Flicking chickens

I love a lot of things about kosher poultry, but what I do not love is that they are full of pinfeathers. I accept that there are valid reasons for this, but it's still a pain.

Does anyone have any tricks for making it easier to remove the feathers. Tweezers work but they're really slow.

Thanks for posting that link. I once bought a kosher turkey for Thanksgiving, which I'll never do again in this lifetime because of the feather issue. I always wondered why kosher birds had this feather problem and now I know. Unfortunately, I've got nothing to offer on how to get the feathers out.

Jonah

My butcher in Paris had what was basically a Bunsen burner, which he used to de-pin his top-end AOC chickens. Would that work?

Geo

Singeing is a normal method for removal of tiny feathers. Use a butane brulee torch:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5875965_remove- ... thers.html

Chickens and turkeys have some hairlike feathers (filoplumes) that are commonly removed by singing. These are more common in older birds. Pin feathers are growing replacement feathers that still have a blood supply and may be covered in a sheath that will come off as the feather develops. A dull knife is often used to push out remnants of pin feathers after plucking although needle nose pliers may be more effective on wing and tail pin feathers.
More than you probably want to know about feathers.
Home processing poultry. Not for the squeamish.

My grandmother used to singe them using a stove burner.

I'm thinking that next time I'll try dipping the bird in a pot of boiling water. The processor can't do it, but I can. (Although I do wonder why they can't pluck out most of the feathers, kasher the birds, and then use a hot water system to get the rest of them off. Probably because it would make kosher chickens cost even more than they do already.)

The dull knife did not work very well. There really weren't many of the "hairs" that you can singe off, but many of the sheathed kind that ekreider described.

I just have to remember to allow more time for prep of kosher poultry. And to replace the needlenose pliers that got co-opted from kitchen duty to household repairs. I could have used them for some smoked trout we had recently, too.

I am not surprised that the dull knife did not work very well. This technique is usually used to finish off pin feathers right after a bird has been scalded and plucked and so has relaxed feather follicles. Birds that have been chilled are more likely to need the needle nose pliers. Some years ago I got my wife fairly small stainless steel pliers for kitchen use.