How long to age young cockerel?

[snoggle]

We butchered a young cockerel two days ago. We read that aging him for two days in the fridge should make him tender enough to eat. But he's still in rigor in the fridge. Is this normal? Should we be able to flex the legs before we cook him? Did we do something wrong? Husband is convinced we scalded him too long, but I wouldn't think that would cause this.

Any ideas?

BTW - we plan on cooking him in the crock pot all day to help with the tenderness.

 

[snoggle]

Bumping...

 

[LilyD]

What age was your cockerel? Depending on age you may have to let him rest longer than 2 days for the muscle connectors to start breaking down.

 

[snoggle]

He was about 4 months old.

 

[MCI]

He is young so just wait until rigor passes, three or four days. I like to be able to move them before I cook them, so either fresh slaughter before rigor sets fully or after it breaks.

 

[LilyD]

I agree with MCI not sure why it's taking so long for the rigor to pass. I know I have ready on other posts that other people have said to manually move the legs and thighs to get them to unstiffen. You can also put them in salt water in the fridge for a day to see if that helps but probably just waiting will help the best. That's around the perfect age to process and eat them. I have about 10 that will need to be one at that age in about 3 more weeks.

 

[Jitamon]

does making the fridge colder help at all?

 

[LilyD]

does making the fridge colder help at all?

I don't think you need to make the fridge colder. What happens is that all roosters (and all animals) have connective tissues between their muscles throughout their body. When the animal dies the muscle tissues stiffen up causing the animal to feel stiff and hard. You need to wait until the rigormortis passes and the legs and wings are moveable again before you cook it. This can be done either before or after you freeze it doesn't matter. Brining helps because it speeds up the breakdown of the connective tissues. I also watched a video of someone cutting up a chicken and he actually manipulated the legs thighs and wings in all directions and massaged them before he started cutting the bird to "loosen the bird up".

 

[Oregon Blues]

Are you sure it didn't freeze? 2 days should be long enough.

My last batch were stiff after 3 days, because the top tray of birds had frozen, in the refrigerator.