Sam was really excited when he heard about it. We took pictures and said good-bye. I wanted to appreciate the realness of them alive and see how beautiful they were.
Sad nieces. These guys all have names, and have been pets...
All 4 of us Landbecks took a turn with the huge knife, practicing first to make sure the blade hit the stump flat and with enough force. I got emotional and repeated, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over, mostly talking to the rooster, but concerned and apologizing to JohnB, too, since I didn't have a perfect first chop.
If my kids chopped, I wanted them to pluck feathers, too, learn the whole process. Suzu freaked on that part, said it was too smelly and begged to get out of plucking. Plucking wasn't so hard, plunging the still bird in boiling water for ONLY 30 seconds makes the feathers pull right off very easily. We wore plastic gloves.
Learning how to gut them was probably the hardest part. I did one by myself after watching an expert friend of JohnB's (who moved here from the Ukraine and who had a real chicken foot as a toy when he was 6 year old--his grandma gave it to him after butchering day and he kept it for over a year). Then I ruined one when I accidentally nicked the spleen. Vivid green! Watched some more, and did lots of the washing of the birds and bagging.
After doing 10 roosters we were all hot and tired, and the last two roosters were inspected. Jen & John wanted to keep one, but weren't sure which one. Good things about both of them. One had a softer and lower crow. One often crowed at midnight. (BAD-rooster!) Magnificently colored feathers on both, with a nice iridescence!
And the winner! After putting them in with the hens and letting them decide.
I haven't been to their home in awhile and took pictures of some of my favorite things! It is great being related-by-marriage to another artist!
Front door thought:
Welcome friends and family, good-bye roosters...into the crockpot for Sunday dinner.
Actually, they are brine-ing in the fridge right now. Dissolve 1/4 cup of salt in water, add any meat, let sit in fridge for at least 4 hours; dump out salt water and cover meat with buttermilk. Let sit another 4+ hours and then cook. The science behind it: the salt water expands the meat cells, and then the buttermilk is absorbed into the cells and makes the chicken moister, yummier. We will see how tough these roosters are tomorrow.
