Don't waste heads and feet!

[Annemieke]

At the moment, in our case, this means pheasants' heads and feet. But the same holds for all birds and poultry.
When you prepare a bird from scratch (if you have to buy it, unfortunately it doesn't come with that stuff) don't throw out the best parts. Use them to make stock along with other bits and bobs you have lying around.
The heads and feet contain lots of gelatin which is, amongst other things, excellent for your joints. See http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/ ... our-stock/ and http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/ ... rothstock/ about why, and how to do it.
I freeze the heads/feet as I get them and then use them to make the stock once I've got plenty. Then I freeze the stock in several tubs. Once I have defrosted a tub, it will keep for ten days in the fridge: gelatin does not go off easily.
Yum.

[Homesteadingwitch]

Yuck...

LOL!

I boiled a pigs head once..
that was enough. I found it hard to cope with 'the face' in the pan... and my family wouldn't eat any of the meat or gelatin that came off of it..

We can just about handle eating our own chickens and rabbits, but I could not handle doing things to their heads.. sorry..

[bonniethomas06]

It is a bit peverse that we eat certain tissue from animals and not others - and also it is usually only because we stick to what we are accustomed to - if we had been brought up to eat the eyeballs, we would!

But I am afraid I am with Homesteadingwitch on this one - tbh I struggle to eat normal bits of meat, let alone the grisly bits.

[Carltonian Man]

Posted this before I think, but I was once served up half a rabbits head as part of a dish. I did quite fine until I got down to the inner part of the ear canal and uncovered what looked like remnants of wax and hairs. Kind of skipped over that part of the meal after that and can't honestly say I'd welcome the thought of having it again.

[Odsox]

As it happens, I am in the process of slaughtering our last batch of chicken. I saw this post earlier and then looked at the feet of 2 hefty cockerels hanging up out in the shed, they are absolutely filthy and I KNOW what they have been walking about in, so no ... I don't think so.
Nor the heads I'm afraid.
I do make use of a lot of the internal bits though, I have the livers and my dog has the heart, lights, gizzard, kidneys and gonads, but again I don't fancy making sausage skins from the intestines.
Strange world, innit ?

[Chaldeonmenthe]

I love the theory, and in fact have been collecting lots of recipes over the years for all the grizzley bits. But, when push comes to shove, nope. Not a hope. I am too indoctrinated in the 'yummy' versus 'yucky' societal thinking about our animal parts, and quite frankly am not willing to step outside of my comfort zone. Although if I had to make a choice between using the head and feet for stock, and eating the offal I will very soon have a freezer full of stock.4 (However this thinking works well for the dogs and cats who love their filters).

[Zech]

That's interesting about the gelatin being healthy - I had no idea. I buy my meat, so don't have to decide whether I can face using heads and feet, but I do boil bones for stock which sets nicely so I guess has a fair bit of gelatin in it.

[doofaloofa]

One word

sausages

[doofaloofa]

i have been cooking up all the heads guts etc for the pigs

They LOVE it

[Green Aura]

The stupid thing is that I don't have any chickens, so buy feet from the Chinese warehouse, specifically for the purpose of making stock! No heads though. I've never seen those for sale. And making sausages in intestines is perfectly normal, isn't it - most are put in hog casings, just another name for intestines.

[Odsox]

Well you see I make gallons of stock from all the chicken bones. We now bone all our own chicken, roast the bones for a while and then boil them up for stock, then pick off any remaining meat for dog food, then dry the bare bones in the oven (when using the oven for other things) and then grind them up for bone meal for the garden.
The chicken were born on the property and remain on the property for ever.

[daffodiltulip]

If you get a big enough fish, you'll find (I only do it when I've cooked one whole in the oven) that they have two very nice "strips" of meat along the top of the head and two roundish bits where you can imagine they'd have cheeks. Many years ago I was watching a Programme for School and Colleges (do they still show those?) featuring a fish merchant who habitually threw away what are called cod cheeks. When I say threw away, presumably they went to pet food etc rather than for human consumption. Then, he said, he discovered that cod cheeks were something of a delicacy on the Continent and what he previously discarded now was able to make more money out of.

[doofaloofa]

the cheek!

[tizzy]

Mixed reaction to this thread, lol, I hate waste but yeuch.
I have to have the pigs head face down in the pan, can't have it grinning at me after knowing it - huge guilt trip I'm afraid.

I haven't tried this with our own chickens yet but supermarket birds get jointed and the rest of the carcase I pressure cook for about 45 mins. The bones go as soft as salmon bones so I just mash up the lot for the dogs as a treat. I keep the stock for gravy.

[daffodiltulip]

I did this recently - pressure-cooked the carcass of the roast chicken, made soup for me and put the skin and thinner, smaller thinner bones (wasn't sure of the blades) in the blender with some of the stock and made a sort of slurry. The dog enjoyed it, the cats didn't.