# Questions about eating roosters



## KrisD (May 26, 2011)

A friend of mine works at the livestock auction and there are always a ton of roosters that sell for .50 cents. She can get me as many as I need but I don't know what to do with them as far as cooking goes. Do they taste strange being Roosters and not Capons? Should they just be put in the crock pot and stewed all day? I would imagine they are pretty tough so I would think that the crock pot would work but I hate to go through the trouble of picking them up and butchering them to find they are not edible. Anyone have any hints on what to do? I am open to suggestions:shrug:

PS: I scalded and plucked my first chicken today and will be butchering it tomorrow. I liked it even if my son will have nightmares for a week! It went pretty easy and not too messy (I did it in the house over newspapers). 

Thanks
Kris


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

I do mine in the house over newspapers, too, because when I do them outside, I get swarmed by yellowjackets. Of course, at this time of year the wasps are hibernating, but I don't usually have chickens to butcher in the winter.

There is no 'off' taste associated with roosters. I've never been able to tell the roosters from the hens by flavor, once they are all cleaned. 

The best thing to do with old roosters is either slow-cook them all day, or cook in a pressure cooker. Or, if you wanted to take time to bone the meat (maybe take off the easiest, largest pieces and use the remaining meaty bones for soup stock), you could grind it and use it as ground chicken for a lot of things. You can also grind cooked chicken and make chicken salad or sandwich spreads with it.

Kathleen


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## Andy Nonymous (Aug 20, 2005)

All chickens get tend to tougher with age, regardless of gender, though we've had 3 year old birds that cooked up just fine. They also tend to taste better with age, depending on diet. Old birds on good pasture and high quality feed make the BEST soup stock!

Many heritage breeds (Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, etc) can live several years. Heavy (meat) birds are usually butchered at 6-10 weeks, though that varies by breed. Cornish X especially don't generally live long anyway - they tend to be coop potatoes that eat lots of feed, sit a lot (and chit a lot), get obese and die of heart failure.

Cockerels or roosters for 50 cents from an auction? Caveat Emptor. If you have chickens of your own, the LAST thing you want to do is possibly bring a disease to your farm. Cheap may or may not be a good deal, depending on how they were cared for and what they have been fed. 

Maybe I'm just fussy (or spoiled by really good chicken), but I much prefer to raise our own. If I'm gonna invest the time in butchering a chicken (or 10, or 20), I would rather do it well, know what went into them and what I can expect in flavor and nutrition when they're cooked, because just like with computer programing: if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. 

If a chicken isn't worth anything to the seller (the auctions I'm aware of keep anything less than a dollar as commission)... I'd pass. On the other hand, if you can't raise your own, butchering otherwise healthy appearing birds from the auction will still likely be better than what you can get from the store. As always YMMV. 

Andy


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## KrisD (May 26, 2011)

Thanks Andy,

At the auction 2 weeks ago a beautiful Quarter horse went for $50, if I had a horse trailer I would have brought him home. Owners couldn't afford to feed him anymore. Hens at the auction are usually $1.50 - $2.50. But around here people can't get rid of their roosters and many people just let the loose some where. I would never put roosters from the auction in with my chickens because A) my rooster would fight to the death with it and B) they could bring in some disease or parasites that mine don't have. I have an extra pen for them until butcher time but I was looking at it this way the Humane society is now over run with roosters, the auction can't give them away so why not make use of them? I could offset feeding my family, reduce some of the roosters needing homes in my area, and get some good practice butchering in the process. 

Am I crazy? My husband would say so but he thinks chicken should only come from Foster Farms. I would prefer to be more self reliant.


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Sounds like a deal to me!


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## LoneStrChic23 (Jul 30, 2010)

I'd scoop up 50Â¢ roosters in a heartbeat! 

We just put a 2 year old roo in the crock pot, got him from a friend......pulled all the meat & used it for a huge pot of chicken noodle soup......Have another 1 year old rooster who is getting the same treatment & will probably go in chicken pot pie


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## Andy Nonymous (Aug 20, 2005)

KrisD said:


> ... I was looking at it this way: the Humane society is now over run with roosters, the auction can't give them away so why not make use of them? I could offset feeding my family, reduce some of the roosters needing homes in my area, and get some good practice butchering in the process.
> 
> Am I crazy? My husband would say so but he thinks chicken should only come from Foster Farms. I would prefer to be more self reliant.


Foster Farms? Tyson? Purdue? Same diff - yuck. If they can sell it a pennies a pound, and everyone along the way makes money, just what exactly is going into those birds? GI=GO

In that case, you are definitely better off getting (healthy) cockerels (less than a year old) or roosters from the auction. 

Thinking about it a bit more, you are probably getting cockerels from the auction: they start 'feeling their nuggets' at about 6 months (depending on breed), and can really get to be a PITA (pain in the anatomy) to the point that anyone with the wherewithal to dispatch them themselves, would. Those that can't, 'give them away'. 

Their loss, your gain. If you want to change hubbies mind on store chicken, check out "Food Inc." from the library. If you want to get to his mind through his stomach, just ask - I have a few prep tips.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

I think that is a deal I would jump at...but only because I have a place I could place them where they would be away from existing fowl where I could feed them well, water them with wormer and electrolytes and generally watch them to see if they continue to look healthy. Then they would go in a pressure canner and a lot of pot pies would be created as well as packages of meat/stock for noodles and soups.

The only roosters we have eaten were those we got in "straight run" when purchasing fowl for the freezer; and butchering them all around 2 months of age we cannot tell the difference in taste between the hens and roosters.


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## HeelSpur (May 7, 2011)

50 cent chickens, I'm in....


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Oh, yeah! 50 cents a bird? I'd happily process them for the freezer! Even if they were older birds (though it sounds like these might be juvenile culls from an egg operation?) make great soup and stew!

If they are what I think they might be, they won't be "meat" birds, but that doesn't mean you can't eat 'em! It just means they'll be leaner, not as much meat on them. But at 50 cents each, well worth getting and processing at home!


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

KrisD said:


> PS: I scalded and plucked my first chicken today and will be butchering it tomorrow. Thanks
> Kris


Do hope you eviscerated it after plucking?????? :thumb: And not leave the entrails in the bird till the next day????? :nono: That could really give that bird a bad taste, if not create possible health issues.... :Bawling:

Wish I could get on $0.50 chickens! Around here $2-3 apiece is cheap....


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

I'd skin them rather than pluck them, save the giblets for deep frying (yum) or gravy and throw the birds whole in a pressure cooker for soup stock. I would consider drying and grinding the bones up and adding to the garden, as well, if you garden and need calcium in your soil. 

Not much meat on those birds -- I've butchered egg breed roosters and yard birds and if they haven't been fattened up, they're pretty stringy. They make good stock, though.

I have a giant pressure canner I've used for processing several roos at once.

You could try feeding them cracked corn for a couple of weeks before butchering to fatten them up. Depending on breed, they may or may not fatten up much.


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## Want2BFree (Nov 27, 2011)

wow, ya can't beat that price! I'd gladly eat some 50 cent roos! How to cook them depends on age. Here's an ALBC link on how to cook them and what ages are considered best for frying/stewing/etc. 
http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf


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## lisa's garden (Apr 1, 2010)

Micheal said:


> Do hope you eviscerated it after plucking?????? :thumb: And not leave the entrails in the bird till the next day????? :nono: That could really give that bird a bad taste, if not create possible health issues.... :Bawling:
> 
> Wish I could get on $0.50 chickens! Around here $2-3 apiece is cheap....


I was wondering that too. You need to gut and chill the bird as quickly as you can. Leaving the entrails in overnight will give bacteria time to work away inside the bird. I'm not sure, but maybe you can still eat it, just gut it as soon as you can, clean thoroughly, and cook it a really long time and get up to a higher than usual temp. In the future, don't start killing birds unless you have time to finish the job.

And on the rooster question...that's a good deal. Maybe you could post on Craigslist that you are willing to take young roosters off their hands for free. Save the 50 cents and maybe have them delivered to your doorstep.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I think how a chicken tastes is up to the chicken and the person eating it. I'd go buy a few and try them out to see if my family liked them. Then you will know exactly what you shoulddo. My family doesn't like regular chicken meat. We are spoiled. But we love the cornish cross chickens we raise ourselves. It's just us. So, I would probably tell you that the auction roosters would be nasty and inedible - when that obviously isn't so to others.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2011)

I usually let 4 dozen or so hatch off in the spring, then round about now, when it's nice and cool, sit in a chair early one morning with a .22 and take out all the young roosters, and many of the older hens. Then I spend a while cleaning them. Freeze some, can some. Life goes on. Next spring, plenty of 1 and 2 year old's to start laying, a few 3 year olds that get broody easy. Only need a couple roosters, sure don't need 25 of them.


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## freeb (Jul 25, 2009)

that is how i get mine too! i do keep them for at least 2 weeks tho before i do anything as i dont know what they have been eating.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I'd go for it. Skin them instead of removing feathers and then pressure can them. It is what I do with all our old hens and the few roos we don't want.



> PS: I scalded and plucked my first chicken today and will be butchering it tomorrow.


Not butchering it until today?? So you have a naked chicken running around? :happy: 

Please tell us that you butchered it yesterday, that it was eviscerated at that time and that you only need to cut it up today.


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## KrisD (May 26, 2011)

Thanks for all the info and advise! 

To clarify the chicken that I plucked yesterday was killed by a neighbor dog so it is going to be served to our dogs who eat raw. That is the reason I didn't worry about gutting it yesterday. WE ARE NOT EATING THAT BIRD. I basically wanted to learn how to do it so she was my practice bird since she was dead anyways. I am doing my duck too. I figured the dead birds would give me some practice and get my confidence up so when I get the roos and some cornish Xs next year I will be ready. My husband just about passed out when he walked in and I am plucking the bird on the table! It was so funny. 

So some of you shoot the birds??? I thought you were supposed to slit their throats. My grandmother used to hold them by the head and give em a twist until their necks broke but I don't know if I can do that. That seems horrible but she was from the old country and did things differently. 

When I was a kid about 5 or 6 she asked me to go out and pick out a chicken, being a suburban kid I had no idea what was coming. I picked out a chicken stood there petting it and she came over and broke it's neck. I didn't eat chicken for years after that. She scarred me for a lonnggg time! I get goose bumps just thinking about it. But I am determined to raise my kid healthier and more responsible for life and the land then I was raised. 

Thanks all I appreciate it and will definitely read the website suggested!


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2011)

Heh, heh. You ever try chasing down 25 roosters?? I can sit in a chair and pop 25 of them in the head in short order. Might take 3 or 4 days chasing them down and catching them.


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

We can the legs and thighs with their bones, and bone out the breasts and freeze those. Canning makes the meat tender, and it's on the shelf instead of in the freezer. Great nearly-instant dinners, and we don't have to worry about how tough the old bird was. We have a plucker, so I'd pluck them because I can and we feel that the skin and fat make them taste better.
As far as I'm concerned, it sounds like access to good cheap meat.
Kit


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

If your friend works there and doesn't mind buying chickens for you, she can pick out the large young ones that will be the best eating.

No, being a rooster doesn't make the meat bad. There are lots of ways to cook older chickens that work well and are delicious.


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## Shygal (May 26, 2003)

zong said:


> Heh, heh. You ever try chasing down 25 roosters?? I can sit in a chair and pop 25 of them in the head in short order. Might take 3 or 4 days chasing them down and catching them.


So how do you get them to bleed out?


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I did, at one time, know a guy who killed his chickens with a bull whip. Kind of interesting to watch.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

ROosters are great eatin', especially if they're mean. The meaner the rooster, the tastier the meat! IMO, anyway. 

We like to cook them slow and moist in the wood cookstove. Oh, my! Pressure canning works to soften the meat, too. Just par-cook the bird so you can pick the meat off the bones, put it in your hot, clean jars with a bit of the broth from cooking them, lids and can at 11 pounds for... oh, heck, I think it's 90 minutes, but you'd best check.

Congrats on the great deal! Fifty cents a bird is better than buying chicks!


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