Chicken Killin'

On Saturday we began the process of butchering the 20-something roosters that inhabit our yard. Of course, true to form, we realized on Saturday morning that we had nothing to put them in! I had a grand total of THREE one gallon Ziploc bags, and I didn't know if the birds would even fit in them whole, which is how I planned to store them. This necessitated a trip into town for a solution to this problem.

I've been considering the purchase of a vacuum food storage system since early last summer. It isn't exactly a NEED, but I feel it's a very good investment in the stability of our food supply. (No more freezer burnt food!) My darling husband has known about this, but I don't think he realized how seriously I wanted it. Since we were about to butcher a year's worth (if not more than that) of chicken, I didn't want all that effort to go to waste. I suggested that the moment may have come to make this purchase, and why. He said, "Get it!" And so I did.

I am not one for having a lot of appliances. In fact, I try to have as few as I possibly can. However, I think this one will be worth the cabinet space.

Before we actually got to the butchering, we had to build our killing cone. I purchased $13 worth of flashing and had enough material to make three cones. (We decided to only make one, and save the rest in case we find other needs for it later.) Here is the killing cone, work table with knives, and coolers filled with ice water ready to accept that wonderful, wholesome, free range meat:

We followed kosher butchering practices to the best of our knowledge, which made the process much less stressful than it could have been, for both the birds and us. One thing we did that was unorthodox to everyone we know is that we skinned the birds instead of plucking them. We didn't have access to an automatic plucker, and dipping the birds in boiling water and then taking all that time to pluck feathers in a wet, stinking mess did not even remotely appeal to us, so we opted to skin them. This turned out even better than I had hoped. It was a little tricky in a few areas, but overall, I think it was a good decision. Here is what our birds look like all done:

When Wayne saw me taking pictures, he had to show off his injury sustained during a skinning accident: