How Chickens Become Dinner
September 27th, 2013 · No Comments · Posted in dinner, farming
Twelve weeks after they arrived as wee little chicks, it was time for our Freedom Rangers to die. As my wife likes to say, be glad you’re at the top of the food chain.
Processing chickens is not terribly difficult, but there are several steps involved, as well as lots of different equipment. This was our first attempt, although I do have experience butchering turkeys–lots of Thanksgiving turkeys on a friend’s farm some years ago. The first step is to catch the birds–not terribly difficult when the chickens are confined to a four-by-eight-foot “tractor.” I grabbed them two at a time and headed for the kill zone.
I lower the chickens into metal “kill cones” that prevent the birds from moving. Their heads protrude from the bottom, where I use a sharp knife to slit the carotid arteries just under their chins. They quickly bleed out, with a final involuntary flutter as death comes. Next stop: the scalder.
I found 150 degrees Fahrenheit to be the ideal temperature for loosening the chickens’ feathers for plucking. Most people use a metal tank of water heated with wood or propane for the task. I had purchased a Fiberglas tub equipped with a 240-volt heater element. I figured the electric thermostat would work better at maintaining the water at the correct temperature. It only takes a minute or so of dunking the birds slowly up and down before the feathers are loose.
The plucker is a very cool device, something like a top-loading washing machine lined with rubber “fingers.” It turns and tosses the chickens against the “fingers,” which pull the feathers free and spit them out a chute at the bottom. Give it a spray of water occasionally to keep things lubricated. After 30 seconds or so, the birds are miraculously clean.
See what I mean?
A few quick knife strokes separate head and legs from the body and we turn the birds over to my wife, who, after butchering 24 Freedom Rangers, has been designated official family eviscerater. Her training consisted of several Youtube videos she watched repeatedly. I won’t go through all the steps, and she insisted I not take any photos because she’s afraid she has not perfected her technique. Still, it was a masterful job of gut removal for someone who’d never butchered a chicken before.
We were planning to store all our newly dressed birds in a chest freezer that’s scheduled to arrive this afternoon from Home Depot. However, in the interim, we managed to sell 11 of the chickens to friends at the local food co-op. This being our first attempt, we priced them at a deep discount. Still, the proceeds are enough to cover the cost of the chicks and three months worth of feed.
We could hardly wait to roast one for dinner.
Can I just say: It was pretty darn good.
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