Processing Quail for the Freezer

[thegoatpacker]

How do you folks process our quail for the freezer? Skin? Pluck? What plucking routine do you use? By hand or mechanical? Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[James the Bald]

How do you folks process our quail for the freezer? Skin? Pluck? What plucking routine do you use? By hand or mechanical? Thanks in advance for your replies.

I swear I just posted a link for somebody about processing quail a few days ago. Don't worry, I've got you covered. Also, the person who did this, skinned her quail, and it's fairly easy.
BTW, feel free to use the search tool for any other questions you may have.

 

[Sycamore27]

I found the thread James posted very helpful, there are a lot of videos on youtube of different techniques as well that I watched while ours were still growing out.

I've only processed one extra male for eating so far, though my covey is stalled on egg production and I think if they take longer than all of my incubator/turner parts in the mail to start back up I may order some eggs and send them to freezer camp...

Anyway, the one I processed so far I skinned, left the first section of wing on and snipped the spine completely out. The innards came out very easily this way and I was able to butterfly/split it beautifully for roasting. Wing and rib meat was a smidge tough (though it was a 12 week old bird and it seems most harvest before that) but I was amazed how little bone was left over on my plate. I let it rest about 36 hours in the fridge in salted water and then roasted it. Once I have a grill I will probably try plucking a few and compare how they cook up on the grill to skinned basted birds.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[LJpnw]

Not sure if this videos is already posted somewhere but this is the same way i clean quail. Super easy and quick.