Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[ronott1]

I cooked my first White Bresse on Sunday. It was very tasty:



It was a Brittish Recipe so it said to Joint them. This is the Jointed Cockerel frying in a "Generous Knob of butter"

Recipe:

 

[Chambertin]

I've always wondered why skin instead of pluck?
Its really quite easy with the right water setup.

Is there anything more to it instead of the ease compared to plucking?
(and all that yanking and stretching seems like more work)

Maybe its because I started out on fish and small game instead of deer?
I do my processing in a different order and I'm sure everyone has a system of their own
Gotta get out a camera next time.

 

[chicksooner]

I've always wondered why skin instead of pluck?
Its really quite easy with the right water setup.

Is there anything more to it instead of the ease compared to plucking?
(and all that yanking and stretching seems like more work)

Maybe its because I started out on fish and small game instead of deer?
I do my processing in a different order and I'm sure everyone has a system of their own
Gotta get out a camera next time.

Please do. I am learning so much from watching everyone else process.

 

[Beekissed]

I've always wondered why skin instead of pluck?
Its really quite easy with the right water setup.

Is there anything more to it instead of the ease compared to plucking?
(and all that yanking and stretching seems like more work)

Maybe its because I started out on fish and small game instead of deer?
I do my processing in a different order and I'm sure everyone has a system of their own
Gotta get out a camera next time.

Well...if you are like me, you don't often even eat the skin unless I am frying the chicken...which is extremely rare. I don't even often roast a chicken, as it's just me and my mother now at home. Usually I am taking skinless, boneless meat and adding it to stock that I've made before from a big processing, or to stir fry~ and so the skin, especially on an older bird, becomes a moot point. When killing one or two birds I don't get out the mess of a trying to heat water outside for plucking and I'm certainly not going to bring them inside for that reason either. Shucking that skin is then the simplest and most efficacious manner to get the meat from the coop to the fridge.

For folks who don't kill chickens often, I'm sure that sounds wasteful....but I kill a lot of chickens here and have plenty of stock, roasters with skin, etc. hanging out in the freezer and sometimes in the jar. So, trying to save the skin on one or two birds is just not worth the effort.

 

[Kassaundra]

For me, also just feeding 2 people. I only process on or two a week, I don't have freezer space, or the will to do large batches by myself. I kill the bird in the garage and do the rest of the work in the kitchen sink, so same as Bee's answer I'm certainly not going to boil nasty chicken water in my house. I don't process until after dark b/c that is when I get the chicken off the roost so making a pot of boiling water in the yard after dark for one or maybe two birds seems wasteful, and dangerous and I don't eat skin, neither does my husband.

 

[Chambertin]

Understood,
I thought it would be about preference and style.
I wasnt sure if the added fat would mess with the pickling process. I'm a complete pickle novice.

For me I do all the processing on the porch area on the first floor (remember I'm keeping my chickens on the roof of my apartment) so boiling water is easy to come by. When we cook 90% is skinless as well, but we always have uses for skin when we make other things.
Making a soup where you render the skin then get the onions and celery browning in there.... YUM
So many soups are greatly helped by some cracklings.

Best of all are the soups where we do that then boil out the rib and other leftover meats from the carcass.

We dont need to be so frugal, but our dogs love all the extra treats of rendered skin and bones.
Trust me, any dog can eat bones, our Pekingese loves them

EDIT: You dont boil the chicken inside the pot to get feathers do you?
Best way is to let it come to a hnard boil then take it outside.
We let it get down to well below boiling, as long as you dont want to keep your hand inside then its plenty warm
Usually one large soup pot (couple gallons) has enough time to do 2 chickens and one turkey before it losses its plucking power in the summer.

Its almost perfect to just add a normal pot of boiling water to the active batch and keep the temp right without having the work pot on the heat source.

 

[Kassaundra]

Understood,
I thought it would be about preference and style.
I wasnt sure if the added fat would mess with the pickling process. I'm a complete pickle novice.

For me I do all the processing on the porch area on the first floor (remember I'm keeping my chickens on the roof of my apartment) so boiling water is easy to come by. When we cook 90% is skinless as well, but we always have uses for skin when we make other things.
Making a soup where you render the skin then get the onions and celery browning in there.... YUM
So many soups are greatly helped by some cracklings.

Best of all are the soups where we do that then boil out the rib and other leftover meats from the carcass.

We dont need to be so frugal, but our dogs love all the extra treats of rendered skin and bones.
Trust me, any dog can eat bones, our Pekingese loves them

EDIT: You dont boil the chicken inside the pot to get feathers do you?
Best way is to let it come to a hnard boil then take it outside.
We let it get down to well below boiling, as long as you dont want to keep your hand inside then its plenty warm
Usually one large soup pot (couple gallons) has enough time to do 2 chickens and one turkey before it losses its plucking power in the summer.

Its almost perfect to just add a normal pot of boiling water to the active batch and keep the temp right without having the work pot on the heat source.

No your right it is below boiling (150ish degrees) it was just easier to type pot of boiling water" the "pot of very hot almost boiling water"

 

[ronott1]

No your right it is below boiling (150ish degrees) it was just easier to type pot of boiling water" the "pot of very hot almost boiling water"

Or lightly steaming water.

 

[Chambertin]

Hehe, I just say "hotter than that hot spring I dont ever want to get in again."
Just need to get the skin to relax,
I try to avoid cooking it because those feathers on the legs love to hold smells
Plus turkeys, wow... sometimes I think they load up on feather stink just before thanksgiving.

 

[Beekissed]

No your right it is below boiling (150ish degrees) it was just easier to type pot of boiling water" the "pot of very hot almost boiling water"

Love you, Kassaundra! Love that wit, sharper than a needle!