In pausing to reflect over last week's events, it would seem that I've once again violated the terms of my Humane Society endorsement. Dangit!
However, if you believe, as I do, that animal protein is a necessary (although preferably smallish) component of a healthy diet, then it's nice to know that the animal you're eating has been treated well, fed wholesome food it would have ordinarily eaten (none of its own species, for example--although I do let my chickens eat leftover eggs, since they do that anyway), and killed as quickly and painlessly as possible.
But on with the excitement!
Five minutes later, there he/she/it was, all barechested.
It was more difficult than I thought it would be. He was so tiny and weightless and soft, and he smelled clean and downy, like a pillow.
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Above is the Pad Thai I made from Alton Brown's recipe. It was fairly well-received, even by The Hulk, if you can imagine. I don't know what's gotten into him.*****************************************
Thursday we came home from buying our milk, and Superman found this on the carpet. It's one of the mice that has been making himself free with our food storage. He has gotten into my giant bag of chocolate chips and I may have said some swear words beginning with D and H when John told me about it.*******************************************
Saturday was killing day. It has been the killingest week ever at our house! We processed seven chickens--skinning three and plucking four. Thankfully our magic neighbors (as my sister-in-law calls them) are prepared for all chicken-killing emergencies. They brought over their contraption composed of a fifty-five gallon drum topped with a board and two traffic cones.Then we processed our four big guys. Since they were chicks this spring, I'm hoping there's a chance they'll make halfway decent roasters.
The internets told us to hold each bird in the hot water for 1 1/2-2 minutes, then pluck them. So we did. It was harder keeping them in the water than I thought it would be--they're surprisingly buoyant.
The plucking was far easier than I anticipated. Sort of time-consuming because they have these tiny little hairlike things that you have to pull out, and of course it was a misty day and we were wet from the scalding pot, so the feathers stuck, and also it was stinky times a lot, but I thought it would be more physically challenging.
The sheer redneckery of us standing in our backyard pulling feathers off of dead roosters was something to behold. But as Wade said about shoveling gravel, you just make yourself get stupider, and then you can do the job without thinking about how much you hate it.
The sheer redneckery of us standing in our backyard pulling feathers off of dead roosters was something to behold. But as Wade said about shoveling gravel, you just make yourself get stupider, and then you can do the job without thinking about how much you hate it.
When I was in college I worked for a company that did telephone surveys. Surveys, not sales, so I was only Satan's-minion-adjacent. I hated it precious, and was complaining about it to my mom, and she, ever the compassionate nurturer, said, "Well, you could be working at E.A. Miller (a meat-packing plant) cutting buttholes out of cows." Ah, perspective.
Finally, a million years later and just in time for me to shower and get in costume for my piano recital, we finished. We were ready to not be smelling chicken anymore.
1. It was a good experience overall, because I would have felt so wasteful if I'd just thrown away all that meat.
2. It's hard to kill an animal when you're not used to it, and I think that's a good thing.
3. It was a good class in beginning butchery.
4. The difference between a sharp knife and a really sharp knife. Thank goodness for my Grandpa Herd and the filleting knife he gave us for Christmas.
5. It takes forfreakingever when you are an ignorant fool.
6. I don't want to do this very often.
Sorry if anyone is a vegetarian now because of me. I think it's good to know where your food comes from. I like that my kids can look at a cut of meat and know what part of the animal it was, and I hope they don't take eating it for granted.
3 comments:
what a great post. very informative and also funny.
oh the good old days...I could not do it again...guess we will send you our chickens & goats...:(
Yep, nothing like the warm (yucky) smell when you remove the guts. {{shudder}}
If the older chickens aren't softening up, follow the directions in a good canning book and pressure can them. Delish!
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