Fried Quail......or Crispy Kentucky Coturnix!

So as some of you know, Coturnix Quail have quickly become a valuable asset to our little homestead!

Tonight we had  some for supper and I thought I'd share it with you!

First, lightly sprinkle your quail with your favorite seasonings....

I use seasoned salt for The Man and The Youngun, and a mixture of salt and pepper for mine.  (The Man can't eat black pepper)

Then I beat up some egg and milk.....

Then slosh the witty bitty quail around in there.....

Then shake them up in a bag or toss them in a bowl of flour that you've lightly seasoned with some seasoned salt.....or salt and pepper, or whatever is your favorite...

Then do it again.....Double dipping isn't strictly necessary, but it does make for more of the yummy coating....

Then drop them in some hot lard......

Until they look like this....

They'll pretty well float when they are done and it doesn't take long.  If you remember I don't time anything, so I'm not sure how long....

And then I like to put them in a covered casserole, in a hot oven, for about 15 minutes or so....again, that's just a ballpark, pretty well while I finish up the rest of supper....

Then you should totally make yourself some milk gravy to go with it...

First put some yummy grease of some sort in a pan.  Bacon grease, pork fat, whatever...If you fry your quail in a skillet you can use the drippings from that.  Since I deep fried my quail tonight, I'm using the leftover grease that I fried pork chops in last night.  That's why I don't wash my pans...you never know when you might need to scrape some yummy stuff off............BAHAHAHAA!

Anyway, back to making the gravy...

Put your grease in a pan and get it hot, not smoking, but hot....

Then dump some flour in there...how much depends on how much grease you are using.  This is sort of a learned skill when you don't measure, which I don't...ever.....

Now whisk that up until it's nice and smooth and bubbly.....

Then add some milk, it's better to use not enough than too much....if your gravy is too thick, you can whisk and thin it down with more milk.....if it's too thin, it's much harder to get it thickened up without it becoming lumpy and like wallpaper paste......

Then turn your heat to medium low and whisk while you are finishing up the rest of supper.....you can stop every once in a while if you need to do other things, but come back to it often and stir, watching for it to start to thicken....

Then you are ready to eat!!

Fried Quail, Mashed 'Taters with Homemade Milk Gravy and home canned Baked Beans!

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.  Deuteronomy 8:10

I can't tell you how thankful we are to be the stewards of this little piece of land and these animals.  We are so blessed!!  

Till next time.......

The Quail Report, Old and New!

The Big Quail are laying up a storm!  The Italian Speckled that live in the rabbit barn are doing just great.  We've got one covey that is made up of two Jumbo Brown hens and an Italian Speckled Cock.  The Quail Paradise birds are all Jumbo Browns.  We've got 4 hens and a cock out there.  We wanted to move the two Jumbo Brown hens that are currently living with the Italian Speckled roo out to be with the Quail Paradise birds, that way we would have all purebred eggs, however, 6 hens and one roo isn't a very good ratio.

So to that end, we put some eggs from the Jumbo Brown covey in the incubator with the plan of hopefully getting a rooster that we can put out in Quail Paradise and then move those other hens out there, giving us 6 hens and 2 roos.

Then The Man is going to move the Italian Speckled from the rabbit barn into an outside covey. 

 This pen is currently housing the first batch of quail that we hatched and they are growing and doing great as well!  They've started to crow and it won't be long before they are ready for the table.

The above is a week or so ago, and below was Sunday.....they grow so fast!

They like to go outside, but they don't know how to go back up the ramp, so The Man has to put them back in....

He's going to rework the outside part of the pen, raising it up and filling it with good soil so that we can plant some cover in it, and so that it won't be so high for them to get back inside.  The "crate" part of it, where the quail go inside is two sided, so we'll have three quail paradise pens.  The Jumbo Browns will stay where they are, and then the four covey's of rabbit barn Italian Speckled quail will be combined into two covey's and will move into this Quail Paradise duplex.  Then he has plans to build grow out pens for the table destined quail.

 Anyway, he set 20 eggs and they started hatching on Sunday!  With any luck, we'll wind up with at least one male.  They sure are cute at any rate!

Stay in the Will and the Word!  

Till next time......