Look what I canned!

I wanted to label them as "Deer" from my hunting trip to Roswell.




























Actually they are chicken feet. I thought you might like to know how to can them yourself.

















First you need some chicken feet. Although I have 16 chickens of my own, we were not ready to slaughter any of them yet. However, one of my co-workers slaughtered 16 of theirs over the weekend. I appreciate that they prefer that nothing goes to waste, even if they don't want to eat it. Once you have the feet, they need to be cleaned. Don't be too picky, just get the big stuff off.





















Then dunk them in 190 degree water for 45 seconds. One minute cooks the meat and less than 45 does not loosen the skin.
























Now you peel them. Use your thumb nail to get it started and just peel the top layer off. Sometimes the pad is worn through and you will have to cut it off, if this is happening to your chickens they might be spending too much time on a hard floor. I use some tongs to pull the feel out of the scalding water and after the skin is off I use it again to squeeze the outer layer off of the toe nails. Some people suggest you cut the tips of the toes off, but I think that is harder than popping the nails.



























Next you can as you would normally. I looked in the Cooperative Extension Service Guide to Home Canning and used the processing time for bone in chicken meat (65 minutes).