Re: Re: chicken feet anyone? (and a stock question too)

June 14, 2004

:

>I remember my Mom using chicken feet for stock when I was a child.

>She let the actual foot part stick up out of the pot, and therefore

>the toenails didn't go into the stock. I'm pretty sure she didn't

>peel the feet either.

>

>Joan

I was talking to my Mom about that yesterday. She said " What is REALLY

good is chicken brains! " I asked her how you get the brains out. She said,

" Well, you crack them open like walnuts. Skin the head, take the eyeballs out,

and boil the whole thing in the soup. Then crack them and suck the brains out. "

Just had to share that! I'm going to save the heads up for

when she visits.

-- Heidi Jean

(BTW she peeled the feet, but I forgot to ask her about toenails).

June 15, 2004

Brains? *gulp*

I'm still trying to recover from the whole plucking and gutting thing....give me

a few years.*LOL*

Marie

p.s. I've bitten my nails for years. I quite cold turkey (no pun intended0 after

plucking that chicken.

Re: Re: chicken feet anyone? (and a stock question too)

:

>I remember my Mom using chicken feet for stock when I was a child.

>She let the actual foot part stick up out of the pot, and therefore

>the toenails didn't go into the stock. I'm pretty sure she didn't

>peel the feet either.

>

>Joan

I was talking to my Mom about that yesterday. She said " What is REALLY

good is chicken brains! " I asked her how you get the brains out. She said,

" Well, you crack them open like walnuts. Skin the head, take the eyeballs out,

and boil the whole thing in the soup. Then crack them and suck the brains

out. "

Just had to share that! I'm going to save the heads up for

when she visits.

-- Heidi Jean

(BTW she peeled the feet, but I forgot to ask her about toenails).

June 15, 2004

f

>Brains? *gulp*

>I'm still trying to recover from the whole plucking and gutting thing....give

me a few years.*LOL*

>Marie

>p.s. I've bitten my nails for years. I quite cold turkey (no pun intended0

after plucking that chicken.

Heh heh. I can relate! One thing I insist on for me ... I wear gloves! Surgeons

gloves. And change

them when I need to. Waste of something, no doubt, but that is one occasion I

waste!

BTW speaking of waste ... I processed 4 chickens last night. The largest was 13

lbs, the smallest

6 lbs, live. The total amount of " junk " we buried was about 3 lbs of innards.

Which is pretty good

in terms of not wasting. We've gotten to where we freeze leftover bones after a

meal

too, and bury them near the berry bushes. I was buying bone meal to feed the

bushes,

and then I thought about all those bones we toss in the garbage ... now I think

of it as

slow release fertilizer.

-- Heidi Jean

>

June 16, 2004

....We've gotten to where we freeze leftover bones after a meal

too, and bury them near the berry bushes. I was buying bone meal to feed the

bushes,

and then I thought about all those bones we toss in the garbage ... now I think

of it as

slow release fertilizer...

I have a big container in the bottom of my freezer that we put bones, onion

skins, celery tops, veggie steaming water, etc, etc, etc, in. When it's full I

boil it up to make stock. How about doing that before you bury it in the garden?

Cheers,

Tas'.

June 16, 2004

Heidi:

I think that if we ever get meat birds...I'll give it another go, but I dont'

think I could eat another hen...I tried to eat some of the meat tonight in a

chicken pie and I just couldn't even stomach it. Mind over matter I suppose...I

couldn't do it.

I'm going to get a box of those disposable gloves..*L* that's what I was

thinking as I was sitting there in the workshop (picture this, the headless

chicken is tied by the feet to the part of the table saw that juts out...we're

sitting around it in lawn chairs, me with one bare hand and one gloved hand

(could only find ONE glove) and saying, wow isn't this romantic? *L*

Marie

Re: Re: chicken feet anyone? (and a stock question too)

f

>Brains? *gulp*

>I'm still trying to recover from the whole plucking and gutting thing....give

me a few years.*LOL*

>Marie

>p.s. I've bitten my nails for years. I quite cold turkey (no pun intended0

after plucking that chicken.

Heh heh. I can relate! One thing I insist on for me ... I wear gloves!

Surgeons gloves. And change

them when I need to. Waste of something, no doubt, but that is one occasion I

waste!

BTW speaking of waste ... I processed 4 chickens last night. The largest was

13 lbs, the smallest

6 lbs, live. The total amount of " junk " we buried was about 3 lbs of innards.

Which is pretty good

in terms of not wasting. We've gotten to where we freeze leftover bones after

a meal

too, and bury them near the berry bushes. I was buying bone meal to feed the

bushes,

and then I thought about all those bones we toss in the garbage ... now I

think of it as

slow release fertilizer.

-- Heidi Jean

June 17, 2004

:

>I have a big container in the bottom of my freezer that we put bones, onion

skins, celery tops, veggie steaming water, etc, etc, etc, in. When it's full I

boil it up to make stock. How about doing that before you bury it in the garden?

>

>Cheers,

>Tas'.

Hmmm ... that IS a good idea. I hate wasting vegies in stock, but those leftover

pieces would be fine. " Cooked " bones are supposed to be

more flavorful in stock anyway (some of the French recipes call

for cooking the bones in the oven before making the stock). Plus

once the bones get " rotten " making stock they will decompose

faster.

BTW my new smoker is REALLY GOOD for making stock or

boiling chickens ... if you take out the smoking pan it fits

a big steel pot (our 25 gallon beer brewing one) and the propane

is a lot cheaper than electricity. Plus it is outside to the smells

and heat don't bother folks in the house. It's a " great Outdoors "

brand and was all of $170.

-- Heidi JEan

June 17, 2004

>Heidi:

>I think that if we ever get meat birds...I'll give it another go, but I dont'

think I could eat another hen...I tried to eat some of the meat tonight in a

chicken pie and I just couldn't even stomach it. Mind over matter I suppose...I

couldn't do it.

For what it is worth, I couldn't eat the meat from the first 4 birds I killed.

I almost swore off chicken altogether! It really, really, really is a life

change, and I totally empathize with anyone who can't deal with it.

Sometimes, tho, the " mother bear " in me gets roused and I think

" Darn it, I WILL feed my kids good food no matter what it takes! " .

Fortunately they don't feel empathetic at all toward the chickens,

except the ones that are their pets. After getting the last chicken

in the freezer tho, I can't stomach any food whatsoever .. I take

a nice long shower and drink some wine.

Of course it helps that I was raised by an ex-nurse, who used

to talk (at our dinner table) about how she used to do stool

samples, taking them apart to check for parasites (while nibbling

on a sandwich with the other hand ... ! I guess the health laws weren't

the same back then).

>I'm going to get a box of those disposable gloves..*L* that's what I was

thinking as I was sitting there in the workshop (picture this, the headless

chicken is tied by the feet to the part of the table saw that juts out...we're

sitting around it in lawn chairs, me with one bare hand and one gloved hand

(could only find ONE glove) and saying, wow isn't this romantic? *L*

Heh heh. Yeah, our backyard looked like an ax murderer had hit (well, I guess

one did!).

I wouldn't do it indoors though, even in the garage ... too messy. I don't like

to clean fish indoors either, I do the " messy part " outside and the final

cleaning inside.

>Marie

>

June 18, 2004

Heidi:

I doint have a problem feeding it to my kids, they don't care...I just couldn't

eat it myself...

IT wasn't messy in the garage, he axed her outdoors, drained her outdoors, we

plucked her indoors.

marie

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