Getting Ready to Process

[jetto]

Ok, DH and I are going to take the plunge and process some quail boys tomorrow morning. We have Niki's tutorial printed out plus some other info I gathered from different posters. We are planning on skinning. Ok DH is planning on skinning. I don't want to clean (guts- yucko) and he doesn't want to do the head chopping so we each have a role to play I guess!

Any suggestion on the kind of knife for DH to use? I bought a new pair of kitchen shears for my part of the process but I hadn't thought about what he should use? He's cleaned pheasant in the past but neither of us can remember what he used- old age setting in.

Any last minute words of wisdom before we do the deed? TIA! Kristi

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Lurking here

 

[ken429h]

I feel for you and DH, whom ever DH may be.
I just processed/culled/slaughtered my extra roo population. It was not pretty! I have no problem pulling their heads off per-say, but what happens next takes a bit of spine.

My last minute words of wisdom are... Do the dead yourself. Don't farm it out to the weird Uncle Joe in the basement.
It's not glamorous, or pretty, but it has to be done.
It basically sucks!!!!!
It sucks the first time, and most likely sucks the 100th+ time, but it has to be done.

Ken

 

[quailbrain]

They are small and tender so Dh shouldn't have a problem with them with any of you sharp kitchen knifes. that's what we used on our first ones.

 

[byoung14ever]

I use my filet knife from my tackle box. Very sharp though but it does not tear the meat.

 

[jetto]

He doesn't FISH! Drives me crazy but he doesn't! LOL! But I should have a decently sharp knife in the kitchen somewhere. Will look tonight. Thank you! Kristi

 

[quiltnchik]

My DH used his hunting knife (which has just recently been sharpened) when he and my DS processed some of our boys last weekend.

Just want to say that you're a braver woman than me. I went to my sewing room and hid out while they were doing the "deed!"

 

[jetto]

Not sure how brave I'll be come tomorrow morning but as someone else said it's gotta be done. We have bunches of boys and we keep seeing all these great recipes and then Emeril was making grilled quail the other day on Food Network! So that made us both ready for processing

And actually I'm not attached to the boys at all. I don't even like them, not even a little bit. If it were the hens we were processing that would be much tougher on me. Kristi

 

[fitzy]

Ok, here's my 2c worth....I'm a body piercer by profession (i can hear you thinking right now) and the one thing i have known and shared with many is that some things look worse than they feel and the less i hesitate the less pain i inflict on my clients!

When you cut the heads off, DO NOT FLINCH, BUT DO IT SWIFTLY!!! From the sound of things, this is not easy for most people but it is definately better for the quail your are processing. The birds will flop wildly after their head is removed, but this is only reflex so don't let it get to you or you WILL hesitate on the next bird which will only make it worse for it.

Hope this helps....good luck!

John

 

[jetto]

Thanks John!

Wanted to update everyone on the processing. It went ok- not a pleasant thing to do but not horrible either. I wrapped each bird in a dish towel as I had seen someone post on here did that and it sounded like a pretty good idea. It really helped contain the bird during the whole twitching thing and it seemed to also calm them down from being caught.

My biggest issue was my hands are small and holding bird while snipping the head was tough - I did the first bird and then hubby said he felt he could help with that part so I then held each bird while he did the snip. And John you're right- don't hesitate- much easier on us and the birds to just do it quickly and don't hesitate.

And for those of you with really noisy boys- um- cull a few first thing in the morning and it will quiet down your entire flock for hours. At least it did ours! That was kind of weird.

Kristi