This post is for everyone who harvested a bird from your own flock for Christmas dinner!! Describe the bird(s), how you prepared them, and what you and your guests thought of them!!
I'll go first. I harvested a mixed-breed rooster plus a mixed-breed naked neck hen. Butchered using a knife across the jugular and cut into pieces after processing.
Relaxed the pieces overnight in the fridge in milk with a bit of meat tenderizer. The milk was whole raw milk direct from a cow that is on the same propérty.
Early Christmas morning, I pre-baked the pieces for about 30 minutes each. I then added them to water plus some fresh milk in a large pot and slow-cooked for 3.5 hours. An hour before we ate, I added potatoes and onions along with some spices.
The people who ate the dinner are already experienced eaters of non-CornishX chicken. They told me they really liked the dinner and said that I had done a successful job in making the roo tender.
The rooster was good and meaty. I thought the hen was rather scrawny.
My own evaluation is that I could have cooked it just a tiny bit longer, 1/2 hour more perhaps, and used a few more spices.
