. Denton and D.B. Mellor,former Extension poultry marketing specialists,The Texas A&M University System.

New York Dressing


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This is wrapped around the birdslegs so the line is between the smallboard and the legs. The weight of the bird provides tension to tightenthe line. The bird can be disengagedeasily after killing. Always allow a lit-tle time after the bird is hung before it

is killed. This allows the bird to settledown and makes killing it easier.

Killing the bird requires cuttingat least one vein in its neck. Holdthe head in one hand and pull downslightly. There are two veins in theneck coming to the head and bothpass near an ear lobe. Cut the neckclose to the ear lobe on one sideonly. Avoid cutting the windpipe andesophagus. Cut only the neck vein.This reduces the possibility of car-cass contamination by blood beingdrawn into the air sacs.

After cutting the neck, hold thehead and allow the blood to drip into

a container. The blood should owfreely. The bird will not move at rstbut after a few moments will op dur -ing its death struggle.

Hold the bird gently enough toavoid dislocating the wing jointsbut rmly enough to prevent bloodsplatter. Hold the head securely andloosely hold the wings. If the bloodis caught in a container cleanup is

easier. With a little practice you willbe able to use a small coffee can for catching blood. An important principlein this killing operation is to remove

as much blood from the bird as pos-sible. It has been estimated that onlyabout 50 percent of the blood is actu-ally removed from a bird. Bleed thebird as completely as possible. Allowample time to complete the bleedingand for the opping to cease. Other killing methods, such as wringing theneck or chopping off the head, will

not produce as good a blood ow,resulting in improper or incompletebleeding. Remaining blood does noharm if the carcass is to be cookedimmediately. However, blood spoilsmore quickly than other parts so it isbene cial to remove as much bloodas possible to lengthen shelf life for fresh or frozen poultry.

The scalding operation deter-mines the appearance of the naldressed carcass. Water that is hotwill cause the outer cuticle layer of the skin to slough off as the carcassis picked. The cuticle layer is the yel-low pigment area; for show birds theloss of this yellow pigment will oftenresult in a carcass being placed in alower category. High scald tempera-tures increase the ease of pickingbut will often make the skin tear moreeasily while the carcass is beingpicked. The recommended tempera-ture for young birds is 128 degrees F.


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Success of the scalding operationdepends on time in the scald tankand water temperature. The younger the bird, the easier the feathers areto remove. With young birds thegreatest damage can be done withhot water or excessive time in thescald tank. For best results use athermometer to determine water temperature.

To get adequate water into thefeathers, move the bird up and downin the water tank so all the feathersare well soaked. Usually, for youngbirds, the water temperature shouldbe approximately 128 degrees F witha time range from 30 to 60 seconds if the bird is well agitated.

To agitate, hold the bird by thefeet and move it in a back-and-forthand an up-and-down motion in thescald tank. Proper scalding relaxesthe muscles holding the feathers,but it is dif cult for the warm water to

penetrate the natural oily defenses of the bird. Repeated dips into the scaldtank during picking may be neces-sary to remove dif cult feathers.

To pick, rehang the carcass onthe rope that was used for killing.

This time hang by only one foot. Thiswill allow all areas of the carcass tobe picked easily. Do not delay thepicking operation after the carcasshas been scalded.

If properly scalded, the tail andwing feathers can easily be removed.When these come off easily, the restof the feathers should be easy toremove.

Work in sequence, removing therest of the feathers from the bodyand legs. Use a pinning knife or

similar instrument to hold dif cultfeathers during removal. Hand pick-ing of carcasses is not hard but takestime and patience. Work quickly withrepeated dips as necessary. Do notallow the carcass to dry. Use a rollingmotion in removing feathers or pull

in the direction they grow to mini-mize skin tears. Poultry intended for show should have no skin tears. After the carcass has been fully picked,inspect it to ensure all feathers havebeen removed.

After picking, there will still besome very ne hairs left on the car -cass. These hairs (not feathers) can


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be removed by singeing with rolledup newspaper or a propane torch.

In singeing do not use too muchheat in one area or the skin will burn.Burn off any hairs that are on thecarcass. Rinse-wash the carcass toremove any particles that may haveadhered after singeing or picking.This will also allow you to check thecarcass to be sure all feathers andhairs have been removed. It will alsomoisten the carcass again.

Evisceration

The rst step in evisceration is re -moval of the head from the neck. Cutas close to the head as possible.

After the head has been removed,insert the knife in the back of theneck between the neck and the skin

and pull upward so it cuts the neckskin from the head end of the neck tothe shoulders of the carcass.

This exposes the esophagus andthe wind pipe. They can be removedat this time. If proper feed restriction

has been used, the crop can alsobe removed from the front of thecarcass. These are all pulled withoutuse of a knife.

To cut the neck from the carcass,rst cut into the meat around the

neck at the joint near the shoulder or the carcass.

After the meat has been cut, twistthe neck from the carcass. This elimi-nates cutting the neck bone. Washoff the neck and place it in the chillingcontainer.

Shanks or feet of the carcassmay be removed by cuts from either the back or the front of the ankle. By


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laying the carcass on the board andforcing the leg with your left hand,the joint can be easily seen. The cutis made through this joint. Be sure tocut through the joint and not throughthe bones.

To remove the oil gland, place thecarcass, breast side down, on thetable and cut toward the rear of thecarcass from in front of the oil gland.

The oil gland can easily be seen atthe base of the tail.

Remove the entire gland. Be sureno parts remain.

Two types of cuts can be used for opening the body cavity. One is the

J cut, usually used on broilers andsmall fowl. The other is the bar cut,commonly used on turkeys, caponsand larger birds that will be trussed.The bar cut can also be used onbroilers, although it is usually moretime consuming than the J cut. Thebar cut leaves a bar of skin acrossthe abdomen in which to truss the

legs when nished.

For the J cut, begin by holdingthe carcass by the keel as it is onits back, stretching the skin tightlyand making a small horizontal cutbetween the tail and the vent. Cutthe skin only. Do not cut the vent or intestine.

For the second part of the J cut,cut vertically to the right of the ventand keel bone. Carefully cut throughthe skin and body wall, avoiding theintestine. Usually a shallow cut withthe point of the knife is suf cient for the second part of the J cut.

After the vertical cut, the bodyopening is completed by carefullycutting around the vent to remove theintact intestine. Pull the intestine toone side to avoid cutting it with theknife point.

The third part of the J opening is

a vertical cut to the left of and abovethe vent, to separate the vent fromthe abdominal wall. The vent willbe removed with the intestine in thenext step. Be careful not to cut theintestine.

Complete the cut around the ventopening and pull the vent away fromthe carcass with the intestine partiallyremoved. The body cavity is com-pletely open.


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In the next phase, your handenters the body cavity to remove theviscera. This is easier for people withsmall hands but can be done by any-one. It may be necessary to enlargethe opening cut into the body cavityto t a large hand. Do not cut the skinof the breast if processing a showbird. Insert your hand as far forwardas possible. Try to break the attach-ment of the organs from the bodywall before pulling them out. Also tryto get your hand in front of the heartso that when you remove the viscera,you bring essentially all organs outat one pull. Often it is possible toremove the lungs, but usually theymust be removed separately. For people with large hands, it is some-times easier to pull the gizzard out

rst before attempting to remove therest of the viscera.

The viscera are removed from thebody cavity with a slight twisting mo-tion of the hand while pulling them.The gizzard is visible.

The basic evisceration operationis completed at this time. The visibleorgan is the liver.

Immediately after removing theviscera from the body cavity, begingiblet harvesting. The initial step isto cut the intestine leading to thegizzard, then remove the gizzard for opening and cleaning.

Cut the gizzard open for theremoval of the feed contents. Thecontents consist primarily of feed andsmall stones, which are used in thegrinding of the feed during digestion.Open the gizzard under or near run -

ning water. This facilitates removalof the contents of the gizzard. If thegizzard is full, most of the contentscan be placed with the waste beforewashing out the adhering parts.

The lining of the gizzard may beremoved easily if you rst chill thegizzard in ice water. This lining is theyellow, rough textured, tough inner membrane that protects the gizzardmuscles during digestion.

To harvest the liver, rst removethe green gall bladder. Be carefulnot to rupture the gall bladder. Gallcontaminating the liver imparts a bit-ter taste. After the giblets have beenharvested, wash them and place

them in chilled water. If several birdsare processed at once, use a sepa-rate chill container for giblets.


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The lungs usually are dif cult toremove. They are imbedded in theribs in the body cavity. While press-ing down on the rib cage, work your

ngers between the ribs againstthe back bone near the neck area.Gently roll your ngers back untilthe lungs have been removed fromthe rib cage. Immediately after lungremoval, check the body cavity to besure all parts have been removed.Wash the inside of the carcass thor-oughly under running water. Washthe outside of the carcass to removeall particulate matter, blood and tis-sue which has adhered to the surfaceof the carcass during evisceration.

Chilling and Packing

The carcass can be chilled in anice water slush in an insulated chest,bucket or other clean container.Mix water and ice together until thetemperature is 32 degrees F to 34degrees F. The carcass should bechilled to below 40 degrees F within2 to 6 hours after processing. Thiswill maintain high quality and mini-mize bacterial growth. Water chillingalso rinses bacteria from the carcass.

After chilling, the nished broiler may be trussed or the legs may betied with a string or strong whitethread and the wings tucked backunderneath the body of the carcass.This makes an attractive nal prod -uct.

The carcass can be trussed usingthe bar cut to hold the legs.

The nal step is packaging thenished product.


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Skinning An alternate method of process-

ing may be used for home consump-tion, but not for show. In this method,for people who do not use the skin,the bird is skinned, eliminating thescalding and picking steps.

The birds are killed and bled inthe same manner as the birds whichare to be picked. To begin skinning,insert a knife into the skin at thebottom of the keel with the carcasson its back with the head away fromyou. Lift the skin and cut it only. Cutforward to the front of the carcass.

Pull the skin and feathers back

with your hands and expose thebreast muscles.

Work the skin loose from the thigh and drumstick area with your hands. After the skin has been pushed back to expose the hock joint, cut through this joint with a knife. The skin, or pelt, will be removed from this area along with

each foot.

Loosen the skin to the joint between the rst and second section of thewing (the elbow). Remove the last two sections of the wing with skin from thisarea.


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Loosen the skin at the base of the neck. Cut the meat around the base of the neck near the shoulders. Twist theneck off the carcass with your hand.

The nal cut is the removal of the tail and the attached pelt. The remaining carcass is skinless, neckless, tailless

and has only the upper section of the wing.Before cutting off any parts, foot, wing section, neck or tail, be sure the skin has been worked clear and is removed

from the area with the part.

To eviscerate this carcass for home consumption,make a cut along one side of the backbone. Hold thecarcass breast down on the board with the front towardyou. Hold the carcass by one wing and one leg. Placethe knife in the notch at the side of the tail and cutforward along one side of the back bone. Cut the car-

cass only. Do not allow the knife to accidentally cut theintestine. The whole backbone can be removed if desiredby also cutting the other side.

After this cut, the body cavity is completely openedand you can scoop out or lift out the viscera. When thecarcass is opened this way, removal of the lungs and all

of the internal organs is easier. Giblet harvest is com-pleted in the same manner as the conventional process-ing method. This method is quicker and probably is lesswork than the conventional method. However, process-ing by this method results in loss of the skin and other parts of the bird.

The carcass, after chilling, may be packed whole,split for barbeque or cut in parts and packaged for freez-ing.


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Documents

Processing Poultry at Home - Texas Cooperative Extension