Friday, April 26, 2013

Butchering Day

When you wake up at the end of April, after most of your garden is planted, and there's 3 inches of fresh snow blanketing everything and it's falling like a storm, you can't help but wonder if you really are awake.  I was really awake. So on with the to-do list....It was butchering day for some of the chickens, so I got the outdoor butchering table and chopping block unburied and drug the hose over.  I got a huge pot of water simmering on the outdoor propane cooker. I grabbed the hatchet, knife, and a couple of buckets. Ready to go.                                        

Chopping a chicken's head off really isn't as hard as it seems, both physically and emotionally. I have two nails pounded part way into a wood round. They're just wide enough apart for a chicken neck. When I have a bird ready for the block, I grab it by its feet and  hang it upside down. The bird becomes completely calm and it's easy to lay it on its side on the block and fit its neck into the nail hold. I keep backward pressure on its feet so that it can't wiggle it's head  out of place. Then it's just a solid whack with a sharp hatchet.

The chicken definitely has a few headless seconds of instinct to flee, so I hold the bird around the back, clamping the wings to it's body. If you don't do this, or aren't quick at getting a sure hold, the chicken will frantically flap in attempt to flee. It makes a mess and its just not a good, peaceful feeling when this happens. I just clamp the wings and hold the bird upside down over a bucket to collect the blood. When the chicken stops moving (20 seconds?) I put it on the butchering table and give it a few minutes before proceeding.

I used to skin a chicken out like a rabbit, where you make a slit along the underside and literally reach in and pull the meat out of the skin. It's quick and effective, but after doing the hot pluck method a few weeks ago I am completely sold on plucking. The skin has a nice clean layer of protection for the meat. The skin also adds a lot of flavor to soup and makes for a juicy roasted chicken. To make the plucking easy, I heat up a pot of water until it is simmering and dip the bird in by holding it by the legs. I swish it around for maybe 15-25 seconds. I test a wing or tail feather, and when one comes out easily, I bring the drained bird to the table. When done right the feathers will come off easily. They go into a bucket at the foot of the table. 

To gut the bird, I start by making a slit down it's underside, then cut around the cloaca, which goes into the slop bucket. All the guts then get pulled out, with care not to rupture the intestines. Sometimes there will be an egg ready in its shell, so I carefully cut those out and save them. Getting all the guts out is the hardest part of the whole process. I find it real ly challenging to get all the guts scraped out of such a small chest cavity. Gutting a deer and gutting a chicken both take me about the same amount of time. 
Next, I wash the carcass thoroughly with the hose, then put it in a bucket of cold water to cool the meat down. Today I just stacked the carcasses in a huge strainer and layered them with heaps of fresh snow. I bring the meat into the house and rewash each one and pull out any straggling feathers. I cut the neck for ease of wrapping and put them inside the body cavity. I pat everything dry then wrap the bird whole in plastic wrap, label it, and put it in the freezer. 



 Yum, yum, yum! Chicken recipes to come next!