[MR] De-feathering birds

[Lisa Kuney]

Signora Apollonia,

You can take freshly killed and eviscerated fowl, and dip them briefly
(by the feet-leave them on for handles) into near-boiling water for less
than a minute.  Then pluck like mad.  This is best done outdoors.  If
you dip them too briefly, it won't loosen the feathers.  If you dip them
too long, it sets the feathers in the flesh and they are more difficult
to get out.   It's like steaming your face to open the pores...After you
are done plucking, you can put a mess of cleaned birds into the washing
machine with a clean towel and run it on a water-only cycle with no soap
to get them nice and rinsed and clean.  This works well when you have a
lot of chickens to butcher.  You'll of course want to run a soap and
bleach cycle after that.  Whatever tiny pin feathers remain can be
carefully singed.  When you cut the feet off at the highest joint, call
your kids.  You can pull on the various tendons at the top of the leg
and make the different toes bend like pulling puppet strings.  The feet
are good to use in making chicken stock with the rest of the carcass, so
long as they are clean.  Yes, I am a farm girl...<g>

Halima al-Shafi'i
Stronghold of Raven's Cove

>Also, does anyone know the easiest way to de-feather geese or other birds?
>And any other hints on dressing fowl would be appreciated
>