Squeamish in my old age

[2ndTink]

I hear you on not eating blood vessels, they gross my out, I'm super picky about what parts I eat (no gristle, blood vessels, tendons, cartilage, anything odd textured or colored) and I don't like eating meat of bones and I don't care what kind of animal it is.

As for getting squeamish, I think I could get there quite easily, so far I've managed my way through everything I've needed to, but thinking too much about the animal makes thing pretty hard. I raised 20 meat birds once about 12 years ago, took them live to a guy who sent them back packaged and frozen, that was nice.

Maybe you could find a local butcher, or a bird sale to sell off your culls?

 

[Pye Wacket]

I hear you on not eating blood vessels, they gross my out, I'm super picky about what parts I eat (no gristle, blood vessels, tendons, cartilage, anything odd textured or colored) and I don't like eating meat of bones and I don't care what kind of animal it is.

As for getting squeamish, I think I could get there quite easily, so far I've managed my way through everything I've needed to, but thinking too much about the animal makes thing pretty hard. I raised 20 meat birds once about 12 years ago, took them live to a guy who sent them back packaged and frozen, that was nice.

Maybe you could find a local butcher, or a bird sale to sell off your culls?

There are no local butchers any more. A few places that will dress deer, beef, or hogs, but not poultry because it requires "re-tooling" - and they simply make a lot more money on the larger animals. One meat processor of which I am aware isn't even doing deer this year, just beef and hogs. And nobody wants to buy culls. 20 years ago there were a few "experimental" FDA approved processing plants for poultry for small producers but as soon as the grant money ran out, each and every one of them closed.

I'm with you on the ick factor in meat. I'm not a vegetarian, don't get me wrong, but I really don't much care for meat. I guess the issue should be how I EVER managed to process chicken, not why I can't do it any more, LOL!

My dad grew up during the depression which left him a lifelong respect for food that bordered on being OCD. I used to watch him gnaw every single last bit of everything off the bone of whatever he was eating, it didn't matter, chicken bones, ribs, even steak bones. He would eat anything but brains and turnips - even he couldn't get over the yuck factor involved in brains, and he said he had entirely too many "Hoover apples" growing up. The man ate souse, aka HEAD CHEESE which is literally a chopped up pig head suspended in gelatin and then sliced like lunchmeat. You could still see ears with hair on them in that stuff. EWWWW! And not just because it appeared on his plate. He LIKED the stuff!

For years he would always eat the coconut chocolates left in a box of candy, that none of the rest of us would touch, and I thought he liked coconut. Turns out, NO. He hated coconut as much as the rest of us, but growing up hungry and on the edge of starvation as he had he couldn't stand to see them "go to waste". It turns out I'm allergic to coconut so I'm betting we all hated coconut because of an unknown allergy - but he ate them anyway.

 

[Ruthster55]

My suggestion would be to find someone that can butcher and part them for you, maybe giving them half the meat?

To your basic question

Has anybody else out there struggled with this, becoming LESS able with time to do the deed?

my answer is no. That has not been an issue with me. I now use a hatchet instead of an ax, they are easier to handle but that's physical, a hatchet is lighter. I do understand that we change with age. When I was a youth in my 40's or even 50's I had no fear of high places, now I do not like high places at all. They don't have to be that high.

Don't beat yourself up about it. We are all different.

If it has to be done, I use a small-to-medium knife and a cone.

Back when I was fatter, I could hold the excess rooster upside down, calm him by stroking under the wings, hold him between my thighs, and then use a knife over a bucket.

Living abroad opens the mind and sometimes shrinks the waist line.

Axes and machetes are for trimming trees and harvesting roost poles.

A small and sharp kitchen knife and a cone is all you need for an ornery or human-aggressive rooster.

 

[JoePa]

Speaking of eating everything - my son had a Chinese guy stay with him for a couple weeks - this guy lived in China and was here on a business trip - couldn't get home on account of the virus - the first time we had chicken for dinner we watched him eat everything on the chicken except the bones - never saw. a guy clean. up a meal like that - protein is very scare in China because of the large population so they don't waste any of it - it was eye opening when compared to the food wasted in this country -

Yes I find myself getting soft when it gets to killing animals as I get older - I'm a hunter and at one time could kill anything that was legal without a second thought - now for some reason I think about it too much - but lets face it - killing to eat is part of the human experience and I think the problem comes from the fact we think that an animal has the emotions that a human has - we think about things that could happen to us - I doubt if an animal really knows what is happening when you put its head on the chopping block

 

[iwltfum]

The man ate souse, aka HEAD CHEESE which is literally a chopped up pig head suspended in gelatin and then sliced like lunchmeat. You could still see ears with hair on them in that stuff. EWWWW! And not just because it appeared on his plate. He LIKED the stuff!

I love head cheese. A chef friend of mine made some and brought a small jar as a gift to my farmers market stand a few years ago. It was absolutely amazing. i highly recommend it.