Processing Purebreed Chickens - Indian Game

The children and I processed three of our chickens the other day. These were the purebreed Indian game cockerels - two full sized birds and one bantam. 

I decided it made sense to do it after some canning so the hot water from the water bath could be used to scald the chicken for plucking. 

Chicken Processing Mk3

We managed to get the last of this years meat birds processed on Sunday afternoon. 

We'd gone on a disastrous shopping trip to a local city to try to choose some tiles for the bathroom. We should have known better than to take the three kids and think we could make any decisions! We left about two hours later, none the wiser but all of use with slightly shorter tempers! We called and had lunch at my brothers which was really good fun, then dragging the kids away, hurried home. 

I knew I had six chickens to butcher before it got dark! 

I got outside around three, the sun sets around four O'clock so I knew I'd have to work quite fast! 

The girls wanted to assist again so we got everything ready. Bowls of warm water and clothes to wipe down, knife and sharpening steel, chopping/rest boards, two buckets (feathers and guts) and a plastic bag to pluck them on so I wouldn't get soaked. Hot water on the BBQ as well so I could wet pluck them again.

The girls got involved straight away again, watching me work, then helping to pluck feathers. I let them spend time picking off the pin feathers once I'd finished the bulk of the main feathers. They loved helping and asking about a thousand questions and they both made me laugh lots - they can be so matter of fact at that age! 

My eldest stayed out with me the whole way through, my younger daughter couldn't quite manage it, but it was getting cold and dark. It was lovely just to have the company and to have her talking to me about anything she wanted. By the time I had plucked all six, it was just after four o'clock, gutting them didn't take long but light was failing. I then bagged them up and left them to rest in the shed.

I was speaking to my butcher the other day and I was saying how when I jointed some of the last lot up the skin didn't stay on that well. He told me that I hadn't let them set long enough and to leave them somewhere for a few days first.

So I'm taking his advice and before I do anything with these chickens I'm going to let them sit and settle first. I think I'll probably joint up four of these and leave two birds whole. It's far easier for me to grab a meal sized portion and cook it up that night rather than always having to rely on a roast and using the left overs (which we do as well!).

How do you store your chickens in the freezer - jointed up or whole for a roast?

Also I now have a big bag of chicken livers in the freezer and I'm wondering what to do with them - does anyone that read this blog make their own pate and do you have a good recipe? I'm totally in love with pate but have never made any myself before.

First Meat Bird Butchered - Children Helped

Chicken and chips for tea last night.

I've had one chicken start to walk a little funny and I was worried it was "going off its legs" a problem with these meat breeds that can get too big too fast. 

So I decided that we'd cull that one early, Save the bird any discomfort and I'd got nothing out of the freezer for tea. I was planning on butchering some this week anyway to see what they weighed out at anyway. 

My eldest daughter was very keen to help. I've always been careful around the butchery and slaughter of animals around them. I don't want to put them off or scare them, but I also don't want to shelter them from it either. She was keen to understand the whole process and wanted to be involved, they've helped me feed them and move them so I think it's great they want to know the whole process. 

I let her carry the axe and open and shut the pen for me. 

I told her she didn't have to watch me do the killing but she was adamant that she wanted to see. Nothing morbid from her, just sheer curiosity. 

She then helped me pluck it. I took it up to the house to gut as I wanted a clean chopping board. My other daughter was interested to see this bit as well. They were fascinated as I pull out the different parts and told them what each one did. Neither were disgusted or even thought to be, to them this was a natural part of the cycle, something they'd only heard of before but his time they got to see it. 

This is something that would happen all round the world and children would be involved with the process as well. 

Only in the western world do we think it's odd to have children involved in something like this. I hope my children stay interested and want to be involved for a long time to come. 

The bird weighed 1.2kg dressed out, ideal for our dinner. There are bigger birds in the pen but I might wait a few more weeks until I butcher anymore so we get bigger birds from them to go in the freezer, good to get at least a couple of meals from each one if we can. 

What do you think? 

Is four and five to young to be involved with this aspect of keeping animals?

Vacuum Packer

I was gutted tonight.

I got two beautiful steaks out the freezer, from a whole cow I home butchered last year (the cow wasn't from my land - it's a long story I might tell you about one day - but lets just say I ended up with a lot of beef!).

I let them defrost and thought about the homemade wedges, fresh sweetcorn and fried onions I was going to cook with it. 

Thumb not included...

Trouble was after I popped the oven on and started to prepare everything else I could smell something not quite right. It wasn't strong, just a little whiff when you held your nose to it.

Damn it.

Freezer burn on my steaks.

I wasn't willing to risk it, time to cook something else. 

My wife got in from work and excitedly asked about the beautiful steaks on the counter, only to be told she was having a veggie curry instead! 

Now the meat has been in there 18 months and we're getting very near to the end of it, but it's a shame that some has been wasted like this. I hate food waste and I don't want to make these mistakes again. 

I frequently butcher animals for our own consumption and have three freezers with meat and veggies in to make sure we are eating as much of our own produce as possible. I tend to separate the meat into different freezers so I know what to use and what each is (at the moment one has mutton and one has lamb, etc).

With 19 chickens to process soon , they're going onto pasture tomorrow hopefully,  I want to package them in the best way possible so there won't be anything wasted due to storage. and I'm thinking of something better than just a freezer bag like I've been using. 

I was looking at vacuum packers and thought that this might be great way to improve my long term storage, I could use it for packing my chickens before they go in the freezer and for storing my dehydrated fruit and veg. I've also been told it's great for just keeping things in the fridge fresher for longer, then there's the possibility of Souve cooking or marinading meat overnight. 

So does anyone out there use a vacuum packer before they freeze meat?

What one would you recommend? And do you use it for anything else?

Daily Meal Budgets?

Now I don't tend to plan very much when it comes to meals. They're all homemade, except for Friday where we have a bought pizza that's cooked at home, and normally contain a mix of store cupboard ingredients, garden produce and either meat from the freezer or butcher.

As our little family is getting bigger all the time I'm obviously having to cook more and more food. My eldest daughter, who is nearly five now, will eat nearly as much as my wife on a good day, I eat enough for two most of the time and my two smaller children are starting to have more on their plates (although they tend to waste a fair bit of theirs at the moment).

As anyone that reads this knows I buy a lot of food in bulk where I can (see the potatoes post here) and having lots growing in the garden helps as well, I'll sometimes just go out there and see what is ready and plan my meals around that, making a particular veg the star of the show. The same is true of meat as well, I'm quite often given pheasants and other game when it's in season as well as shooting some myself, all helping to keep meal costs down (pheasant fajitas are a winter staple here).

This picture is from a harvest 8 years ago! 

But when I look at the cost of an evening meal I tend to budget around the five pound mark if I have to buy things for it, some will be much more expensive (steak from the butchers but with homemade wedges) and many will be far cheaper though (leek and potato soup with home made rolls for example). But if I go into the butchers I know that I can say to him that I want roughly £5 worth of whatever and the rest of the meal is going to cost very little due to how we buy everything else.

So what do you budget per meal? Do you meal plan?

Killing A Cockerel For Dinner

This post contains pictures of dead animals and may offend some. 

Please don't read if you feel that it may upset you as it's not my intention to offend anyone or be controversial. I only want to give a fair account of my lifestyle and the way I'm trying to live. I use this blog as a diary and a record of what we've achieved here and I think this is an important part.

The cockerel is the light coloured chick by the hen.

This Sunday I killed a cockerel for our dinner. 

This has been done for thousands of years and yet when I tell people about it they think it's somehow "odd". My wife's friends at work can't believe that we do it, but I can think of little better than caring for something it's whole life that we're going to eat. 

This cockerel was largely free ranged most of his life, hatched with one of our chickens, from one of our own eggs back in July. He' had a good life, fed well, was looked after and cared for, with a nice patch to roam as he sees fit. 

He was always destined for the dinner table though as we can only really keep one cockerel at the moment and he started to become aggressive towards my girls, trying to attack them when they're in the garden. 

Killing an animal is not something I undertake lightly and it's not something I enjoy. My aim is to do it as calmly, quickly and painlessly as possible, I don't want the animal to be distressed.

I've killed many chickens over the years and I can do it instantly. The cockerel had been isolated the day before, making him easier to catch. I set myself up making sure everything I needed was close to hand and then I killed him first thing in the morning.

Tail feathers removed straight away

Hung to drain

Plucked whilst still warm

 I plucked him whilst he was still warm and found it much easier than normal. He was a good sized bird but the shape of the carcass is so different from the birds you buy in the supermarket that you wouldn't believe they were the same animal. They don't lie flat on the roasting dish and have much, much more leg meat and much less breast meat. There was also a lot more fat on this bird due to the natural grain I've fed him compared to concentrated feed he would have had on a commercial farm.

A real difference between leg meat and breast meat.

I roasted him for an hour and half, whilst he was roasting I also dug up parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and leeks and got a few squashes from the shed. The only thing I didn't grow for dinner was the potatoes which came from an organic farm a few miles away. 

The leg meat was a bit tough in all honesty but it was perfect in a curry later in the week.

A chicken raised how we wanted on our own little homestead. Meat for two meals, bones for a stock and feathers for compost. 

Almost a closed circle. I need to increase how much food I produce for the chickens on our own land and grow quite a few more of them.

Anyone else raised any meat birds lately?

The Butchers

We're lucky to have a butchers in our little village.

But I'm very aware that this isn't the norm, and to make sure we keep a butchers in the village then I need to use it.

We never buy sausages from the supermarket - I literally can't eat them anymore, something about the texture and taste just isn't right. They're isn't much difference in money when buying sausages from the butcher, the supermarket being slightly cheaper but the quality being miles apart. I can ask my butcher where the meat comes from and it enables me to practise what I preach a little more.

Our Sunday joint - rather large for two but it should do a couple of meals in the week and our sandwiches

I understand that going on a separate trip to the butcher isn't possible for some. I do the weekly shop on a Monday night at 9 o'clock and there isn't many butchers open then! But I do think it's worth the effort of going out of your way to support your local butcher. We don't buy all our meat from there, some we still get from the supermarket, but my wife and I are both of the opinion that we'd rather eat less but better quality meat.
I've been using our butcher for a year now and they know me buy name (and I them). I ask advice and they always help me out. I brought this joint of brisket on Saturday an they were keen to make sure I cooked it right and gave me a large lump of fat to make sure it didn't dry out - It's in their interest for me to enjoy it so they make an extra effort - you can't say that about a supermarket!
Who else supports their local butcher?

Plucking Ducks

A friend I work with is very keen on his shooting and he came in on Friday with three ducks for me. He knows I like my game and I like it even more if its free!

The trouble with free "gifts" of meat is that they always involve a bit of work, so this afternoon I filled a feed bag full of straw (the warmest makeshift seat there is) pulled up a large tub and started plucking.

Three ducks for a decadent Sunday roast

I can't say preparing meat (birds especially) from scratch is a job I particularly enjoy, but I love eating them and hate to see anything go to waste (which can be the case on large organised shoots where due to the labour involved they throw most away). Having an area outside to do it makes it easier as it can be quite messy. One day I plan to make myself an area where I can do things like this in some comfort!

A comfy area to do some plucking!

I've never prepared ducks before and man do they have some feathers and soft feathers at that! I didn't bother with the wings much (just chopped them off with the axe in the background) but there was plenty of meat on the rest of them. Plucking is quite easy once you get into the hang of it, pluck with your thumb and index finger, grab small amounts and in a short, sharp motion pull away from the way they naturally lie.

Once I'd plucked them I singed the downy feathers that were left with a flame, then removed the head and legs before gutting them.

I'm not in any way as fat as this picture makes me look!

Inside the house I rinsed them out and washed off the singed feathers before adding some salt, pepper and olive oil and putting them in the oven.

Three cooked ducks

 The meat tasted amazing, full of flavour and tender, much better than an intensively reared animal. Three ducks was far too many for the two of us (I won't let my daughter eat it just yet as there's the chance there could be shot in it) as there was loads of meat on each bird but I'm planning on doing another meal in the week with the leftovers.

This was my first taste of wild duck and it won't be my last!

Anyone else tried anything for the first time lately?

And any ideas on what to do with leftover duck? I'm thinking over indulgent sandwiches first!