It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, on a lot of levels. (of course, there's always the after-shock. I'm feeling a bit trembly after doing the preliminary butchering - Sweetie's finishing up making parts)
First we assembled our gear: table in yard on sawhorses, pot of scalding water on camp stove, rubber gloves, rope and stepladder to hang from. We declared the space sacred, and offered up prayers to the spirit of the roo, the god of the hunt, and the land.
We walked out to the coop armed with towels, to throw over the "big mean roo". I stepped into the coop, and I'd forgotten that everyone gets real submissive when you're chasing them around the pen. I caught a leg, then both legs, and had him hanging upside down, at which point he stopped struggling. (I almost backed out at that point, remembering I'd read that if you dangle them upside down regularly, it keeps them from jumping you) But we went ahead with it, and walked him over to the tarp, and Sweetie slit his throat over a basin, and we tied him up to bleed out. He flapped a bit, and we tied his wings up with the end of the hanging rope. In five minutes his life was done, and I untied the rope and started dunking.
Scalding worked as advertised, and went very quickly, except for the big wing feathers and tail feathers, which took some muscle to remove. We saved some into a tub, and very quickly he looked like a roasting fowl. But bigger, very small breast, very big legs-typical for Speckled Sussex
I took him inside for the butchering, and followed the very excellent instructions to be found at butcherachicken.blogspot.com/ . Mostly it went as suggested, except rigor set in pretty quickly, and made it hard to work. I didn't mess up too much - the intestines, gall bladder and oil vent came out clean. Rinse, and turn over to the cook. The parts will rest in the fridge for several days, for tenderness, we hope. I could really tell the difference between this bird, and store bought ones I've cut.
Now I'm drinking tea, remembering how pretty he was, and contemplating the infinite. More as warranted.
First we assembled our gear: table in yard on sawhorses, pot of scalding water on camp stove, rubber gloves, rope and stepladder to hang from. We declared the space sacred, and offered up prayers to the spirit of the roo, the god of the hunt, and the land.
We walked out to the coop armed with towels, to throw over the "big mean roo". I stepped into the coop, and I'd forgotten that everyone gets real submissive when you're chasing them around the pen. I caught a leg, then both legs, and had him hanging upside down, at which point he stopped struggling. (I almost backed out at that point, remembering I'd read that if you dangle them upside down regularly, it keeps them from jumping you) But we went ahead with it, and walked him over to the tarp, and Sweetie slit his throat over a basin, and we tied him up to bleed out. He flapped a bit, and we tied his wings up with the end of the hanging rope. In five minutes his life was done, and I untied the rope and started dunking.
Scalding worked as advertised, and went very quickly, except for the big wing feathers and tail feathers, which took some muscle to remove. We saved some into a tub, and very quickly he looked like a roasting fowl. But bigger, very small breast, very big legs-typical for Speckled Sussex
I took him inside for the butchering, and followed the very excellent instructions to be found at butcherachicken.blogspot.com/ . Mostly it went as suggested, except rigor set in pretty quickly, and made it hard to work. I didn't mess up too much - the intestines, gall bladder and oil vent came out clean. Rinse, and turn over to the cook. The parts will rest in the fridge for several days, for tenderness, we hope. I could really tell the difference between this bird, and store bought ones I've cut.
Now I'm drinking tea, remembering how pretty he was, and contemplating the infinite. More as warranted.
