Yesterday the Warrior Ninja and I were able to be at the Country Contessa's house for their second and third butchering of the chickens for dinner. The first butchering was a very brave feat that a younger sister accomplished with much moral support from the six nieces and nephews, the Country Contessa, and many youtube videos watched of the most humane and simple way of accomplishing this. I watched a video of this butchering and it went off fairly well. My younger sister really steeled herself for the unpleasant task and executed it without dropping the chicken or backing out which could have caused more pain to the chicken. Yesterday it was the Country Contessa and Husband's turn to learn how.
As children, many was the time I would jump in front of my older sister, when a dog approached due to her deathly fear of them. Over the years I have seen her endeavor to overcome this skittishness around animals as she does not want to instill or impart it to her children. We have had talks about the root of this fear, ways around it, etc. and yet still it persists. In fact, my sister, is skittish around pretty much any animal that makes sudden movements. When she got some pet rabbits for her children I could see the stress on her face as she held them and the inevitable flinching and grimacing if the rabbit squirmed in her arms. It is a true cross! She really likes animals! She WANTS to hold them and have them! Her oldest being ten now she relies on him and some of the others to pick up the chickens and corral them when needed. Yesterday, however, she crossed a rite of passage into the land of self sustenance! The Warrior Ninja and I were very proud of her as she picked up one of her chickens for the first time and kept a hold of it throughout the butchering process! TRIUMPH!
This was the first butchering I have been to and although it was an incredible feat for us, we all agree that it could have gone a bit better. Having the unsuspecting dinner placed in her hands she soothed its feathers to calm it, wanting it to be peaceful before its demise. Gently she wrapped her cute kitchen apron with the pretty prints around the chickens body making sure to cover its talons, never so near to her body before. Satisfied the chicken felt soothed and comfortable she raised the newly sharpened knife to the chickens neck and held it there...she couldn't move. In truth I don't know how well I would do in the same situation but I was ready to fully support her in doing it. "Just WAIT! Everyone just WAIT and give me time to think!" she desperately yelped at us. ....eight pairs of eyes glanced at each other...we hadn't said a thing. I leaned forward. "You are doing great! You are HOLDING a chicken! You've wrapped it up nicely in your apron", I said soothingly, "and you can do this!, I spoke with more enthusiasm, "We are survivors! We are self sustainers! Now, you can't hesitate! You just have to do it in one, powerful, swift motion!" Her eyes were riveted on the knife held up to the chicken's neck. "Your right. Your right! I can do this!" she exclaimed and SLICED! ...unfortunately for both the chicken and the Contessa the feathers proved to be a little hard to get through even though she had tried to slice so they wouldn't be in the way. The blood immediately began to let but not as quickly as we had hoped and the chicken to struggle against the apron which it quickly unwound itself out of. The chicken squirmed and kicked as the Contessa's face took on a look
of disgusted determination intermingled with fear at the possibility of
a chicken attack which, if successful, would most certainly cost her a
finger or an eye. The Contessa grasped at it desperately, the children and I backed away from the possibility of being sprayed if she suddenly released it, the Warrior Ninja stayed by her side encouraging her, as we all told her it was going to be fine. The chaos lasted for a few minutes as we reassessed the situation and finally the Warrior Ninja finished the job off as the Contessa continued her death grip on the chicken. We all were relieved as we moved on to the next phase of plucking it. There was still one more to go however.
The second chicken was bigger. The Contessa's Husband came out of the house as the plucking was commencing and announced, as I tried to convince the Contessa to butcher the next one as well because "practice makes perfect", that he was perfectly capable of butchering the chicken and the Contessa did not need to do it herself! Great! The more to learn this skill the better! We lined him up with apron and knife. The Warrior Ninja created a "neck stretcher" to assist this time. He tied a small rope to a beam and looped the end over the chickens head so the Husband could gently pull the body back and have more success in the cut. While his cut went deeper than the Contessa's his grip was not as firm. It. was. disgusting. Blood sprayed everywhere! All over his clothes and on his chin as he scrambled to reaffirm the grip he once had on the chicken. Thankfully this chicken was much quicker to succumb to its fate but at the end of the day we all agreed that we definitely need to perfect the butchering process. Ultimately I believe we agreed that the knife we chose to use was to short and perhaps a knife where we could utilize a longer stroke against the neck would result in a cleaner more expedient death.
The Warrior Ninja and I had to start for home after the butchering but were amazed later to find a text message picture showing us the contents of the gizzard containing screws, bb gun pellets, chunks of glass, and shell casings. The free range chickens definitely had an interesting appetite. My sister reports she made an excellent smelling chicken soup. I am still trying to convince her that she needs to taste it.
Here is a video of the process which we were trying to recreate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_S3P0eU0lE
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment