Putting Food By - Janet Greene [78]
However, a hunter field-dresses his kill by removing the innards on the spot, since they spoil a great deal more quickly than muscle tissue does; and he waits to skin it until after he’s home. Immediate drawing therefore reduces the chance of spoiling the rest of the meat en route home, and is especially necessary with mammals. Game birds may be held for several hours before being drawn; but if they cannot be taken home for handling within half a day, they, too, should be drawn in the field, and plucked later.
Plucking a Chicken
Pluck feathers from the still warm, fresh-killed and bled chicken, being careful to get all the pinfeathers. Hold the bird by its feet and pull the feathers toward the head, in the opposite direction to the way they lie naturally. Scalding the whole bird is not necessary, but if the feathers are resisting enough so you’re afraid of tearing the skin, you can spot-scald: lift the chicken by the feet with its head dangling, and pour nearly boiling water into the base of the feathers, where it will be trapped momentarily against the skin.
Dry the bird and singe off the hairs. Wipe it clean.
Drawing a Chicken
Cut off the head of the fresh-killed and plucked bird if it is still on; remove feet at the “ankle” joint just below the drumstick. Cut out the oil sac at the top of the tail (it would flavor the meat unpleasantly, so don’t break it).
Lay the chicken on its back, feet toward you. Using a sharp knife, cut a circle around the vent (anus), so it can be removed intact with the internal organs still attached. Cut deeply enough to free it, and be careful not to cut into the intestine that leads to it.
Insert the tip of the knife, with cutting edge upward, at the top of the circle around the vent, and cut through the thin ventral wall toward the bottom of the breast bone, making the slit long enough so you can draw the innards out through it with the vent attached.
Reach clear to the front of the body cavity and gently pull out the mass of organs. Separate and save the heart, liver, and gizzard.
Next, turn the chicken over and slit the skin lengthwise at the back of the neck—if you slit down the front of the neck you may cut into the crop; push away the skin and remove the crop and windpipe.
Cut the neck bone off close to the body. Wash the whole bird.
From the liver, cut away the green gall sac, roots and all; and be mighty careful not to break it, because gall ruins the flavor of any meat it touches. Split one side of the gizzard, cutting until you see the tough inner lining. Press the gizzard open and peel the lining away and discard it and its contents. Trim the heart.
Promptly refrigerate each dressed chicken, either whole or cut up, until you are ready to can it, within 24 hours.
Cutting Up Poultry
Lay the dressed, clean bird on its back and, using a sharp boning knife, disjoint the legs and wings from the body. Separate thighs from drumsticks at the “knee” joint. If the bird is very large—like a turkey or goose—separate the wing at its two joints, saving the two upper meaty sections for canning with bone in. (Very small birds, such as grouse, etc., may do best merely quartered with poultry shears.)
Turn the chicken crossways to you, hold the bottom of the breast section, and cut under it, through the ribs, until you reach the backbone; separate it from the backbone by cutting through the ribs. Poultry shears or heavy kitchen shears will be handy for use on the stronger bones at the shoulder joint.
Bone the breast meat by cutting down one side of the breast bone and easing the white meat off in a large piece; repeat on the other side.
Remove lumps of fat and any bits of broken bone from each piece of chicken and wipe it with a clean damp cloth.
Drawing, Skinning, Cutting Up Rabbits
Lay the fresh-killed rabbit on its back, and proceed to draw it as if it were a chicken: cut around the vent carefully; make a slit in the abdominal wall, reach in and pull out the innards with vent attached; save the liver and