Butchering Chickens...
NOT for the faint of heart.
We incubated and hatched our own chickens this spring. The chickens have grown and we decided to butcher the roosters. We didn't need seven roosters crowing all the time! We are fortunate to have a professional butcher who lives a half mile away....my grandma!!! Okay, I don't know what makes a pro butcher but I do know she would butcher 40-50 broilers each summer by herself. She would do 12 per day, 4 chickens at a time for a couple days in a row. They never bought chicken while raising their family. They preferred the taste of their own chickens, they way they fed them..."there's a difference." She's amazing.
The kids and the roosters...
When we were ready to get the first chicken out, my grandpa jumped up & announced he was going to show us how it was done. "it" = chopping the head off.
My grandma being very patient with the first time chicken cutters. She could have cut that chicken up blindfolded with one hand tied behind her back!
Just so we don't forget:
1. Catch chicken, place on stump
2. Chop head off with short handled ax or cleaver (hold both legs and wings with one hand)
3. Hold chicken upside down in bucket-let bleed until dead (still)
4. Dunk into HOT water 3-5 times, pull tail or wing feathers to check how easy they come out
(to test water, "dip finger in water three times & if the third time it kind of burns, the water is ready)
5. If feathers pull easily, set chicken on table to cool
6. Once cool, pick feathers off, put into bucket/sack
7. Singe -light brown paper bag on fire & singe hairs off
8. Cut feet off at joint
9. Wash in water with a dab of Ivory
10. Rinse in bucket of clean water
11. Chicken is ready to cut up
Materials needed: Grill (to boil water), ax or cleaver, hot boiling water, stock pots, 5-8 buckets, table, brown paper bags, lighter, trash bags, newspapers, carving knives.
2 comments:
awesome. your grandma is my hero! you seem to have left out some pictures though. you went from picking out a rooster to the cutting process. where was the chopping block and the bleeding bucket???? :)
We have got to come visit! Ya'll live the most interesting life. I love it and I know Drew would have a blast. Ella on the other hand would probably complain about all the smells and might just throw up at the sight of killing a rooster.
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