The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid (27 page)

Using a sharp knife, cut on the backside of the leg from the hock or area just above the foot to the hole made when you removed the tail, and then repeat this process on the other side. Now you need something that can grip the skin, like pliers. Starting from the hind end, peel the skin forward. You should pull it forward until you peel it over the neck and front feet.

Processing Small Game

How much meat you will obtain from your small game harvest depends on two things: the size of the animal and your ability to get as much meat
as you can from the carcass. You can actually freeze a small animal whole, once it’s been dressed and skinned. However, you can also process the animal for convenience and to save freezer space. To save the most space, you can debone the meat before freezing.

Is eating small game safe?
The most important thing to remember when eating small game is to make sure you have cooked it completely. Thoroughly cooking meat is important to reduce the likelihood of any bacterial disease. All meat, including venison, should be cooked until the meat is no longer pink and the juices run clear. This means cooking to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F for all types of meat, 170°F for the breast of game birds and waterfowl, and 180°F for a whole bird. If cooked according to these guidelines, the likelihood of any disease transmission to individuals consuming the meat is extremely small.

First, you need to cut the limbs from the animal at the joints. Then you should cut alongside the backbone through the ribs on both sides to free the breast meat. There is also back meat that can be harvested. On rabbits, the big meat pieces are actually found on the hind legs and haunches. The tenderloins on a rabbit are the choicest pieces of meat and are great for soups and stews. It’s best to remove the bone from the thigh meat. The forelegs of a rabbit have little meat, but they can be used for soup.

After processing, wash and chill the meat. Then you can freeze it, can it, or even make jerky.

Processing Poultry

Most poultry can be processed in very similar ways. You will find that the biggest differentiating factor is size. A duck can probably be butchered by the same process as a chicken; however, when you are dealing with turkeys and geese, you need to consider their weight and size.

You need to “starve” your birds for up to twenty-four hours before you butcher them. This way their intestines are fairly empty, so there is less
chance of contamination when you are processing them. This does not mean, however, that you should not give them water. A bird that is dehydrated does not bleed out as well.

Butchering Your Poultry

You have probably heard the phrase, “Running around like a chicken with its head cut off” as an apt description of someone who doesn’t know what to do. Were you to cut the head off a chicken and then let go of the bird, it would flop around and scatter blood over quite a large area. This is certainly not the optimal way to butcher a chicken. However, no matter how you kill your chickens, there is going to be a certain amount of movement after the head is off and before the chicken in totally bled out, so be sure to wear old clothing and have a container ready to catch the blood. It’s a good idea to have some water in the container, so the blood doesn’t coagulate in it and make cleanup harder. Keep in mind that even though the body may still be moving, the bird doesn’t feel anything. What you’re seeing is simply a nerve reaction.

The basic idea of killing a bird is to either wring its neck or chop the head off. Then, make sure you hang it until it bleeds out, because bleeding out not only improves the flavor of the meat, but also increases its ability to be kept.

Here are several different methods for killing a bird. Those described for chickens will work well for ducks, too, and those described for turkeys will work well with geese:

• Chopping block and a sharp ax—chicken or turkey:
  Lay the bird on a chopping block (you can pound two long nails about an inch apart halfway into the block as a stanchion for the head; just be careful you don’t hit the nails with your ax) and with one quick hit, bring the ax down and sever the head from the body. Then hang the chicken over a bucket to bleed out.
  
• Wringing the neck—chicken:
  Take hold of the chicken’s head or upper neck and then swing the chicken around, as you would a heavy object on the end of a string. Swing several times until you hear or feel the “snap” of the chicken’s neck breaking and separating from the body. You will then need to cut off the head and bleed the chicken.
  
• Hanging—chicken:
  Tie a piece of string or twine around a lowhanging tree branch. Take the other end of the string and loop it around the chicken’s legs, so it hangs head down. Take a sharp knife in one hand and grasp the chicken’s head in your other hand. Pull slightly on the head and then cut the head off at the top of the neck. Have a container ready to catch the blood.
  
• A killing cone—chicken or turkey:
  A killing cone is one of the easiest ways to process your poultry. You can purchase a killing cone or make one of your own. You need a cone-shaped object, like a one-gallon bleach bottle or a road cone (depending on the size of poultry you are processing) with both ends cut out. On one end, the opening should be about 2 inches in diameter: large enough for the bird’s head and neck to slip through, but small enough so the rest of the bird doesn’t follow. The other end needs to be large enough for you to be able to slip the bird inside, head first, but small enough so the bird’s wings are pinned. The cone should be attached to a tree about four feet above the ground, or whatever is comfortable for your height. It can be attached with nails or screws, but it needs to be secure. You can create a cone stand with three- to four-foot lengths of two-by-fours fitted together like a pyramid with the cone held in the center for easy access. The cone should be attached so the smaller end, for the head, is closest to the ground. Place the bird in the cone, pull the head and neck through the cone and then, using a very sharp knife, sever the jugular vein and carotid artery. The cut should be made just behind the tendon attachment for the beak and tongue. Cut deeply behind the jaw, pressing firmly with your knife while using a slicing motion. Cut down and toward the front of the neck, traveling under the jaw, and then cut the other side of the neck in the same location behind the jaw to sever the opposite blood vessel. Be aware that blood will spill onto your hands, and if you only knick the artery instead of cutting through it, blood will squirt out. Have a container ready for blood.
  

For larger birds you can hook a metal weight to the lower beak of the bird after you have slit the throat. This holds the head, so the blood is not sprayed around the butchering area. Once the blood pressure drops, the
bird will go into shock. As it dies, it will convulse and flap. Again, this is a nerve reaction to the loss of blood. At this point, the bird does not feel anything. The cone method helps to keep the bird relatively still during this process, so the meat is not bruised. You should spray the bird with water from a hose as it bleeds out to ensure the blood does not coagulate at the neck.

Picking the Poultry

You can choose, if you like, to just skin your poultry. This means you don’t have to deal with scalding, plucking, or any of the traditional chores associated with dressing poultry. You can skin your poultry using a process similar to what was discussed for small animals.

If you choose to keep the skin on the meat, you will need a large container of hot water. A clean metal garbage can works well for this process. You will also need a gas burner to place under the can to keep the water at a constant temperature, between 135°F and 140°F. If the water is colder than that, the scald doesn’t work; if it is warmer than that, the skin can be damaged and the bird can be partially cooked.

When processing turkeys, you should pluck the main tail feathers and the larger tail coverts before you dunk the bird in the scalding water. This makes it easier to see the bird as you work in the scald tank.

Holding the bird by its feet, you should lower it, head first, into the scalding water. Do this slowly so you don’t splash the hot water on yourself. Once the bird is in the water, you should move it up and down, swirling the water all around the bird. Make sure you keep the bird under the water to ensure even scalding, especially in the legs. Continue this process for about thirty seconds, and then pull the bird out and test the scald by rubbing your thumb against the grain of the feathers on the bird’s leg. If you have scalded correctly, these feathers should come off easily. If your bird passes this test, pluck a large feather from the wing section. If this too comes out easily, you are ready to pluck the bird.

If the feathers don’t come out easily, you need to scald the bird for a bit longer. However, remember that you don’t want to expose the bird to too much heat, because it will damage the skin and make it easier to tear.

Move your bird to a processing table. Using your thumb and fingers in a rubbing motion like sandpaper, remove the feathers by rubbing against the grain. This works much better than trying to pull out each individual feather. Don’t yank a handful of feathers; this will only tear the skin.

The first feathers you pick should be the primary wing feathers. These will not be feathers that you are able to rub free. If you aren’t able to grasp a feather and twist it until it breaks free, you might need to use a pair of pliers to get a good grip.

Clean all of the feathers off the body, paying attention to the “wing pits” and any other crevices that might have hidden feathers, as well as any pin feathers that lie just under the skin. When you have thoroughly cleaned the bird, spray it down with cold water from a hose and then submerse it in a clean container of very cold water in order to cool down the body very quickly.

The average mature domestic turkey has approximately 3,500 feathers. Feathers cover most of a turkey’s body, with the exception of the head and neck. These feathers can be cleaned and used to make a feather quilt or mattress.

Dressing the Poultry

At this point, you are ready to clean the bird, which means that you remove the head, feet, and internal organs. Be sure you have a clean surface for this process, a very sharp knife, some clean water handy for rinsing, and a container for the discarded pieces.

Start by removing the feet. You need to hold the leg straight, and, with just a little pressure, cut between the joints. You want to cut the tendons between the bones, not through the bone itself. The drumsticks will have some scaled skin on them; this won’t affect the quality when you cook them.

Next, cut off the head. Cut the head with a sharp knife above the cuts you made to bleed out the bird. With a sharp knife, you should be able to
cut right through a chicken’s neck bone. However, with a turkey, you might need to use a cleaver.

After the head is removed, you should turn the bird onto its chest, so you have access to the back. Insert your knife just under the skin at the base of the neck at the shoulders and slit the skin up the neck. Sliding the skin down, you will be able to see the trachea, esophagus, and glandular tissue next to the neck. You need to carefully separate the neck from the trachea and esophagus and gently loosen them all the way to where they enter the bird’s body. If you follow the esophagus further, it will widen into a pouch called a crop. Carefully separate the crop from under the skin and next to the breast meat. Then follow the trachea and pull off the fatty tissue from around the trachea and under the skin. Leave all of these items hanging free for now.