Best method for dressing/butchering ?? please offer advice

[Nedley]

Hello,
 Relatively new to the forum, have read alot.. but rarely posted or replied.
 I have some questions some of you might be able to help me out with.
 I've run across all types of posts on breeding, raising, feeding, nuturing, chasing across the yard (been there done that :), doctoring, policing, caging, identifying..... well I could go on for a long time on this.. :)
 What I really have some questions of at this point.. is..
How do I get these little guys ready for the dinner table??
 I have about 16 cortunix out in a cage I built, and this next weekend coming up, they will be 8 weeks old, I got about 10 "frat boy" males out there that are overloaded with hormones and not enough little cheerleaders to go around, I figure about 7 of them need to be removed from the equation. One of my main purposes into this hobby/project, was for my own dietary enjoyment, and it has been many many years since I hunted quail and even then I only remember a couple rare occasions where I actually ended up shooting something.
 I don't really remember how I dressed them out back then, and am coming up pretty short on good quality info as to how to dress them out and prepare them for the dinner table. I had one that got beat up pretty bad by the other frat boys and attempted to dress him out since he wasn't going to make it much longer, and finally just ended up pulling the breast out and didn't do a very good job of even that.
 I am getting info about just pulling the breast, and others tell me they dress out the whole bird, others.. they skin them .. some pluck them. Maybe you could call it the "dark side" of raising them.. but somewhere in here there has to be some people just ready to get right down to it and give me some good detailed info as to how they think is the best way to get these guys to the dinner table. Hehe.. I got button quail hatched out for the wife.. told her those are the pets,.. don't be getting attached to the guys out in the cage.. I didn't go into this for more pets, I already got 2 kids and a wife.
 Here are my questions.. and I would really appreciate any detailed info as to the process ..
 Is it better to just pull the breast? and how is the best method to do that? the one I did.. I ended up with the breastbone in it and don't know if that is the normal way of doing it, or if I should have just got a nice little boneless breast out of it.
 What procedure is best preferred to dress them out if you do the whole bird? (details please here.. I would like to know exactly how to cut or pull to get the best end result).
 If I do dress out the complete bird, what points to I discard? (legs, wings? at what joints?)
 Is it better to skin them, or spend the time to pluck them and retain the skin on them to keep the moisture in?
 .. guess thats the main jist of it.. I've searched all over the web and can't get any real details.. if I go looking to dress out a deer.. I can get actual pictures and descriptions for ever single cut.. heck.. I bet if I looked much further I coulda actually got a live video of it, but when it comes to gamebirds/quail, I found very little descriptive info on it.
 I'll appreciate any response .. this forum seems to have some really good inputs from people that are down to earth and realistic about actual human consumption of the critters..
 Thank you,
 Nedley.

[stewaw]

I prefer to remove the skin as most often I simply fry the birds. If your desire is to bake or smoke the bird, I would recommend plucking. To prepare the bird for frying, here is the process I use.  1.  Dispatch/kill the bird (I remove the head). 2.  Grasp the bird with the breast facing upward and place the thumb and forefinger on either side of the breast. 3. Pinch and slightly raise the skin on either side of the breast and pull the skin downward toward the back. This will remove the skin and feathers exposing the breast meat. 4. Continue to remove the skin all the way down either side of the breast to the backbone. 5. At this point I can slide my fingers all the way around the bird and continue easing the skin/feathers off of the wings.  I only remove the skin from the wings until the first joint, at that point I use a knife to separate the joint.  6.  Once both wings are done I move down to the lower end of the bird and use a knife to remove both the oil gland (small bulbous organ on top of the vent at the base of the tail) and the tail at the same time. 7. I remove the skin on each leg down past the thighs and remove the skin to the first joint ( what you might want to call the knee) and cut the remaining portion of the leg off. At this point you should have a fully skinned bird that still contains all of its internal organs.
8. The head may be removed now (if it's still on the bird) otherwise the internal organs are next and may be removed either by making an incision with the knife mid way between the bottom of the breast bone and the vent or simply inserting your thumb under the breastbone and prying up (the backbone will most likely break and the breast will pop up allowing you to remove the internal organs). Use one index finger inserted from the top of the breast to push the organs down so that the other index finger (on the bottom end of the breast) can be used to rake the organs out. 9. Thoroughly rinse the entire carcass and place in a bowl of ice water to chill the carcass.  10. Package/prepare for freezing or cooking as needed.
Longwinded, but this is one of those tasks that are a nightmare to explain and much easier to simply demonstrate.


David

[Nedley]

David,
 Thanks.. that was great info. better than anything I've found on any websites.

 Anyone else? what about plucking them?

Ned

[Fivehollers]

that last post was lengthy but basically right. We pull the heads off, skin them I don't worry about cutting the skin that holds the innards in place we just pull it open. I usually take the legs ends of wings of before skinning just makes it easier to pull skin off wing area. As for plucking...well I tried that on one and while it is relativily easy to pluck the quail the skin is so thin that usually it ends up getting ripped anyway so I take it off from that point on. As for storage...while we are cleaning birds I put them in a cooler filled partially with water and lots of ice to cool them quickly, wash them really good in running, cold water, I have a food saver and I pack them either 4, 6, or 8 to a bag (going on the premise that most folks will eat two at a sitting) I will say that if you want to have the skin, it cooks almost gone anyway, shrinks up but if marinated all day and then cooked over an open flame it is really yummy.

Lori

[Nedley]

Lori,
 Thanks :).. good info, I got out there and did 4 of them tonite.. (to much testosterone in that cage!) and I will have to agree with you on the plucking option.. it's not worth the effort, skin is just to thin. I'm not sure if I'll do it the same way next time around or not, after looking at the little things, about the only place I really see any meat is the breast and maybe a bite on the legs.. lol, I was looking at one and asking myself why in the world did I mess with all those innards like I had to when there really isn't anything anywhere around them I could get a bite of meat off of.

Ned

[Fivehollers]

With the courtinix quail you will have not too much meat. We raised them along with the Jumbo Wisconsin Bobs and frankly we were not too impressed. Neither were the kids they like the white meat of the Bob anyway, we gave up on the little quail and have been raising the Jumbo, I think the largest bird I have weighed so far (at 16 weeks) was 6 oz. Large white breasts with enought meat on the thigh for a good taste. (my grandson loves that part) anyway...I did not pay attention to the age you were butchering them at and I would hold off for another 8 weeks. We are butchering some this weekend at 12 weeks (tender meat) but they are overcrowded anyway and are killing each other to the tune of about 2 birds a day quite a waste of food for a family with no income right now except for unemployment and 5 mouths to feed. Hubby got a deer last night and that will go a long way if he has to go out of town for work. He is a union carpenter and right now in central Illinois the job market sucks. (can I say that here) oh well.  :shock:

Good luck with the little birds. Enjoy!

Lori

[Fivehollers]

I forgot to add we are not feeding flight conditioner to the birds we are eating, we are feeding them soy mash, wheat and milo with finely cracked corn. they fatten up nicely with that mixture and we keep them in smaller pens so they don't move too much. Lori

[poultryman90]

Yeah, we just pop the head off, skin em, and fry em up. Not much there, but you can get a decent meal off of 2. I agree with you there lori. The job market in illinois rather sucks. Thats the exact reason that we just re-located from robinson IL to Raeford North Carolina. Got on with a renovation construction company. Was there 3 days and they made me foreman along with 700/week and a company truck(2003 chevy). They're hireing by the way(hehe).

[Fivehollers]

small world, hubby was just laid off (3 weeks ago) from a hospital remodel job in Robinson. I we had not just built this house and if the kids were willing to move I would go anywhere else but here but....we have several more years to tough it out. I lost my job last december, (went overseas) so I have until next august to finish with school (LPN program at Lake Land on the states dime) then things will not be so bad if he is laid off for a while. He did get 2 deer yesterday, in 12 hours a doe and a 10 point buck, that will go a long way in filling the freezer. We are going to butcher another 20 or so quail and for a couple of months we will be set at least for meat. He is going to call about a ruptured hog usually we can pick up 250 pounds for about 40 dollars. We butcher them ourselves, nothing better than fresh pork. Anyway....got to get ready for school (sounds funny for 42 year old)

[Country Quail Boy FL]

Hey Lori,
     You ought to send the hubby down this way to Pensacola. They are hiring anyone with carpenter skills and certified carpenters get better wages. They cant get enough of them over there because of the hurricane damage.

[Nedley]

Lori (or anyone else)
 Are you saying that you think the bobwhites have more meat on them? I was under the impression that the cortunix have as much, or more meat than the native bobwhites.. I just had a really great hatch today of bobs, so far 50 out of 80 eggs (started with 100 eggs intially, took some out during the candlling process).
 When I got into this about 3 months ago, I was planning on just doing bobs cause I love seeing them in the wild and have enjoyed eating them in the past, and was going to do them to release back to the wild, and also to eat.. however I came across cortunix and have been led to believe that the cortunix had just as much meat on them. I do know they mature faster and are not near as spastic as bobs, nor do they make much noise or smell (got 3 bobs in a brooder at 4 weeks old and I swear they stink worse after 1 day than 18 cortunix did after 2 days in the exact same cage).
 At this point.. I am seeing that I can get cortunix up to age and in the freezer faster than I can the bobs, I think there is also a jumbo bob (my hatch today has some of those in it too, so I'll just have to see how they turn out) but even at that, their incubation time is going to give the cortunix a week headstart on them.  The cortunix seem pretty calm to me and are producing great eggs for me that I can incubate back out, I've heard some people say that bobs might not start laying til next spring even if I keep a light on them??

Thanks for all your great info.
 Ned

[Fivehollers]

Matter of what you want, we don't have time to mess around with the incubator all winter so we don't. And it is a matter of what you like, I love dove but you have to have a ton of them for a decent meal same with the Cortinix, we also have the jumbo bobs so that  might be the difference. As far as time to get them fat, 16 weeks seems like a long time but to me its worth the wait, and as I said before (another post) the ones we  butchered at 12 weeks were not too far behind the 16 week old ones. Anyway...have fun this is a great hobby. We did release about 50 into the wild this year and run across them once in a while, there is a covy that lives behind the chicken coop about 6 with only one male, i am sure he is happy, or miserable LOL  :shock:

[CoopVilla]

Oh...I'll throw in my 2 cents

If there isnt much meat to the bird, I dont bother with anything but the breast myself. After popping the head off or in a hunt, I grab the bottom of the breast while holding the bird firmly in other hand and pull off the breast with my thumb and disgard the rest of it. Its really easy to do. If its got some meat to it I'll put in some extra effort. sometimes with skin sometimes without. In my first hunt for quail as a youngster, 9 maybe 10 years old, I got a few gambles. I plucked the feathers on one and never did it again.

I grew to like quail and dove soaked in wine for a bit then wrapped in slice of bacon with a tooth pick holding it in place and baked

[Nedley]

thanks CoopVilla
 I'm still watching this for any new suggestions from people :)
 I have decided that (with cortunix anyway) those half bites I can get off the upper legs are worth it, so I guess I'll keep dressing the whole thing out so I can get a full bite off the breast and a half bite off each leg.

Ned

[Fivehollers]

I like the little bit of meat on the legs also, my grandson really loves to chew on the legs, just like grandpa  

Lori

by the way we dress out dove that way when hunting, just grab the breast and go easier to get them home also