Unchained Preppers
General Category => Sustenance => Topic started by: Well-Prepared Witch on August 18, 2013, 06:49:36 PM
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So I'm excited and nervous. Next weekend I'll be going to a local farmer who is going to teach me to butcher a chicken. My husband's one condition for my getting chickens was that I at least once slaughter, butcher and cook a chicken. I recently made friends with a local farmer who raises broilers. She usually sends her birds off to be processed, but kindly agreed to hold one back and to teach me how to do it. I'm nervous - I've never killed anything larger than a cricket (unless you count the suicidal rabbits that have thrown themselves under the wheels of my car). But, I'm also slightly excited. It's a skill that's necessary for self-sufficiency. It will let me get my chickens and, though we're primarily getting the chickens as layers, if we ever decide to raise a brood as broilers (or need to due to lack of access to commercial meat) I'll know what to do. I've done a lot of homework, watching videos and reading about it, but it'll be different actually doing it.
Has anyone else done this?
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WPW wrote:
Has anyone else done this?
YES!
Chickens are a breeze turkeys are a pain! I am sending off our turkeys this year to a processor who will charge me $5- per turkey.
Now with that said...Taking a life whether it is a human life (someone trying to kill you or one of your family) or a chicken is a scary proposition. It is the cycle of life though.
Contrary to some opinions we are omnivores and need protein (Especially growing children) to grow and prosper. IMO it's all in how you treat the critters you plan to eat.
Our turkeys and the homesteaders across from us raise their critters as "free range." Whether it be pigs (They are penned but eat like kings and queens and their range is 1/2 acre) to chickens, goats and cattle.
May I be so bold to recommend a book to you and your husband. The tittle of the book is: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food life by Barbara Kingsolver.
I do not buy into the authors liberal leaning's however, it is a great coming of age book of someone who finally realized where food comes from. She and her family lived off the land (Including harvesting chickens for food) 100% for a year.
Trust me here...It is a great book and everybody who I loan it to loves it! My wife who is a retired chef LOVED IT. And she has no problems harvesting any farm critter. ;)
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I love that book! It's one of the first ones I read when I started looking into a more sustainable lifestyle. That and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. Both were transformational for me. There were several others I really found eye-opening like Fast Food Nation, Food Inc, Radical Homemakers and Nickel and Dimed. I love that there are so many books on sustainable living and the issues with our current paradigms.
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I have read all you mentioned and yes...It is the circle of life.
Our family goal, is to make sure future protein lives a good life under our hands.
Not trying to push any religion here however we always pray before we harvest domesticated critters. We thank the good lord for the bounty we are going to receive.
When our family goes hunting, we always pray for the game we harvested. It is truly a bounty. ;)
With that said, now a days, most folks do not know where protein comes from...Too bad as they might treat animals and their neighbors better if they knew.
I am done preaching.... :facepalm:
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WPW, I can sympathize with you on this topic.
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I've hunted ever since I could WPW. Anything I've hunted, I never really had a problem with shooting, but, you do , in a small way, feel the loss of life. I mean, like when I shoot a deer, I feel it's loss. I respect the heck out of the animals I hunt. But the love and respect for that animal, has nothing to do with the harvesting of it. When you thin out some animals, it benefits the remaining ones. Also, you get supplied with some great meat. Now with livestock, those ones are raised for one purpose only. (well, other than eggs or milk) Remember, that one that is being left behind for you, will be meeting the same fate as the ones that headed out a little sooner. So keep that in mind, whether you do it, or somebody else does, the results will be the same. But with that one, you will be a little more knowledgeable, and a little more self sufficient. Good luck, and I hope you let us know how it goes. :thumbsUp:
P.S So, what are you going to name the chicken? LOL, just kidding!
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lol! Not naming this one, but I've told my husband I will be naming our layers. Thanks for all the advice & support. It's definitely going to be a learning experience.
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Your husband should ask you to at least once slaughter, butcher, cook AND EAT a chicken :dancingBanana:
Good luck with your first kill Wellie
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Yep - that was the agreement. From clucking to cooking. :D
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Yep - that was the agreement. From clucking to cooking. :D
Nice one Wellie! :lmfao:
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:D Of course, we got rescheduled again. Not sure when it's happening now, but will post about the experience as soon as I make it happen.
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A few pictures would be cool too. :thumbsUp:
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I did it! It was a great experience. I'm going to write up a blog post about it and I'll link it here. I was surprised at a) how non-traumatic it was and b) how quickly the whole process went. I didn't feel nauseated or want to cry or anything. It's weird, but I kind of felt like a lot of what I'd been raised to think about animals was kind of bullshit (pardon my language). I mean, I LOVE my pets and would do anything for them, but I guess when you are going to kill something you can't think of it as a person. I guess that's why we dehumanize our enemies in war and why we don't name our stock. All in all, it was a very positive experience (for me, not so much for the chicken) and I am really looking forward to preparing the chicken for my family on Sunday.
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Great Wellie
Chickens are an easy first kill, because they are nasty animals, they are bad, ugly and dirty LOL
Killing rabbits can be more emotional because of the cuteness factor
Did the chicken walked headless? You need to try that one :P
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No, I held on to it while it drained out. The death flap was a little unnerving, and getting blood spatter on me wasn't my favorite part, but it was deal-able. I did wear old clothes for just that reason. I don't think I'd want the running around - it'd be messy!
I don't know if rabbits will be harder. I think chickens are kind of cute - then again, I haven't kept them yet so that opinion may change. :) I used to think deer were cute until they ate my garden down to bare bones. Now I'm tempted to get a gun and shoot the buggers.
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A cleaner option that I have used is:
I have two nails driven about half way into my chopping stump that I use to spit logs or make kindling. I have ready a sharp knife, cleaver or hatchet (Tomahawk) and a bushel basket that is turned over.
Grab the checked by the legs, put the head in between the nails; pull to extend the neck and cut the head off. Put the chicken in the inverted basket while they bleed out and die.
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As promised:
In which I blog about the Great Chicken Experience: Butchering. WARNING: This post is going into graphic detail about butchering a chicken, including pictures. It may not be suitable for all audiences. Also, it?s really, really wordy.
http://wellpreparedwitch.blogspot.com/2013/08/from-clucking-to-cooking.html (http://wellpreparedwitch.blogspot.com/2013/08/from-clucking-to-cooking.html)
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Great Job WPW! Great Blogpost, well written, with a lot of good pics. A karma for all your effort. You know, living here in Pa., deer season is right around the corner, and in this state, it is literally like a national holiday. A lot of businesses close, as well as the schools, for the first day of the season. Now you need to get somebody to teach you to shoot a rifle, and hit the woods. You get a lot of good meat with a deer. Deer steak, bologna, jerky, roast, liver, hamburger, stew meat, etc. Deer hunting, that's magical! The heritage, traditions, comradery, storytelling, pride, and memories, are just a few of the things it provides. I remember vividly, my first deer hunt with my dad, about 43 years ago. He's 92, and we still hunt together. You could always start off with squirrel hunting, or something like that. Have a good one! Thanks for sharing. :thumbsUp: On a side note, I have a couple of nieces that are wiccans.
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Great writeup Wellie! Thanks for sharing. I agree whole heartily with hj comments on deer hunting. It's the whole experience not just the killing.
I am going to share JohnyMac's fried chicken recipe here. It is easy and is guaranteed to be crispy.
Need:
Cut up chicken parts, I use only thighs though
Three paper plates
Poultry seasoning, kosher salt and black pepper
flour
bread crumbs
milk, cream or canned evap milk
Good sized skillet with metal handle
Olive oil
1 cup chicken stock
Directions:
Turn the oven on to 375 degrees
Line up the three paper plates and in the first plate put some flour, second plate some milk and third plate bread crumbs.
In the frying pan put O-Oil, just enough to coat the pan and then maybe a dollop more. Heat to when if you sprinkle a little bit of water from the tips of your fingers into the hot oil the water sizzles ones it hits the ht O-oil.
Take your chicken pieces and liberally coat with pepper, poultry seasoning and salt. Now grab a piece of chicken and roll it in the flour, then milk and then bread crumbs and place in the hot frying pan. Repeat till all chicken is in the pan.
Cook chicken pieces on all sides until golden brown.
Once all of the chicken is golden brown throw the hole pan into the oven and cook for 35-45 minutes. As you clean up save the flour as you will need it later.
A moment of caution here: When you grab the handle of the frying pan to take it from the oven, it will be VERY HOT! It will be VERY HOT for about 30 minutes after you take it from the oven!
When done, take the HOT PAN from the oven and place on your stove top. Remove the chicken from the HOT frying pan and grease with the exception of maybe 2 tablespoons. Then throw in two tablespoons of your left over flour and mix with grease to form a roux. Then stir in your a fore mentioned chicken stock. Keep mixing until the gravy is the consistency of heavy cream. Please note: I never wrote, "make gravy over a medium flame" as the frying pan IS VERY HOT!.
Serve with smashed potatoes, wide egg noodles or spaetzle
Enjoy!
PS: The same recipe will work with thick cut pork chops. I like my pork chops 1 1/2 inches thick. ;)
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HJM, thanks for the karma! Glad you liked the write-up. I'm definitely open to learning deer hunting, though I doubt it will be this coming year - I only have room for one big project a year and the chickens will be that. The year after, though... I know we have a ton of deer hunters around here, including a few I might trust to ask to teach me. We'll see. Tell your nieces "blessed be" from me. :)
JohnnyMac, that recipe sounds DIVINE! I will have to try that. I roasted the chicken (should have taken pictures, but it disappeared pretty quickly) stuffed with half a lemon, fresh sage, rosemary and thyme, and some butter. We had real mashed potatoes and green beans, and I have enough potatoes left to make Chantilly Potatoes (fill big casserole dish with mashed potatoes, put cubes of ham on top, whip up some heavy whipping cream until it's thick and creamy and spread it over the ham and potatoes, then sprinkle cheese over it; put it in a 350* oven and bake until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown). I've got the carcass in the stock pot boiling away for stock right now.
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Yum Yum! :thumbsUp:
http://youtu.be/MR3kI_LHMDI (http://youtu.be/MR3kI_LHMDI)
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We will be right over! ;)
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There is nothing like having a wife and mother-in-law from overseas who both are efficient at this craft. Although I don't know the first thing about it.
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One time saving tip..... Unless you are planning on frying it skin the bird! No need to spend the time pulling feathers.
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I hear ya' Gap however much of the flavor that comes from chicken is the fat between the skin and the meat.
Similarly, fat in beef and pork is important for flavor. When I buy a rib roast from a super market I always buy some suet and wrap the roast with it. The suet adds a lot of flavor. If I buy one from a real butcher I ask them to NOT REMOVE the cap of fat on top of the roast.
Yes you pay dearly for the fat but we only have a rib roast 2-3 times a year. You might as well enjoy it.
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Oh I agree the fat is important, but I hate cleaning birds. We used to raise birds for a big poultry outfit. So chicken wasa huge part of our diet. And when you are killing one a day skining it wins. By the way the birds you are getting at the store are generally 6 weeks out, they are that pumped full of hormones!!
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I already posted in "What Have You Done Today To Prep" but worth reposting.
Took to the poultry processor Thursday night and picked up yesterday (11/22/13):
> Four Turkeys
> Six rogue roosters, and
> Five Rouen ducks.
The turkeys ended up dressing out in the 7-11 # range, roosters 3-4# range and ducks in the 4# range.
Yesterday while paying for the processing I had a LONG chat with the wife of the processor and she gave me a bunch of suggestions to increase the weight of our turkey's next year and how to breed the two hens and one tom we kept. It's all about daylight.
This year we went with Royal Palms and Bourbon Reds. She suggested next year we go with Bronze or Narraganset birds as they tend to mature quicker hence put on weight quicker. She will have poults of these varieties starting in February.
The "great homesteading experiment" continues. ;)
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GAPatriot, it might be easier to skin, but I have a serious weakness for crispy chicken skin. My mouth waters just thinking about it. :) (Which works out well, since I have a roast chicken standing on the counter having just come out of the oven and fingerling potatoes are in it roasting away. I agree with Michael Pollan and Joel Salatin - if you want to live sustainably and healthily you need to learn to cook. Farmer's markets and knowing your local farmer are a big part, too.
JM - awesome that you're raising them. I would love to hear how the other breeds work out. This coming year we're getting our chickens, seven different breeds to see what we think and what survives/works well for us. The year after we're planning on raising turkeys (just one or two for Thanksgiving), so I'm interested to see how it goes for you.
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WPW, how do you plan to kill the chicken? I've noticed different methods can cause more or less stress on the animals; for example (not viable in your case) but the first rabbit I butchered was shot in the head. Quick, clean and painless. The second had its throat cut and didn't even notice anything had happened (very sharp knife) until he started losing consciousness. I tried to break the neck of one, but those damn things are flexible, and it ended up freaking him out in the process. (I used my hands, not the metal bars that you may have seen used elsewhere.) I've also held them by their back feet and gave them a good whack on the back of the skull—they tend not to be big fans of hanging upside down by their feet and look like something from The Exorcist until you hit them.
Back to the chicken: I don't advise just chopping the head off like you see in old cartoons (or like many of our grandparents may have done) because the bird will flip the hell out and dump adrenaline into the meat, which supposedly affects the flavor. I've personally never killed a chicken, so can't speak from first hand experience on that one, but I did see a video of a young woman a while back that you might find useful.
respectful chicken harvest part 1 of 2 kill and pluck - how to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_S3P0eU0lE#)
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Jeremy - I already did the butchering and I just chopped the head off with a cleaver. Meat tasted fine (great, actually) and the bird was dead before it knew what happened. This is the method the farmer who taught me (who makes a living selling her birds at farmers' markets) uses and it seems to work fine for her.
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I just noticed that...I was skimming and trying to catch up with what's been going on around here lately, and missed your earlier post where you talked about your kill. :-\
Congrats on your first bird. If you ever venture down to FL, let me know and you can come by and butcher my next batch of rabbits here. Fingers crossed, I should have about 2 dozen ready to go in a few months.
My wife still won't even go near the windows when the knives come out. ;)
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FOR CHICKENS not turkeys....
I have two nails on the side of the chopping block I use for kindling. I place the neck of the chicken between the nails and while holding the legs pull gently so the neck is extended and cut the head off with a hatchet. Then I throw the flapping bird in a inverted wooden basket.
Once dead I hang up for a few minutes; dip in a pot with hot water for 30 seconds or so and pluck.
No fuss no muss.
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Jeremy - I may take you up on that one of these days! It'd be a great skill to learn.
Johnny - what do you recommend for butchering turkeys? We're going to raise a couple in 2015. This year I'm pretty excited to be getting our Thanksgiving bird from a local farmer only about 20 minutes away from us. I'm hoping he has an indoor place to do his butchering - it's sleeting out there! Brrrr...
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My method is as follows:
Find a local processor who will do it for $7-, ;)
Seriously if you are only going to do one bird fine do it yourself but if you have 2 or more to do - Farm it out.
In short:
> Dress in your crappiest clothes.
> Tie up the turkey by their feet from a beam low enough so you can grab their wings once you slit
the throat. REMEMBER IT IS NOT A 5# CHICKEN! Upside down they kind of go into a trance and
are rather docile.
> Have ready a tub full of hot water (160 degrees or so) a sharp knife, leather gloves and safety
glasses or goggles ready.
> After 5 minutes or so put on a good pair of leather gloves and a pair of goggles or safety glasses.
grab the turkey's head and slit both sides of the throat. Then grab both wings and hang on for
dear life. REMEMBER IT IS NOT A 5# CHICKEN. If you don't hold on the blood is flung all over the
walls of the barn/ shed/ Etc.
> Once you get the final shudder hang on as there is one more coming - trust me ;)
> Take the turkey down and put it in the hot water for a minute or so.
> Now process like you would a 5# chicken. :D
Take a shower immediately after you put the dressed turkey in the refrigerator as you will look like a "mass murderer." :hiding:
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lol! It's ok, all my friends already think I'm a psycho for having butchered a chicken. That'd just confirm their opinion. ;) Thanks for the description!