I just got a monster roo from our neighbor

[conny63malies]

My doorbell just rang. Out there was my neighbor Millie asking if i wanted a rabbit. I asked , uh for what ,eating or pet? Are they alive? Whatever you want we got some for free at a farm. So i walked up there. Then she mentioned "oh and we got some roosters too" I got there and they had boxes of cute and not so cute bunnies . I picked a brown and white one.I think i might have saved its life. I never dispatched a rabbit before. They showed me the roosters next. Those were two of the most gigantinormus roos i have ever seen. They are 3+ month old cornishX , must be around 20 pounds. They are the size of a turkey. They escaped the last slaughtering truck on their farm.The farmer didnt want to do them so he gave them finally away. What am I supposed to do with a roo that size???? He is bigger than my scovie drakes. That is a week worth of chicken for our family. I will have to slaughter today.

 

[k0xxx]

Quote:
Stew, pan fry, bake, etc., etc.

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

slow roasted, or if he's too old, a nice long simmer in the stock pot

 

[conny63malies]

Well i did him right away today. I put him on the scale with me and after subtracting my weight he was 17.6pounds. Whoaa Nelly tha was one big boy. I tied his legs and hung him up for culling him. I went pretty ok. But next time i do a bird this size i will use a chopping block and a hatchet and a second person. I didnt have a bucket large enough so i had to put the hot water in a clean trashcan to scalled him. Took me some time to pluck him, but in the end i had a bird that was 15pounds table ready. Which makes it three pounds heavier than my thanksgiving turkey. I'll keep the rabbit boy or give it to a rescue. I def. can not kill a blue eyed rabbit after my kids saw it.

 

[dancingbear]

Connie, when a neighbor brought me a wild turkey, I didn't have anything big enough to scald him in, either.

I heated water in my tea kettle and poured it on the bird in my kitchen sink, a section at a time. I filled the kettle with hot tap water, so it only took a few minutes to heat. The next kettle would heat while I plucked the area I'd just doused. By the time I finished a section, the next kettle was hot for the next. It only took me about 15 minutes to pluck the bird, I had to pour extra on just the big wing feathers, and then they came out, too. It worked really well, I was surprised at how easy it was.

I've done this with chickens, too, when I needed to clean one unexpectedly.

I had a Cornish cross hen that was nearly a year old when we butchered her, (heart was failing, it was let her die soon, or do it right then and save the meat) she dressed out to around 15 lbs., too. The breast meat was tender, we cut it into strips to fry, and it was great. There was probably about 5 lbs. or more of breast meat alone. The rest was too tough to fry, so we had LOTS of chicken and dumplings. These days I use meat from older birds in all kinds of dishes, I usually cook it in the crock pot.