[Sca-cooks] butchering animals

[Susan Lord Williams]

Stefan wrote:

> 
> 
> Susan said:
> <<< I have had to go to the Central Market to pick out a lovely duck. They are kind enough to kill it form me out of sight. Then I must pluck the feathers and my cleaning woman cracks the beak and removes the entails. One bird is enough for me. I do not know how you can put up with more! >>>
> 
> I?ve never dealt with a live duck. The only time I?ve dealt with a live animal was the lamb that Philip's class at Pennsic (actually outside of Pennsic) did.
> 
> Sheep don?t have feathers. How do you get the feathers off of a duck? Why do you need to break the beak, rather than just cutting off the head?
> 
> At least there is a fair amount of meat on ducks and the larger birds, what I can?t understand is dealing with the much smaller birds, like quail.
> 
> Thanks,
>   Stefan
> ————

In Madrid we slaughtered or sacrificed five pata negra pigs from Huelva every year. The matarife slit their aortas. We burned the skin with grass, shaved them, dissected them and made serrano hams with the legs, chorizo, blood sausage - the whole nine yards and on the third day had a feast. - We did almost everything 15th century.

 With the duck, my maid taught me that you hit beak and that releases the tongue so you stick your hand into the bottom of the duck and you pull out all the entrails including the tongue with one pull. You throw that out. Next we took heavy string and she tied the duck’s claws and hung him to the knob of the kitchen cabinet over the sink and let him bleed over night. You must let birds calm down by hanging them overnight which tenderizes the meat.


 Stefan, the way to get feathers off of any bird is to pluck them. Elementary lovie!


 

Interesting question, why cut the head off a bird? I don’t remember but my father was paid in kind and the cleaning lady came and twisted the necks of our 50 chicks when they became too big for the pen. My father had a big fiesta and we all ate barbequed chicken. I don’t remember how the chicks were prepared, like extracting the inners. . . .

 

I have never dealt personally with lamb but in Spain, we roast a baby lamb for Easter Sunday in the bread ovens over wood fires on the family estates. These are lambs that have never eaten anything more than the mother’s milk. There is nothing more tender in the world. 

 

Back to the subject, small birds for feasts - in my blog Medieval Spanish Chef, I end up preparing chicken because today these birds simply are not available. How many of you know bird hunters? In 15th century Spain, nobility had a staff of hunters who provided all kinds of small birds on the nobles’ tables daily, which they shot with a bow and arrow.