Yeah, I should have done it before now but I was torn over whether I was even going to keep the meat. A few days ago I killed #4, and she was the greasiest thing…I could barely choke her down even in stew, and the boys ate a lot and both vomited it right back up.
They’re heavy hens but by the time you’ve carved off the inedible parts, the resulting carcasses weigh far less than the refuse. This time I just went ahead and skinned them so I could get at all those amazing wads of fat.
I did two today, and I’ll do the rest later in the week after it warms back up. The plan is to freeze them, then later I’ll gather jars, boil the birds down and do some canning for next winter. They’re no treat to eat, but if I boil them and refrigerate the meat maybe I can get more of that fat out of there. Gad, it’s greasy.
Yes, I’m re-inventing basic cooking. From somewhere, if I listen closely, I will be able to discern the sepulchral laughter of my redneck forebears who already knew all this stuff.
Turns out #6 was still a little egg factory. She must be where those random non-Agnes eggs came from. Not enough to justify her continued existence, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
It would seem that those chickens are being overfed, quite possibly too much protein. I’ve had all kinds of chickens, and never had one that was that fat. Are your chickens getting anything green at all? They need green stuff to help them metabolize the rest of their diet properly. A fat, fat bird with little muscle mass would seem to indicate an imbalance.
You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But out of that bunch of used-up chickens I first slaughtered Selma, the smallest of the Rhode Island Reds. And – fed exactly the same as the Brahmas for over a year – she was as scrawny and fat-free as the Brahmas are obese.
“… if I boil them and refrigerate the meat maybe I can get more of that fat out of there. ”
I think you did this at the wrong time of year. My method with a greasy bird is to use a slow cooker for a few hours, separate out the broth, refrigerate, skim the (now solid) grease from the broth, put everything back in the slow cooker, …repeat until I reach diminishing returns. As I work, I pull out the bones. The result is lean pulled meat. (I’ve done this many times with turkey, don’t see why chicken would be any different.)
I assume that an electric Crock Pot isn’t an option for you, but in the winter you have your fire going much of the day. I don’t see why you couldn’t slow cook over it.
I second Ben’s recommendation for slow cooking on your heating stove; along with the fact the dogs could use some of the extra fat in their diet over the winter. Plus you could use the fat along with the wood ash to make soap, biscuits/savory meat pie shells, teaspoon in a skillet to fry eggs. If, I remember right, you can rend down the fat, pour the clarified fat in small jars, put the lid on and process in a boiling water bath to seal the lids; but you need to double check my memory on the tube.