Holy turkey and breasts!!! AWESOME!! they all look so good and healthy too!
Killed my first turkeys a few days ago, 3 of my five beautiful 9 month old toms. I love their personalities and color, but I had just too many toms. I've killed many chickens in the past, but these were quite different. First, obviously, was the size. We used a modified 5 gallon bucket as a killing cone instead of the normal jug. It took two people to lift and secure each one into the bucket. Likewise, the amount of blood that drained after the neck was cut was much, much more than a chicken. We skinned the first bird, which took quite a while, but it allowed me to see the amount of fat on the breast of the bird. OMG. We had so much that we cut off the excess and gave it to the eagerly waiting cats. The other two we dry plucked, which was astonishingly easy. I always thought that scalding was necessary, but with a good pull, the feathers came out by the handfuls. They're in the refrigerator now. Any fresh turkey recipe suggestions? I've been researching online, most say that baking is one of the best ways. I do love a good fried turkey as well, but I don't think that these will fit in our fryer.
The two toms in the very back, as well as the royal palm (white/black) on the far right were the ones slaughtered.This picture preserves them at their prime. Thank you, beautiful boys, for providing me with meat. I kept the two foremost toms, as the were the best tempered and had the best coloring.
get out of town! taste?Thank you everyone for your kind words. I actually just passed another processing milestone, one that I never thought I would be able to do. If you've ever been read my signature or seen me on the Silkie thread, you know I strive to breed quality silkies as a 'hobby' flock (I don't breed to sell, and I haven't yet shown, I just enjoy good quality silkies more than almost any other type of chicken). However, most people who have bred birds of good quality know that the offspring don't always turn out great quality, you'll always have culls. Pullet culls are easy to place in homes, but cockerel culls, not so much. I had three in particular that I wanted gone, so I went ahead and bit the bullet and processed them myself. One was older and lacking all around in type, one was young and had split wings and an incorrect comb, and another young one had a poor crest and was missing his outside toenails (a side effect sometimes with too much foot feathering). It was much harder to kill them than my 'regular' chickens or my turkeys, as I am quite fond of these fluffy creatures. I did it just a little bit ago, while it was dark, to ease their stress. I plucked the first one, and skinned the other two. Skinning is a nightmare to start, as the feathers stick to the meat and makes it hard to see what you are doing, but takes less time than plucking. I expected the meat to be black, but holy moly not this odd. The skin, meat, bones, AND organs were black and smoky gray. The bones in particular were fascinating, jet black and shiny. And they weren't as skimpy as I'd thought they'd be, the older one (bottom) actually was quite a little chunk. The bare 'white' meat has a strange green tint, while the 'dark' meat really lives up to its name. The organs, especially the heart, gizzard, and testicles, were also black. Our house is becoming a regular butcher's! I still am bothered by the killing, but I take comfort in knowing that all the birds here had a fantastic life up to their end.
Haven't tried them yet, as I just got finished cleaning them less than an hour ago, but I'll surely let you know when I try them. To me, the meat kind of looks like dark frog legs haha. I just have to wrap my mind around the fact that this is chicken, not some sort of alien meat!
In Asian markets black skinned chicken sells at a premium..... I don't know, it just looks WEIRD!This is nothing though, you should see the ones they sell in Asia (usually Ajam Cerami)... talk about black!
Probably tastes like chicken.
Quote:
Haven't tried them yet, as I just got finished cleaning them less than an hour ago, but I'll surely let you know when I try them. To me, the meat kind of looks like dark frog legs haha. I just have to wrap my mind around the fact that this is chicken, not some sort of alien meat!
jajean.... we slaughtered our first 'silkie' on Saturday, he is actually a barnyard mix, mamma is a Silkie, daddy was one of our barnyard roosters who is not... but the cockerel looked just like his mamma. His skin and bones are black, we haven't cooked him yet, but I expect to find the dark streaks like you described since everything else was black except his organs were black streaked.
