Thursday, July 5, 2012

Quail Butchering

I am fairly sure that I have done a quail butchering post on here before but we'll do it again for those who are new and haven't read the whole blog. Remember those 19 quail I hatched not so long ago? They have been overdue for butchering but I had no freezer space. After looking at the freezer today I thought I could fit them in if I didn't leave them whole. Plus I have an idea for recipe for the breasts and I would like to try the legs fried.
Anyway, here are the quail.
We are a few short of 19 since we lost a few. I didn't count but I believe there were 15 or 16 in there.
Here is the new Mt. Dew killing cone.
Not much to it. Put the quails head through the hole and cut it off. Sounds bad but it is actually really quick (sharp knife necessary). It is a lot quicker to me than killing a chicken.
I lost the first quail that I killed. It didn't occur to me that the thrashing it did after I killed it would make it pop right out of the cone and Clone was waiting for that.

No way I could catch that cat.  I couldn't help it. I hated to lose the quail but I had to laugh at my own stupidity. Clone did not get another quail that's for sure. I made sure to hold them in the cone after that.
All in the bucket:
The good thing about quail is that you can take them inside after they are killed where you can do the rest.
I was not going to leave these whole so only needed to pluck the legs and I also plucked the breast just so I did not have to deal with feathers later. It is very easy to dry pluck quail. They don't need any scalding or anything like that.
No much else to it; skin the breast meat and cut off, cut off the legs and toss the rest, you basically have all the meat with the legs and breast. Put all the meat in ice water.
Let it rest in the frig for a couple of days, take out, do any extra cleaning and bag up for the freezer or eat.

21 comments:

  1. Wow! That seems quick! I have never eaten a quail. They are our state bird...the men in my family don't shoot them. They do dove, pheasant, duck and goose hunt...but they have to clean their own...I'll cook them.

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    1. These are coturnix quail not bobwhite which take quite a bit longer to mature. Coturnix only take about 8 weeks before they are ready to butcher.

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  2. We ate quails last night, but I have to admit we did not butcher them - we bought them ready-prepared from a supermarket. We had them "spatchcocked" and cooked in a griddle-pan with mustard-butter sauce. Beautiful!

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    1. You are going to make me have to ask what "spatchcocked" means? LOL

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    2. Flattened! (and held in placw with skewers.)

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  3. Another great post. They look good but part of me is wondering if they're worth the effort for the amount of meat? I know I sometimes breed chickens to eat and I often think halfway through plucking them I shouldn't have started - but then I always do it again. That said I have been thinking of getting some more quail but I was thinking for eggs to sell (I had some suicidal ones years ago who liked to bang their heads until they passed out)

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    1. Yeah, some quail I have heard are very hard to keep and like to attack each other. Coturnix are not that kind of quail. You don't want too many males as they tend to be rough on the females but other than that they are pretty good. They are not a lot of trouble, I feed and water twice a day and clean out the pen, deep bedding method, when it gets too full. They lay eggs like crazy (see my egg totals for the year--this is a good 30 breeders though). I used to sell eggs too but I have to tell you that they really don't make you much, check out quail eggs on eBay and you'll see.

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  4. Just want to mention that the posts with the most views have been those about butchering and.. wine, lol. The pig post got 936 views which was the highest.

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  5. This was a very interesting post, and I guess you got enough for two or three meals from something that did not take you long to do.

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  6. Why do you let your meat rest in the fridge for a couple of days? We usually like to finish up the whole process of butchering and freezing by the end of a long day. We tend to do a mess of birds (30 or more) when we process. I was curious if it made the birds more tender.

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    1. It does make them more tender. You wait a couple day for rigor mortis to finish and the muscles relax again.

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  7. Looks quick! Those little bites - I bet they'd be good deep fried.... Hmm buffalo quail?

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    1. I think I am going to fry the legs but the breast I am going to pan fry, put it in a mushroom type of gravy and serve it over rice. That's the plan anyway.

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  8. I always thought quail would be a waste of time since they are so tiny, but yours look bigger than the kind my friends used to hunt. Of course that was highschool so my memory may be a bit fuzzy. Do you ever figure your cost per meal or per bird?? I'd be very interested to see figures, you are always chock full of info! Thanks for the post!

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    1. Nope, I never figure my cost per anything. I don't like doing that. It costs, no doubt about it. You aren't going to produce meat at your house for what it costs in the store (although quail is pretty darn expensive in the store). The quail are small. There isn't much meat but it is the most tender poultry you will ever eat. They are definitely worth it plus it is an easy bird to butcher, no special equipment needed.

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    2. I never do either but I always wonder if other people do! Because cost is also relative, yes it costs more to raise your own but you spend less money at the doctors so to me it balances.:D Your post has me thinking now that maybe I should give quail a try. I have done chickens but those quail pics you took just make it seem sooo simple! When is dinner?? Ha ha ha

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    3. Dinner is already posted :) I really don't know about saving at the doctors since I never get to go to one as we can't afford it. There are some things that I would love to have a doctor check out but it just isn't possible. We mostly doctor ourselves.

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    4. Love the quail info! You should move to Canada, free doctors appointments here :)

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    5. Love the quail info! You should move to Canada, free doctors appointments here :)

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  9. My daddy taught me to clean quail at an early age. He, his brothers and dad were all avid bob white hunters. We even raised some to release one year. Anyway, after removing the head and wings, we just pulled the skin with feather attached away from the breast and legs. It took no time to clean a bag limit. Sometimes I wished I hadn't been so eager to learn! lol.
    I really enjoy your site.
    Terry

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