Thoughts on heritage meat. Again, use this to consider your breed of choice, your culls, and your ability to breed in volume.
Chapter I: Spatchcocked broilers.
From 8 to 13 weeks, chickens are broilers. In French, we'd say
poussin. You could pronounce that "poo-SANG" more or less. Any breed can be used for this. Often, in the past, excess cockerels (obvious culls) of egg-type fowl (think Mediterranean and Hamburg-types) were used for this. Butchering at this age produces a small yet outstandingly tasty carcass that you're going to use for BBQ, oven broiling, and quick frying (stir-fry). If you think about it, this is perfect. You hatch heavily in the spring, and, just when you're going to become voerwhelmed with cockerels, you process all those that aren't worth growing out. Voila! and just in time for BBQ season to begin.
Now, these are
easy to process, and are done with very little time. Spatchcocking is the way to go. Print this out and tuck it away. You'll master this technique in no time this coming May/June/July.
To spatchcock:
bleed, scald, pluck.
Ready to eviscerate, put the bird on your work table backbone facing up.
Take hold of the uropygium, or Pope's nose (that fleshy knob from which the tail grows). With a sharp knife slice down to the backbone. With snips, snip through the backbone. Now, your uropygium is sort od dangling there. Don't cut it off; it is your handle. Holding the uropygium with one hand, gingerly slice down until you open the body cavity. Do not slice into the intestine. Then cut around the vent such that the anus and uropygium are attached and hanging there, still attached to the end of the intestine. With your finger, go around the intestine such that you losse the end of the intestine from any connective tissue holding it to the body cavity. The end result is a danlging knob and vent piece hanging out the back from the end of the intestine.
This might sound complicated, but it's a 30 second step that you'll master in no time.
Now, with good poultry sheers, cut up either side of the backbone, leaving the backbone in tact, until you reach the to of the rib cage.
Then take hold of the freed backbone and pull it out. At this point the backbone is attached all the way to the head. The only continued attachment to the carcass is the neck skin, which easy cut through. Throw the backbone and head into your gut-bucket.
Now looking down at the carcass, the back is wide open, and you can see all of the viscera just sitting there. Pick up the bird, hang it over the gut-bucket and wipe out the viscera with your hands.
You're all done, spray the bird down and immerse it in ice water to bring the temperature down below 40 degrees as quickly as possible. Vaccuum seal them individually or in pairs and then freeze.
Half a bird is sufficient, but it wouldn't be hard to eat a whole bird. They're just delicious. Marinate in a good homemade sause and then slowly BBQ.
or
Check out a Joy of Cooking for some easy broiling recipes:
Broiling is a fast preparation and something you can easily do upon returning from the office or what have you. This actually fits well into the bracket of "How can I feed my family nourishing food with a busy life and no time?" Mix salt and pepper with some good herbs into some butter. Slather it all over the bird. Broil it up. Make some nice rice/potato/pasta/gnochhi and a good veggie. Bada bing!
Eastern European tradition might go heavy on the paprica. France: thyme and sage. Italy: rosemary and oregano. Greece: oregano and lemon. Spatchcocked broiler is quick, easy, and rudely yummy.
One Burgundian preparation would be to make a shallot and mustard sauce that you baste the bird in before broiling.
Now, why is this
VERY IMPORTANT? Well, because it allows you to hatch in volume; cull hard at a useful age; and make heritage poultry a key element in your diet, which is highly salubrious (
)
You can use spatchcocked broilers to feed the fam once or twice weekly throughout the grilling season. Trust me, no one will tire of it!
If you read the ALBC program for improving heritage poultry, eight weeks of age is a critical week for assessment. You're going to cull 50% or more of your hatch. These can be spatchcocked then or removed to a finishing coop for a 3-4 of weeks of high protein feed. They are then spatchcocked, and you eat food that the wealthy pay big bucks to try to procure.
That's yet another excellent attribute of heritage poultry. It is so very democratic in nature. It is ART and HIGH LIVING that is accessible to MOST
It's good housing that saves one's birds; that's all. They don't need blood to know that there's dinner available at such and such a house. We remember that, in the world of carnivores, poultry and rabbits are tantamount to apples.
