Guest guest Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 we use to raise our own chickens and there is no comparison to store bought chicken. Home grown taste sooo much better. Rhea Richmond <honeysuckles@...> wrote:Greetings from a family of NT'ers in Alaska. : ) We disassembled our first chicken today, and I have a question I can't find answered anywhere, as all the cookbooks I have assume I'm making stock from parts I bought at the grocery store. Would it be a good idea to throw the head into the stockpot, or should it be thrown away? As for the disassembly, everything after the killing went well, but killing our own food (with the exception of vegetables ; ) and fish) was new to all of us, and is going to take some getting used to. We've already eaten the heart and liver, fried in butter, and they were the best I've ever had. Rhea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 Hello, We raise ducks and we usually throw the heads into the stock. It seems to me to be the same as throwing fish heads in the stock, only it is a bird. Rebekah ----- Original Message ----- From: " Rhea Richmond " <honeysuckles@...> < > Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 4:23 PM Subject: Chicken heads? > parts I bought at the grocery store. Would it be a good idea to throw the > head into the stockpot, or should it be thrown away? > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 This may sound silly.... Do you pluck all the feathers off the head? or just toss it all in? or do the best you can and let the rest go? I haven't butchered chickens for a few years give me few pointers. I ordered a few turkeys, ducks, geese for this spring. Any tips on butchering those? I know I'm a little premature but the subject is going on now.... Thanks, Kim Brenneman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 > This may sound silly.... > Do you pluck all the feathers off the head? or just toss it all in? or do the best you can and let the rest go? > I haven't butchered chickens for a few years give me few pointers. > I ordered a few turkeys, ducks, geese for this spring. Any tips on butchering those? > I know I'm a little premature but the subject is going on now.... Hi Kim, I'm by no means an excerpt, but after reading several books we went with a killing cone (bird is put in it upside down with the head sticking out a hole in the bottom) and cutting the main veins on the side of the neck. That way the heart keeps beating and helps the bird to bleed out. We read that as blood to the head drops off, the bird gets drowsy then dies. He did seem quite peaceful in there while all this was going on. Seems it would also work for a larger bird. By not cutting through the wind pipe blood isn't asperated (sp?) into the lungs, but I don't know why that is important. My daughter would have preferred we cut off the head and were done with it. Then we dunked the carcass in 145 degree F water, up and down, for one minute. The feathers came off very easily, at least half of them were left behind in the water, and the skin didn't tear at all. If you have a Joy of Cooking it describes how to clean the bird. For cleaning and grass grazing info, you might want to pick up one of Salatin's books. We're on a main eagle flightpath, so if we want to eat our birds ourselves, and graze them, we'll have to go with a movable enclosed pen such as Salatin uses. We've planned to order more hens for laying, and some meat birds for grass grazing. Now you have me thinking of ducks and geese. Who did you order your birds from? Btw, our bird's head is featherless, we just took all the feathers off of it. Rhea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 28, 2003 Report Share Posted January 28, 2003 Hi Kim, I recently met a woman who raises chickens. She said she never plucks them. She skins them. I thought it would be wonderful to eliminate the plucking step. Since the fat from chickens is not an important part of the NT diet, perhaps this is the easiest way to prepare them for the stock pot. I am going to try it if I can ever find any farmer in my area who will sell me live chickens. Personally, if was going to roast or fry a chicken, I would prefer the skin on the bird. Sheila > > This may sound silly.... > > Do you pluck all the feathers off the head? or just toss it all in? or do > the best you can and let the rest go? > > I haven't butchered chickens for a few years give me few pointers. > > I ordered a few turkeys, ducks, geese for this spring. Any tips on > butchering those? > > I know I'm a little premature but the subject is going on now.... > > Hi Kim, > > I'm by no means an excerpt, but after reading several books we went with a > killing cone (bird is put in it upside down with the head sticking out a > hole in the bottom) and cutting the main veins on the side of the neck. > That way the heart keeps beating and helps the bird to bleed out. We read > that as blood to the head drops off, the bird gets drowsy then dies. He did > seem quite peaceful in there while all this was going on. Seems it would > also work for a larger bird. By not cutting through the wind pipe blood > isn't asperated (sp?) into the lungs, but I don't know why that is > important. My daughter would have preferred we cut off the head and were > done with it. > > Then we dunked the carcass in 145 degree F water, up and down, for one > minute. The feathers came off very easily, at least half of them were left > behind in the water, and the skin didn't tear at all. If you have a Joy of > Cooking it describes how to clean the bird. For cleaning and grass grazing > info, you might want to pick up one of Salatin's books. We're on a main > eagle flightpath, so if we want to eat our birds ourselves, and graze them, > we'll have to go with a movable enclosed pen such as Salatin uses. > > We've planned to order more hens for laying, and some meat birds for grass > grazing. Now you have me thinking of ducks and geese. Who did you order > your birds from? > > Btw, our bird's head is featherless, we just took all the feathers off of > it. > Rhea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 <<<<<We've planned to order more hens for laying, and some meat birds for grass grazing. Now you have me thinking of ducks and geese. Who did you order your birds from? >>>>>>> I order birds from Murray McMurray, we get their catalog and they have a great web site with specials every week. The chicks come in the mail and the post office calls us and are quite excited when they have a box of peeping chicks! http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/ I have a son who wants to hatch eggs really bad and wanted an incubator for Christmas so we got him a fairly large one thinking that it could be a small business for him. He is very very excited about hatching eggs but we are waiting for warmer weather. hth Kim Brenneman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 We have a plucker that takes all the feathers off. so do the best you can. putting dish soap in the hot water helps the feathers come off. I will have to look up the temp for the water I think it is 152 for 45sec. to 1 minute For turkeys and chickens... pull on tail fethers and when they come out easy your ready to pluck. Duck water is a little higher and longer time and lots of soap. Late fall is a better time to dress ducks out. Hope that helps. Barb > This may sound silly.... > Do you pluck all the feathers off the head? or just toss it all in? or do the best you can and let the rest go? > I haven't butchered chickens for a few years give me few pointers. > I ordered a few turkeys, ducks, geese for this spring. Any tips on butchering those? > I know I'm a little premature but the subject is going on now.... > Thanks, > Kim Brenneman > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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