My First Time Cooking Quail (A Story of Tragedy)

Well I guess I got to get my first experience with cooking quail today... I went to go clip their wings again because one flew out the other day. I was lucky enough to catch it, so I wanted to make sure they weren't able to get out again. I clipped them as usual, with Devin and Khloe out there helping me. Then when I finished with one, I put it in a bucket and put the lid down. Then I got to the last 2.

I went to grab one of them and it flew out! We tried looking for it for some time, and I wish I had just continued what I was doing because now I regret it... We ended up not being able to find it, so I went ahead and counted it as a loss. I went to grab the last one, and it flew out too! Luckily that one was easily caught.

The kids decided to keep looking for the other lost quail, and I said I would go ahead and move them back into the coop. I went to dump the bucket out, and a few of them were dead :-( Khloe said "Oh! Because they didn't have air to breathe!" I said "DAMMIT!!!" and started crying. I forgot to leave some space with the lid so they could get some fresh air. I felt soooooo terrible!!! At one point, I think I even tried blowing air into their beaks... It was tragic... I finished up what I was doing with feeding and watering them, checking to make sure that the remaining birds were okay, and I took them inside with me.

They're full grown now, and I said I wasn't going to let them go to waste. It's not like they weren't healthy... They were just accidentally murdered :-( Especially since a couple of them were males anyway, and we said any males we had, we were going to raise for eating. I just didn't think it was going to be so soon... I watched a video about how to clean quails, and then I looked up how to cook them. Well the cleaning part was actually easy. I even saved some feathers to use for arts and crafts, so the quail went to good use in that way as well.

As for cooking, every recipe I saw called for some fancy-schmancy to-do with all kinds of fixings and additional ingredients. I figured - well hell! I'll just make it like I do chicken, and I'll bake it and see how it goes. Ya'll... It was GOOD! It tasted like turkey to me! Everyone loved it (except for Tricity and Adam. Adam tried it but didn't like it, and Tricity refused to have any part of it because she was horrified that it happened and that I continued with cooking them up. I told her "Girl, if you're not going to eat what is raised and slaughtered in this homestead, then you're going to starve!")

I also tried cooking the tiny little livers, gizzards, and hearts. The livers and gizzards were bitter (because I didn't know you had to soak them in buttermilk first to get rid of the bitterness), but the hearts were delicious! Next time, or when I slaughter our chickens next year, I will make sure to get buttermilk first. Anyway, all I did was lay them down (I spatchcocked them) and sprinkled on salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and soul food seasoning. Yum! While I'm still sad it happened this way, I'm glad they were tasty and they were put to good use. ♥