the foreground is the remaining fire from all the brush. yes, that is blood on that log. the hatchet wasn't the ideal guillotine i had to hit each chicken's neck twice to sever it. the blood that spewed all over tabitha and myself was ridiculous the first chicken. we inhaled way too many downy feathers while plucking. the wretched plucking was so incredibly tedious. tabitha says "this is just the kind of crap that hannibal the cannibal had to put up with."
i burned all of the feathers and heads in the re-kindled fire. the butchershop is now closed until further notice........
Didja blanch the dead chickens in boiling water before plucking them? My grandmother used to do this, and that made the task a little easier.
ReplyDeletegreg uses a machete. nice long blade, you can't miss!
ReplyDeletei remember butchering from when i was a kid. my family set up an assembly line. one butchered, one chased down the dead chicken (my job), one dipped the dead bird in boiling water, one plucked, one gutted. good times!
hannibal didn't have to put up with feathers in the mouth!
That's why we just skin em'. I guess you have to dumk them in 140 degree water while you're plucking to keep their pores open.
ReplyDeleteMy husband holds them by their feet and just steps on their head and pulls their body up and their head pops off under his foot. There isn't much blood and then you can just throw the body down and let it pump the rest of the blood out on the ground. Another way you can do it, is by using a broom handle and put their head under it and step on the handle with both feet and pull their body up and their head comes off easily that way too.
I'm sorry you had to hack at them twice. It is tough to do and kindof sad. If you pull their heads off, atleast it's fast and done. If you skin them good enough, you can sell the pelt to a bait shop. Fly fishermen use them. Kindof makes me fell like recycling and not being so wasteful. Thanks for sharing.
P.S. the salt water brine also helps to draw the blood out of the meat that didn't get pumped out during the slaughter.
we yanked gimpy's (our first slaughter) neck the way that you described. i didn't like the the results as much. i think a cleaver will be a good investment for our nest butchershop opening. we skinned one of the chickens but decided that it was almost as tedious and both tabitha and i like the skin. also the surface chicken fat was a casuality of the skinning method. we opted for the extra work to get the skin and fat intact. i can't imagine grilling a chicken without the skin & fat to keep it moist. i guess brining would help. maybe i'm set in my ways as far as grilling goes.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that. Skin: we could take it or leave it. The brine totally helps and I've even used the skinless chicken for fried chicken and it turned out so yummy. I'm glad you guys got the meat either way.
ReplyDelete