How to clean/peel chicken feet?

[Guest guest]

The farm where I buy my chickens gave me all the feet from their last

butchering of chickens (40 birds!). In the past, the feet I've

gotten from them have been cleaned. But this time they're all dirty

with the yellow skin still on and frozen in two huge clumps. I

thawed one clump, then poured hot water over them as I was instructed

to do and waited " awhile " (I tried to get a specific time frame out

of her but she refused to be pinned down!). Supposedly, if they soak

in the hot water long enough, the skin will peel off easily. Well,

after about an hour they got to the point where I could at least peel

it off, but it was NOT easy (lots of picking at the individual

scales). Soaking longer didn't help. So, any ideas on what I'm

doing wrong? I wonder if being previously frozen is what's causing

the trouble... I'm trying really hard not to be disgusted, but then

the aroma of reconstituted chickens**t wafts up-- <shudders>. Oh,

and another thing, all the feet have nickel sized sores (I THINK

they're sores), one per foot, on the bottom that don't peel off with

the rest of the skin. How do I get those off? Cut 'em?

<sigh> I was SO excited when they gave me all those feet. Dreaming

of gallons of wonderful chicken stock...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Robin