Post by Tyrell Reeves on Aug 21, 2017 22:55:16 GMT -5
Ty started his day with a rabbit. A dead rabbit. It wasn’t a fresh catch or kill, one chance had provided, probably fresh from one of the snares out in the field the previous afternoon. He also had a very sharp knife, whose edge he examined but was careful not to recklessly touch. He put the rabbit beside the cooking pit he had set up in the center of the abandoned house. Then he set about the task of skinning and chopping it -- the better to make a meal out of.
There wasn't much to be had from the lower limbs, Ty simply took the knife to the rabbit's knees and removed those parts. Then he worked its tip under the skin and slit up the insides of the legs, making a connecting cut between. He paused to poke at the edges of a cut, teasing the skin away from the meat beneath. It was odd just how thin the rabbit's skin was -- He knew a raven's beak couldn't get through it, and yet there was so little to that outer layer. You'd think it wouldn't offer that much protection!
The skin also peeled off rather easily from the body, as if hardly anything connected it to the rabbit proper at all. Just thin little wisps of translucent stuff, something that reminded him of spider silks, if spider silks came in sheets stronger than it looked, but not strong enough to offer more than a token assistance against his fingers. Ty worked his fingers further under the skin until he had enough loose to turn the edge over and get a good grip on it. Then he pulled the skin off towards the head, not all at once but in stages, turning the rabbit over from time to time to work on both sides. It came away easily, if slowly; He was probably more careful than he needed to be, but he wanted it to come out well.
The hardest part was dealing with the front legs when he got to them. Ty couldn't remember if he was supposed to make slits the way he had for the back pair or cut around them, or just keep pulling the skin off. As he looked at the carcass, that last didn't seem like it would really work he needed to get the skin off over the neck and head too. Maybe that also needed to be cut out. He finally decided to leave off the front part from the pelt; he reclaimed the knife and made a cut around the skin, behind the forelegs and shoulders. That left him with a furry tube in one hand and a half-dressed rabbit in the other. The pelt, he set aside, focusing on the rest of the carcass.
It needed to be a completely undressed rabbit, with the possible exception of the head Ty thought he could just take that off entirely. So he did, leaning on the knife until it crunched through the spine, then cutting through the flesh of the neck. A cut down the front and two more down the insides of the forelegs let him pull off the rest of the skin, a less-neatly-shaped flap of fur which he set over with the rest. The next part was to take out the guts. Tywas familiar enough with the insides of critters to know how to start that; a cut into the stomach would avoid all the ribs and things. So he made one and felt around inside until he found places where organs attached to non-organ things. They came loose readily, too, and went into a small pile on the edge of the board.
Ty took a moment to clean out the rabbit's body cavity, just to be sure he'd gotten everything. That took care of all the finicky stuff now all he had to do was chop it up into hawk-bite-sized pieces without chopping his fingers in the process, but he wasn't very concerned about that happening. He took the limbs off first, and cut them up; the knife wouldn't go through those thicker bones, so he separated the meat. The ribs, on the other hand, broke easily, and he left them in the resulting pieces. Some got chopped up pretty small, about half the size of his thumb, and others he left bigger because it was boring if everything was all the same.
The work was slow, tiring, and by the time he had a small fire going to actually cook the meat, he was ponderinf if it was even worth the effort.
There wasn't much to be had from the lower limbs, Ty simply took the knife to the rabbit's knees and removed those parts. Then he worked its tip under the skin and slit up the insides of the legs, making a connecting cut between. He paused to poke at the edges of a cut, teasing the skin away from the meat beneath. It was odd just how thin the rabbit's skin was -- He knew a raven's beak couldn't get through it, and yet there was so little to that outer layer. You'd think it wouldn't offer that much protection!
The skin also peeled off rather easily from the body, as if hardly anything connected it to the rabbit proper at all. Just thin little wisps of translucent stuff, something that reminded him of spider silks, if spider silks came in sheets stronger than it looked, but not strong enough to offer more than a token assistance against his fingers. Ty worked his fingers further under the skin until he had enough loose to turn the edge over and get a good grip on it. Then he pulled the skin off towards the head, not all at once but in stages, turning the rabbit over from time to time to work on both sides. It came away easily, if slowly; He was probably more careful than he needed to be, but he wanted it to come out well.
The hardest part was dealing with the front legs when he got to them. Ty couldn't remember if he was supposed to make slits the way he had for the back pair or cut around them, or just keep pulling the skin off. As he looked at the carcass, that last didn't seem like it would really work he needed to get the skin off over the neck and head too. Maybe that also needed to be cut out. He finally decided to leave off the front part from the pelt; he reclaimed the knife and made a cut around the skin, behind the forelegs and shoulders. That left him with a furry tube in one hand and a half-dressed rabbit in the other. The pelt, he set aside, focusing on the rest of the carcass.
It needed to be a completely undressed rabbit, with the possible exception of the head Ty thought he could just take that off entirely. So he did, leaning on the knife until it crunched through the spine, then cutting through the flesh of the neck. A cut down the front and two more down the insides of the forelegs let him pull off the rest of the skin, a less-neatly-shaped flap of fur which he set over with the rest. The next part was to take out the guts. Tywas familiar enough with the insides of critters to know how to start that; a cut into the stomach would avoid all the ribs and things. So he made one and felt around inside until he found places where organs attached to non-organ things. They came loose readily, too, and went into a small pile on the edge of the board.
Ty took a moment to clean out the rabbit's body cavity, just to be sure he'd gotten everything. That took care of all the finicky stuff now all he had to do was chop it up into hawk-bite-sized pieces without chopping his fingers in the process, but he wasn't very concerned about that happening. He took the limbs off first, and cut them up; the knife wouldn't go through those thicker bones, so he separated the meat. The ribs, on the other hand, broke easily, and he left them in the resulting pieces. Some got chopped up pretty small, about half the size of his thumb, and others he left bigger because it was boring if everything was all the same.
The work was slow, tiring, and by the time he had a small fire going to actually cook the meat, he was ponderinf if it was even worth the effort.