WARNING: This might be gross. It involves blood. I don't think the pictures are that disturbing, but you have been warned.
For our Easter dinner, we decided to roast a couple chickens. Friends took us to the market to assist us buying live chickens. Yes, indeed we picked out our own chickens and had them slaughtered right before our eyes! At the vegetable market in a nearby neighborhood where I buy my veggies and fruit, they also sell chickens. Who knew? We had friends come with us because I do not have the language to tell them exactly what I want. We picked out 2 females (because they are more tender). The chickens are then weighed - feathers and all. And yes, at this point they were still alive and squawking. He then took them into a side room to cut their jugulars. I couldn't watch, but Andy did. They were then put into a bucket with a lid (yep, they were still moving). After a couple minutes, the chickens were dipped into boiling water and then put into this crazy tumbler machine. A minute or two in the tumbler de-feathers them. They plucked out a couple remaining few feathers, chopped off the head and feet (they also took out all the icky things inside) and we were on our way! How crazy is that?!
Those are our chickens!
Weighing in
On the left is the pot of boiling water and on the right is the tumbler. And yes, all over the floor are feathers and well, other stuff.
One of our chickens after the tumbler. Notice that it still has the tail feathers?
Tori in front of the chickens. Before you all think we are horrible parents taking our 3 year old to see a chicken be killed.... she knew we were getting a "live chicken" but she was too busy playing with a little Chinese girl away from the action and so she saw none of the gross stuff. The man did all the icky stuff in another room where Tori was not allowed. Even so, she kept saying, "we are buying a live chicken!" She then asked when we were going to eat the chicken. You forget that my kids routinely see whole pigs hanging up in the meat section of the grocery store!
Whoa! Interesting. I don't think I would have been able to watch either. Guess it doesn't get any fresher than that! :o)
ReplyDeleteSarah,
ReplyDeleteYour chicken story reminds me of growing up on a chicken farm in Delta, OH. We did almost all those things for Sunday dinner, but we didn't have a machine to pull off the feathers. We did it by hand.
sounds like the exact same experience we had in marrakech. all the "gross" stuff happened below the counter -- there were a couple guys sitting on really short stools, taking care of the butchering. we saw the little guy on the scale -- and that's about when i turned around. was the most delish chicken i've ever tasted.
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure!
ReplyDelete