Butchering Cortunix Quail??

SamG347

Songster
12 Years
Mar 4, 2007
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Can someone tell me the best way to kill/butcher Cortunix quail? Im thnking taking off the head with a knife and then not sure how to go from there.
Any help would be appreciated!
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We did 20 we picked up once at an auction. We just came home and DH took a hatchet to their necks really quick. Very easy seeing as how small they are. They really clean up super easy too. Just cut down the breast, stand on the wings near the body on either side and pull on the legs. ZIP and they are skinned.
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You can also easily twist their necks.

Stacy
 
There are some great videos on YouTube on how to process quail. I found them extremely helpful because I am better at learning visually and actually watching someone go through the process and explain it as they go was great.

Don't mean to send you elsewhere for help or anything. LOL. I got all my info here and then actually watched it on YouTube and everything "clicked."

-Kim
 
That is what I planned to do just machete their heads off. Though I plan to dry pluck them as that was how I was told to clean them. I might skin them if the dry pluck process tears the skin.
 
Get yourself a pair of sharp scissors and cut the head off. It's the easiest way to butcher quail.

A lot of people still eat quail, and a lot more people are now doing so. Coturnix are more efficient at producing eggs than chickens (a pound of eggs costs two pounds of feed for a quail to produce and three pounds of feed for a chicken) and take up a lot less space. It's easy to get a guinea pig cage and set it up inside to raise quail if you want to. It's harder to do that with chickens
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Not to mention in 6-8 weeks they are sexually mature and ready to provide even more quail! One of the main reasons I decided to get more coturnix than bobwhites. A nice covey of coturnix will provide a lot of meat and eggs for the table as well as the eggs can be sold as fertiles or pickled as I see this constantly for sale on ebay.
 
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Yup, especially if you are looking for an economical source of meat and eggs. I have been told that quail are like a very very tender chicken, but I'll be seeing that for myself in just a few weeks.

It's kind of the same reason people still eat rabbits. Not just because they are delicious(or cute) but because they are a very economical source of meat. You have to do more butchering and processing because you have need more individual quail to equal the same yeild as a single chicken.

-Kim
 
I was joking when I asked if ppl still eat coturnix..Around here anyone that eats quail prefers the bobwhite..The family and I eat probably eat 200 or more a year..But to answer Sams ? I use shears to cut the head, wing tips, and legs off, Then I grab the skin at the breast bone and pull it off, If a knife is needed to do this the bird is to tuff
Then the birds are gutted by pulling the breast away from the backbone only using a knife to remove the tail knob and anus..Keep your hands as dry as possible and it wont be as messy, I can clean 15 an hour this way..Oh and yeah coturnix are pretty good, that is if you cant get bobwhite hehe
 

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