So... how do you get the smell out?

[ChristinaMae]

We processed half of our first ever batch of cornish x today. 14 birds took us most of the day. Granted, my helpers were pretty slow - can't really complain, though, since I didn't do any plucking at all, hehe. All in all, it wasn't awful. I'm definitely going to try to rent a plucker before we do the last 14, though, and if not I'll try to find someone to process them for us. I'm really leaning toward paying someone else to process the rest. Why? Because I smell like a dead chicken. I was wearing gloves, thank goodness, so my hands are fine, but I still managed to get my lower arms all gross and smelly. I've scrubbed and scrubbed them with the hottest water I can stand and ivory soap, but I can still smell it. How do I get it off?! I even sprayed vinegar water on my arms hoping it would help - it didn't.

I don't think I can do this again if I have to wait for the smell to wear off.

Oh, also - is it ok to eat ones that may have gotten a bit cooked when scalding? We were having a hard time keeping out scald water the right temp, and it took me a while to get everyone to remember to check the tempurature before sticking a bird in the water and also to not leave the bird in there.

 

[cassiadawn]

For the smell, try something like GoJo orange pumice hand cleaner. It's intended as a hand cleaner for people working with oil/grease/tar, but I've found it to work great at removing paint, glue residue, and paint thinner from skin. It also seems to remove odors very well, though it could just be covering them up - it smells rather strongly of oranges! It removes most of the smell of paint thinner, and if it can do that, chicken smell should be a piece of cake.

Any similar heavy duty hand cleaner would probably do the trick for you (definitely recommend one with a citrus base to cut odor), should be readily available in most stores with an automotive section (like Wal-Mart).

 

[Nostalchic]

The first time we processed chickens (did 50 one day with the help of my parents), we couldn't eat chicken, or - actually- any meat, for a while. That smell gets up your nose and into your hair and... well, you just don't FEEL like eating chicken, do you? But once we got over that, those chickens were the best ever. I could see hiring someone to do the dirty work, but I liked the fact that we knew exactly how it went down, and minimized the trauma to the chickens - that was important to me.
I don't think there's any problem with the birds that were over-scalded in terms of safety - it just damages the skin so they don't look so pretty.

 

[uhuh555]

Lemon juice (from real lemons).

 

[dancingbear]

I have found that smells get in your nasal passages, and while you don't really still smell like a dead bird, you still smell it. This can last a long time. Days, even.

Having had sinus and allergy trouble my whole life, I have a thing called the NeilMed Saline Nasal rinse. The have them at Walgreen, and CVS, and others. The website will show where you can find them where you live.

It works great for my sinus problems, and has the added bonus of getting smells out of my nose when I'm done with whatever nasty job put them there, butchering chickens, cleaning the coop, slaughtering pigs, whatever. You can also use a thing called a neti pot, to do the same thing.

They have little packets of (pricey, it's just salt/baking soda!) pre-measured salt/bicarb mixture to use, but a lot of people just use ordinary sea salt, non-iodized. 1 tsp per quart. Don't use regular table salt, it has silicon and other stuff in it. I use kosher salt and baking soda, 50/50 mix, I grind the kosher salt fine in the blender, mix with the bicarb. It works fine.

It can be a little hard the first time you use it, but after that, no big deal.

 

[schmism]

Cant say there was that much of a smell during our processing.

granted the scalder was a smelly process, but that was "over yonder" away from the main processing table. (all outside) we used our tub plucker and when rinsed with fresh water to wash feathers away there was virtually no smell. (so i wasnt handling the birds that much before they were plucked)

 

[Dogfish]

Try keeping the water temp at 145-150 degrees, and scald for 60-90 seconds. Once the wing feathers easily release, you are good.

Never noticed a smell with my birds.

 

[srsmith69]

I've found that the best soap for removing strong smells from my hands is the green scent removal soap sold in hunting departments everywhere. I know that it's the only thing that will remove the fishy smell from my hands after a good day fishing

 

[carrlr]

Quote:
Love your signature!!!

 

[ChristinaMae]

Thanks for the advice all. I think my husband has some of that orange cleaner at work, I'll have him bring some home for me. I'll give lemon juice a try as well. And if none of that works, I'll be going out to get some scent removal soap from sportsmans, haha - I'll probably make sure to get that before we processes the 2nd half. The smell has mostly worn off now, after lots and lots of scrubbing. I can only faintly smell it if I stick my nose right up to my arm. I do still have the smell in my nose a bit, but that's going away. Yay for allergies and sinus problems, hahaha. I'm pretty sure that's why it's not sticking around longer. I didn't know nasal rinsing would help get bad smells out of there - that's great to know. I'll have to try that.

The smell during wasn't awful - I mean, it wasn't great, but it was tolerable. It's just that it didn't come off my skin that was the problem. Of the 4 adults, I was the most bothered by the smell, but I'm also pretty sensitive to smell. However, it doesn't seem as bad today as it did yesterday. I still don't have any desire to eat chicken (yet), but at least I'm thinking about it. Last night I couldn't even do that much. I think this is not something I could do often, but maybe once, maybe twice, a year - with a chicken plucker. Jury's still out on that one... I have a great admiration for those of you who do this for a living, though.