Chicken Mummifiers: Tell us what you did

[Helpdesk]

If you have done the chicken mummification in The Story of the World Volume 1 Activity Book, please answer this question.

Where did you keep your chicken?

Did you put it in a zipper-style plastic bag? a plastic container? both? more?

Did you put it in the refrigerator? the garage? your MIL's house? the next county?

Thank you in advance for your feedback.  Please don't be gross.

[Rosie_0801]

It got buried on a hill, next to my aunt's cat's grave, with a modest pyramid of rocks on top.

Pre-burial, it lived in a Tupperware container in the pantry, I think. We didn't have a fridge at the time, but I wouldn't have put it in there anyway. It wouldn't be authentic. 😅

[HomeAgain]

1. The first time around I kept it in the fridge the first week, and then in the laundry room from then on.  We used plastic bags, doubled.  We didn't keep it too far past the end date.

2. Second time I had 3 going at once, and mostly the same method, but they hung out in the laundry room from day 1.  Again, didn't keep them longer than the funeral.

3. Third time I got smart and used a cornish game hen.  Still plastic bags, hung out in my fridge in the beginning because I lived in west Texas and we did this in September.  There were no other cool, dark places.

Things I learned:

get the warehouse sized bags of salt and baking soda.  You will need them.  I only had access to the smaller containers for the second time (and didn't know this for the first time).  I felt like the crazy person at the store, taking every container off the shelf.

Bags work better than plastic containers, unless you use an old shopping bag inside the container.  The first few changes are messy.  There's a lot of liquid being released.  Bags help to keep the mixture on the bird better. 

Also: Get plastic gloves.

Do the same experiment with a large apple.  We peeled and carved it to be a face, and it paired grotesquely with the chicken body to be a whole "person" It also gives the kid something to do if they're unwilling to do the changing of the mixture on the bird.

[PeterPan]

Shh, but I paid someone to do it. 🤣  No seriously, I handed the instructions to ds' ABA worker and said HAVE FUN.

I used one of those inexpensive thin Glad/Hefty single use containers that just fit a chicken leg. I really didn't see a need to do more than a drumstick, and the rest of the pack made ds a mighty fine dinner. They mixed the dry goods in a ziplock bag, popped in the leg, sealed, and put that in the plastic container.

We peeked at it after 6 months or so, I forget, but now it sits in mystery in the basement kitchen awaiting some kind of proper burial.

[Farrar]

I've done it three times. Seconding some of these tips...

Definitely use the cornish game hen and not the full chicken.

I found that a large super airtight container was better than a ziploc set up.

I changed out the salt and soda mix several times, which I found was key.

Did not leave it in the fridge. I just let it do its thing in a dark basement in between changing out the salts.

It was absolutely perfectly preserved and dried out when we were done. 

[Dianthus]

I used a cornish hen, gallon ziploc plastic bags and left in our boiler /mech room in garage during processing.  When we were done, we looked at it, said wow and threw it out.  I'm not a saver. My daughter (12) says she thinks she remembers it.  I hope that doesn't mean I should do it again.  We are listening to SoTW 1 again in the car.

[knitgrl]

Cornish hen and a ziploc bag. I think the directions tell you to change it out I don't know how many times, which we did. I think we put it in the back room. But it never smelled. It hung around for a year or two and then got tossed. I didn't have the where-with-all to do it with the younger kids. Maybe next time around in middle school?

[ScoutTN]

Cornish hen, ziploc, spices. 
My kids made sarcophagi out of Stride Rite shoe boxes - just the right size. We buried Chicky-hotep and Nefertweety in the backyard.

[caffeineandbooks]

Ours was a supermarket chicken that lived in a ziploc bag inside a Tupperware container on the school room bench while being mummified.  It never stank, despite it being late summer when we began.  Now it's enjoying its 3000 years of bliss in a styrofoam box on top of a bookshelf, still not stinking, and shortly before we come back around to ancients again I will bury it in the backyard in preparation for an archaeological dig.  It did need far more salt and bicarb than I had guessed from the instructions, and I wish I had asked the butcher for one with head and feet still attached.

[Helpdesk]

Thank you all for your wonderful and hilarious feedback.  It's great to have some feet-on-the-ground information...and encouragement.  I myself didn't have the nerve to do the mummy!  Now I wish we had.  

[Servant4Christ]

I think I'm going to HAVE to look into SOTW as a possibility for the 2 littles when they start school after reading about cool projects like this! 😂

Edited September 3, 2021 by Servant4Christ

[caffeineandbooks]

@Servant4Christwe are huge SOTW fans in our house, but with the wisdom of hindsight, I should have waited till kid 2 was in first grade instead of enthusiastically jumping in the moment kid 1 was ready.  SOTW will easily stretch up to meet a kid who's in say 3rd or even 4th grade when they start, but it's less easy to stretch the later books down for a younger sibling who's hitting book 3 or 4 in 1st or 2nd grade.

[Servant4Christ]

Upon further research, SOTW will not fit the needs of my family.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Servant4Christ

[SoCal_Bear]

I did a cornish game hen in a plastic container with a lid. I can't remember how many time I changed out the mixture, but I know I did do it multuple times. I just left the container sitting on my kitchen island even though I live in a warm area. I still have it sitting in my garage 8 years later. Doesn't smell at all.

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by calbear