Reducing Carcass Waste

[Gray Farms]

I need to find a good recipe for chicken liver pate, I have a bag of them from the cockerels and I cannot stomach liver as-is, at least not beef liver. But I like braunschweiger, so pate ought to work.

Chicken liver is much much milder than beef liver. Give it a try.

 

[Mosey2003]

Chicken liver is much much milder than beef liver. Give it a try.

Will do!

 

[Morrigan]

Chicken liver pate is awesome! Here is a recipe I came up with, that's easy to make and not quite to butter-laden as many recipes I looked at. This makes one small ramekin, but I've doubled or tripled it for company.

Chicken Liver Pate (small)


2 to 3 oz of chicken livers
1/4 cup milk
1/2 T butter
1 T chopped onion or shallot
1 small garlic clove, chopped
1 teas chopped capers
1/2 teas fresh thyme
1 Bay leave
pinch of salt, couple grinds of pepper
2 oz cream cheese
1 T cognac or brandy

Soak livers in milk for 2 hours, then drain and pat dry.

In small saute pan, melt butter over medium high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring until soft, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add livers, thyme, bay leaf, salt & pepper and cook, stirring until livers are brown on outside, but still pink inside, about 4 minutes. Add cognac and cook until liquid evaporates and livers are cooked, but still tender.

Remove from heat, discard bay leaf and cool slightly. Puree the liver mixture in food processor with cream cheese and capers. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Pack into a ramekin and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, preferably 6 hours or more.

 

[Mosey2003]

Thanks Morrigan! I'll give that a whirl sometime soon

 

[ourltlflock]

I have actually found someone to buy the heads and feet for art and other mystical uses. The innards are cooked and eaten by us or the dogs, and the bones make yummy broth.

 

[Slike]

Good on you for asking this question. I don't know about where you live, but there is a market for the feet everywhere I've lived. Mexican and Southern Asiatic descendant populations who haven't been too Americanized as well as Filipinos should know and appreciate the ingredient. Feet are one of my favorite parts of the bird actually. They make excellent rich stock filled with collagen, and due to health problems I actually make medicine out of them.

Necks and heads are also great for making stock, even if you're disinterested in actually eating the meat. Most people will probably squirm when they read this, but eyeballs are tasty imo, as are the muscles around them - super tender. You'll never know unless you try. =)

Literally anything you do not want to eat or utilize in the kitchen somehow can be composted. Rats and mice and all that jazz may be troublesome, but not if you set up your composter adequately, or just make some simple ones for meat scraps out of 5 gallon buckets with screw-on lids, for example. Drill small holes to drain liquid in bottom. Totes with LOCKING lids can work in this same manner as well.

Just remember anything not utilized translates to wasted feed input. Even if you don't garden or keep an orchard you could sell or trade your compost. Dead animals and their various parts make some of the best soil amendments. My garden beds are littered with mongoose skeletons for this very reason.

Also I'd highly suggest looking into Black Soldier Fly Larva systems. All of any waste from the butchering process can be used to create BSF protein that can be fed to your remaining birds.

 

[oldrooster]

Slike, your comment reminded me that I saw a product on TV and in magazines and almanacs that is in essence a barrel laid on it's side attached to a pole that is spun around every so often, and water I think is added occasionally and the thing is supposed to make compost faster due to the turning and the thing being black and retaining more heat and getting more from the sun I was wondering if the matter that's left over from the butchering process and add whatever other materials are handy to help absorb the fats and other liquids and help speed the processes up some.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Slike, your comment reminded me that I saw a product on TV and in magazines and almanacs that is in essence a barrel laid on it's side attached to a pole that is spun around every so often, and water I think is added occasionally and the thing is supposed to make compost faster due to the turning and the thing being black and retaining more heat and getting more from the sun I was wondering if the matter that's left over from the butchering process and add whatever other materials are handy to help absorb the fats and other liquids and help speed the processes up some.

Unless it is sealed well it will draw flies. And animal waste is bad to really stink as it decomposes. I have buried the remains from butchering as well as a chicken that just died on me and some other critters in the bottom of my regular compost pile. If it is not turned for quite a while and it is sealed so no smell gets out for critters to dig it out the stuff will turn into compost. But it has to be well sealed to keep the smell in.

I think those are the main reasons it is generally recommended to not put animal products in compost: the smell, it can draw flies, and it can attract critters you generally don't want around like fox, dog, coyote, raccoon, possum, skunk , rats, and mice to mention a few.

 

[Slike]

@oldrooster

The black color of the bin's shell and the ability to easily and regularly turn it would indeed aid in quicker decomposition. However, there are some potential reasons why you might not want to do this with carcasses unless you can locate it WELL away from your dwelling.

The animal carcass bits must be covered liberally or it'll smell like death. I personally have no experience turning bins that I place carcasses into, primarily for the reason that it would encourage the stench escaping, and that all soft tissue animal parts that go in my bins get devoured by hordes of ravenous Blacl Soldier Fly larvae within a couple days. So the stinky period is usually short. But I still throw "brown matter" (leaves, sometimes a little soil, coconut husk bits, un-inked cardboard, rotting soft wood, bark, etc) and chunks of cardboard over and often under every carcass deposit. It helps the overall decomposition process of everything in the bin to have a mixture of more carbon-heavy (brown matter) and nitrogen-heavy (carcass) components. It also keeps the BSF larvae happy by giving them things to hide in; cardboard is their favorite from what I've observed. They burrow between the layers in droves.

If it is allowed to stink much, especially in temperate places where there's critters like raccoons, you can expect them to come looking for that free easy meal their nose tells them is available. Your coop setup muuuust be legitimately predator proof - totally secure. Feel free to add the raccoons etc it can bring in to the compost mix, or turn them into dinner first. I'm fond of the latter.

I use the BSF maggots as regular feed for my birds. The necessity in most cases of treating carcass laden compost a bit different from that without any animal parts has taught me to have separate BSF production bins and other non-carcass bins. I let the chickens periodically turn the latter for me. It makes them all kinds of happy and my back doesn't suffer over it.

Environmental temperature and ambient humidity levels will play a huge role in how fast your compost breaks down. Inclusion of BSF larvae in your system(s) will seriously expedite it *if* you include enough things they like to eat. They won't keep coming back to lay their eggs there if they're being starved out. Their two favorite foods as per my observations are rotten avocado and carcasses. They don't care what kind of animal it is, just that there's protein.

Hope this helps clarify a bit.