SC - a method of preserving peacock skin - long

[Stefan li Rous]

Esla of Ifeld gave us a wonderful description of how she had prepared a
peacock as a soteltie.

I was unclear on a few things though.
 
> Items required: lots of salt, (several kilograms of it) 

What kind of salt did you use? Regular table salt or a coarser version
such as kosher salt?

> 1. We strangled it and then bled it.  With hindsight, we will cut the head
> off the next one (like killing geese) as I ended up having to cut the head
> off anyway to deal with the skull. Two things: peacocks are very strong, and
> they have spurs. 

I had forgotten about these spurs. These are something to definitely avoid
getting hit by, I presume?

> 3. With the bird carcass now out of its skin, pull it, rinse it and bag it
> under vacuum (the old pour water in and let it pour out method is ok).
> Freeze or refrigerate or cook immediately, but someone has to get back to
> dealing with the skin immediately.

Can you detail this a bit more, please? "pull it"? I assume not out of it's
skin as you said it was already out of its skin. "bag it"?

Altogether, it sounds like a pretty complex process. Even after Phlip's
lamb butchering class last year at Pennsic, I don't think I could do
this very well.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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