Resting the carcass?

[chanceosunshine]

I’ve read that it’s important to rest a carcass for up to three days before freezing and I’ve read that no rest is necessary.
What are your experiences? How long does rigor last?

 

[Molpet]

I rest until the joints move freely, like a bird from the store. Usually a day or 3 for a young bird.
For me the bigger and older the bird the longer it takes.
I rest turkeys close to a week. Traditionaly the weekend before Thanksgiving is when to harvest for Thanksgiving.

I looked up last century how long USDA said from slaughter to use or freeze by date. They said 10 days close to 32f.

I have seen where people said they could cook chicken before rigor started. I tried it. Apparently I am too slow. It wasn't as good as waiting for rigor to pass. But it wasn't rubber bands like it was when I cooked it in full rigor mortis. That was totally inedible.

Used to be common to hang older birds intact to tenderize. People have problems with the ick factor nowadays.
https://honest-food.net/on-hanging-pheasants-2/
I have had to dispatch a bird I couldn't process and thrown in the refrigerator until rigor mortis passed and then run through the plucker. Worked out great.

ETA you can rest after thawing too

 

[MysteryChicken]

I’ve read that it’s important to rest a carcass for up to three days before freezing and I’ve read that no rest is necessary.
What are your experiences? How long does rigor last?

As long as there's no Rigor Mortis there's no need to rest the birds. The majority of mine never went into rigor, so resting has never been done.

 

[Molpet]

As long as there's no Rigor Mortis there's no need to rest the birds. The majority of mine never went into rigor, so resting has never been done.

I wish I knew what the trick was. Mine are stiff as a board

 

[MysteryChicken]

I wish I knew what the trick was. Mine are stiff as a board

What method do you use?

After I bleed mine, & they go through the death throws, after they relax I cut their heads off at the base of the skull where the spinal cord meets the brain.
This could be the reason, but haven't yet confirmed.

 

[Molpet]

I put into a cone, remove the head with PVC pipe cutters , about an inch of neck included . They thrash and bleed out, then I put them in the hot water until a wing feather pulls out easily then in the plucker. Then gutted or parted out and thrown in cold water.
About 45 to 60 minutes after killing, they are going into rigor mortis.
@MysteryChicken

 

[fowltemptress]

I don't have the space to rest the birds, so they have to get packaged and frozen same day. I kill a whole batch in the morning and it takes me all day before I'm ready to package everything up in the evening, so whatever resting they were going to do has to be done in that time frame. The meat's been great, no issues so far.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I put into a cone, remove the head with PVC pipe cutters , about an inch of neck included . They thrash and bleed out, then I put them in the hot water until a wing feather pulls out easily then in the plucker. Then gutted or parted out and thrown in cold water.
About 45 to 60 minutes after killing, they are going into rigor mortis.
@MysteryChicken

Decapitation seems to have been the issue I had years ago when processing birds, they always ended up going into rigor mortis fast.