Farm Journal
Last night I butchered the black-legged rooster. He was about 5 and a half months and was getting a little aggressive, as roosters usually do.
Everything went smoothly, except for the fact that it started pouring rain while I was plucking feathers. He went quickly, dispatched by a sharpened ax. I then hung him by his feet from a tree branch to make sure he bled out completely. The processing took a little longer than I expected, mainly because he had so many freaking feathers. Also, his skin was extremely tough.
I had to pluck his feathers and dress him out in the rain. Thankfully it was not so bad, and the trees kept me somewhat dry. I ended up removing the skin, because it was impossible to get all of the quills out. I even tried the old trick of singing the small feathers with a blow torch. That worked somewhat, but because his feathers are black and the quills are gray, you could still see them under the skin. I finally said, fuck it, and skinned him. I probably should have done that in the first place and saved myself a bunch of time.
He's currently tenderizing in the refrigerator. Sunday or Monday, he will be potpie. Yum.
There is one more rooster that needs to be butchered now, and I anticipate going about it the same way, except that I will skin him earlier to avoid having to fuss with all of the down.
That's about the whole story. I did not take any pictures of the process because it's a simple operation that does not require much finesse. Just some basic knife work's all you do.
After it was all done, I thanked him for giving up his life so that others may live.
I kept his tail and wing feathers. If anyone wants them, you can grab them the next time you're here.
ETA: They're called "pin feathers," not down. And I'm aging the meat for three days, which is about standard to reduce the "gaminess" of freshly butchered chicken.
Everything went smoothly, except for the fact that it started pouring rain while I was plucking feathers. He went quickly, dispatched by a sharpened ax. I then hung him by his feet from a tree branch to make sure he bled out completely. The processing took a little longer than I expected, mainly because he had so many freaking feathers. Also, his skin was extremely tough.
I had to pluck his feathers and dress him out in the rain. Thankfully it was not so bad, and the trees kept me somewhat dry. I ended up removing the skin, because it was impossible to get all of the quills out. I even tried the old trick of singing the small feathers with a blow torch. That worked somewhat, but because his feathers are black and the quills are gray, you could still see them under the skin. I finally said, fuck it, and skinned him. I probably should have done that in the first place and saved myself a bunch of time.
He's currently tenderizing in the refrigerator. Sunday or Monday, he will be potpie. Yum.
There is one more rooster that needs to be butchered now, and I anticipate going about it the same way, except that I will skin him earlier to avoid having to fuss with all of the down.
That's about the whole story. I did not take any pictures of the process because it's a simple operation that does not require much finesse. Just some basic knife work's all you do.
After it was all done, I thanked him for giving up his life so that others may live.
I kept his tail and wing feathers. If anyone wants them, you can grab them the next time you're here.
ETA: They're called "pin feathers," not down. And I'm aging the meat for three days, which is about standard to reduce the "gaminess" of freshly butchered chicken.