Today I processed my Banty roos and some quail

[Jenlyn9483]

I got the ideal bantam assortment June 24thth. Today I processed 6 of the 9 I had left after a hawk killed one. The three largest ones were mystery roos with wild speckles and blue legs. The largest dressed at 1lb. The next biggest was some type of oriental rooster and the last two were OEGBs with the smallest weighing in at 10.2 oz dressed. I fill like this was well worth it. I paid $1 each for them and basically they lived off the bugs in my yard, grass and scraps for 9 weeks. They are going on the grill with some wings later



The bottom row are some 6 week old conturnix. Oh and it took me about 15 minutes to dress all 6 chickens.

 

[jcatblum]

Those are some nice looking birds! I always see people asking about processing smaller birds. Think your pics show that the birds can still turn out nice.

How do you cook the smaller birds on the grill? Cooking time I mean. I roast our big birds in the oven on 250 for 5 hours, small bird would need the time cut down but I think it could still work.

 

[hydroswiftrob]

 

[Jenlyn9483]

I'm thinking smoking them maybe. I'm cooking 4 tonight and saving 2 for later. I brined them for about 2 hours in salt ice water. I usually let them rest for a day or two or more before I cook them but the rest of the people in my house have never eaten home raised chicken before and want to see how they taste. I told him they can't imagine how much better.

 

[Bossroo]

Think RIGOR MORTIS... let them rest until tomarow or the dinning experience will not the billing.

 

[SallyF]

Quote:
What you say makes sense, but when I was a kid, the procedure was to catch a couple of chickens, chop their heads off, pluck and clean them and send them to the kitchen for frying. What's the difference now? When I processed my roos last year, they definitely went into rigor mortis and had to be aged and brined, but I sure don't remember the chicken dinners of my childhood doing that. Can you process and cook them fast enough that they don't have time to go into rigor mortis?
Yeah, I know, I'm old enough that my memory just may be faulty...

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
What you say makes sense, but when I was a kid, the procedure was to catch a couple of chickens, chop their heads off, pluck and clean them and send them to the kitchen for frying. What's the difference now? When I processed my roos last year, they definitely went into rigor mortis and had to be aged and brined, but I sure don't remember the chicken dinners of my childhood doing that. Can you process and cook them fast enough that they don't have time to go into rigor mortis?
Yeah, I know, I'm old enough that my memory just may be faulty...

if they are old and tough-- then the quicker you butcher the better... You want to keep them from hitting rigor... Either that, or you want to let them age-- such as an old over aged bull...

If it's young and tender, rigor needs done to let it firm up...

 

[happydog]

Gosh, I wouldn't have thought banties would be worth the work of butchering them. Boy was I wrong! Those look wonderful.

It looks like they were skinned? Is that why the processing went so fast?

Please post back with how they tasted. I may have to get some banties next year just for eating.

 

[HHandbasket]

We recently had to cull a banty cochin roo (he was mean and killed 4 other chickens), and I didn't think it would have been worth the time/effort to pluck and dress him for the table. But looking at your bounty there and reading this thread, I think we made a bit of a mistake in not eating him. We ended up just culling and burying old mean Mr. Roy.

 

[Tracydr]

OEGBs are muscular little birds and mature early. One reason I started thinking they, and Cornish bantys, could be an interesting meat project. Efficient and good foragers.