Slaughter of chicken begins with the preparation of the bird and ends with its processing. This whole process requires compliance with a number of rules, otherwise you can get low-quality meat at the exit, for example, due to putrefactive processes that occur in the intestine. How to prepare and slaughter a chicken, and then remove its feathers and cut the carcass, we will find out further.
Poultry selection and slaughter preparation
First, a selection of poultry intended for slaughter is required. An experienced farmer “by eye” can determine which chicken is suitable for slaughter, but for beginners it is worth starting from the weight of the bird - it should be at least 2-2.5 kg. Suitable specimens should be caught from the herd and transferred to a separate room a day before slaughter. They need to be maintained according to the following rules:
- About 24 hours before slaughter, feed the chickens with wheat bran or rye flour (about 25% of the main feed). After transferring the chickens to artificial starvation. It should be noted that some farmers use a different method of accelerating the digestion of birds - 24 hours before fasting they give a 2% solution of glauber's salt.
- Before slaughter, the chickens should not be fed for about 18 hours to clean their intestines and stomach.
- Giving chickens fluid in the required amount, since it helps cleanse the digestive tract, digest food residues and preserve water in the muscles. In addition, if the birds are not allowed to drink, this will lead to a loss in the total mass of their body.
To further accelerate the digestive processes of chickens, some farmers turn off the lights the night before slaughter. In the dark, their bodies are disoriented, which leads to faster digestion of food debris. At the same time, the drinkers must be full.
Slaughter Location Requirements
It is necessary to prepare in advance the place of slaughter of the bird. It must strictly comply with sanitary standards. This will require:
- flush tables, walls and floors using 2% bleach;
- process the tools by boiling them for about 15 minutes;
- disinfect the pen removal machine;
- wash overalls in which slaughter will be carried out (an apron and a dressing gown).
Room cleaning should be carried out before and after slaughter.
Experienced farmers equip the place where poultry is slaughtered with the following items:
- hooks that are attached to the wall so that hens can be hung on them;
- a table;
- large pot;
- cone for slaughter;
- a bucket or basin;
- cellophane bag or cloth;
- tools (ax, sharp knives, gutting forks);
- a refrigerator with a freezer and a smokehouse, to store meat later.
It is also worthwhile to prepare a lot of water in advance to wash the processed carcasses, as well as clean dishes, tools, tables and the wall. In addition, warm water (about 90 ° C) is required to scald the bird if necessary before plucking.
Slaughter methods
There are several techniques for slaughtering chicken, the choice of which should be carried out depending on how long it is planned to store meat in the future. So, if it does not lie for a long time before cooking, poultry farmers recommend using a fairly simple way - remove the bird’s head with a cleaver (ax). If the meat is subject to long-term storage, slaughter should be carried out externally. What is each of the techniques, consider separately.
Head removal
The most popular method involves removing the chicken head with a cleaver (ax). As a rule, the chicken dies immediately, so this method can be considered quite humane. The procedure is simple, so every farmer can handle it. So, you must perform the following steps:
- Lay the bird on a stump and hold it tight so that it does not break out. If you do not have the necessary experience, at first you can resort to the help of another person who will hold the bird.
- Swing and strike with a cleaver in the middle of the neck. In order not to torment the bird, it is very important to chop off its head the first time.
- A bird, even without a head, can start to break out and convulse. At this moment, it is important not to let her out of her hands.
- As soon as the head is chopped off, hang the chicken by the legs on a hook and put up a bucket for collecting blood.
This technique allows you to cut the airways and cause instant death of the bird, so she does not have time to feel the pain. However, this method also has a negative side - chicken meat can not be stored for a long time, since microbes penetrate into open sections of the neck and lead to its rapid deterioration.
Internal method ("split")
It involves the rapid removal of blood, so that at the exit you can get high-quality meat with excellent presentation. The essence of the method is the slaughter of a bird through a clus, which is implemented according to this instruction:
- Stun the bird with a strong blow to the head using a blunt heavy object. This procedure is mandatory in case of slaughter of large breeds of hens. If you need to kill a small bird, then stunning it is not necessary, although this can be done for humane reasons.
- With your left hand, grab the bird’s head, and then turn its beak towards yourself, that is, in the direction from which it is planned to slaughter.
- With a sharp movement of the right hand, introduce a narrow, long and sharpened knife into the chicken's beak, which needs to break the connection of the two veins - the jugular and the bridge. An incision can be made using scissors that have sharpened ends.
- Pull the tool towards you and make an injection to the right and a little lower, so that through the palatine fissure it gets into the front of the cerebellum. Thanks to such simple manipulations, it will be possible to relax the muscles of the bird, accelerate bleeding of the carcass and facilitate plucking of feathers, as they will not adhere tightly to the skin.
- Hang the bird upside down and substitute a basin to drain the remaining blood.
- After bleeding, insert a tissue or cotton swab into the beak to soak up any remaining blood.
The internal method of slaughter is also not applied in cases when it is planned to receive meat at the exit for long-term storage.
Outdoor way
Many farmers often use the external method, especially when slaughtering large chickens, including broiler breeds. At the exit, it is possible to obtain marketable meat, which is subject to long-term storage. The fact is that with the external method of slaughter, only small incisions are made, so the microbes do not actually penetrate the inside of the bird and do not infect the meat.
It should be noted that the external slaughter of chicken is one-and two-sided. Each method involves its own nuances, so you should consider two instructions.
Unilateral slaughter by the external method is performed in the following order:
- Grab the bird’s neck with your left hand, closer to the head.
- Take a sharp knife in your right hand and make an incision 1.5-2 cm long. The optimal place for an incision is 2 cm below the left earlobe. It is necessary to enter the knife deeper to get and cut the blood flow paths - jugular (venous) and arterial (facial and sleepy).
The bilateral method is carried out according to the following instructions:
- Hold the bird’s neck with your left hand.
- Take a knife or scissors in your right hand and pierce the skin of the chicken at a point that is 1 cm below the earlobe.
- Direct the blade to the right side to immediately cut through the 2 carotid arteries and jugular veins. It turns out that the knife should go through. In order to perform the necessary manipulations with one movement, the blade must be perfectly sharpened. The optimal cut size is up to 1.5 cm.
Regardless of the method of external slaughter, after its implementation, the workplace is not stained with blood, since there are no bloody sprays.
Cone application
At home, for slaughtering a bird, you can use a special device in the form of a cone, which is made of metal. You need to hang it, and then put the chicken's head through the bottom hole. This device fixes the bird well, so it does not beat its wings and is not injured. Below you can put a bucket into which blood flows after slaughter. Slaughter can be done using scissors or a knife using one of the above technologies.
Bird plucking methods
After slaughtering the bird and bleeding the carcass, it will be necessary to quickly and accurately pluck feathers. The fact is that this procedure will become much more complicated if the carcass cools down. The plucking can be carried out manually or by means of a special device.
Manual methods
There are several ways to remove chicken feathers manually:
- After the blood drains, put the carcass on the plate and begin to feel. In this case, you need to move in this sequence - the tail, wings, back and chest, neck and legs. In order not to spoil the skin, you need to pluck a small number of feathers.
- After slaughter, place the chicken carcass in a bucket of boiling water for 30-40 seconds, and then transfer it to the pelvis and begin to feel. It is not recommended to keep it in boiling water for longer than the specified time, as the skin can boil, so plucking will become much more difficult. Feathers and down should be removed in the same order as when plucking cold. To make feathers easier to remove, it is recommended to pull them out in the direction of growth. This method is advisable to use when slaughter chicken, designed for egg laying. It is usually old in age, so the feathers hold tight.
With such a feeling, an unpleasant odor will come out, so the procedure should be carried out outdoors, and not indoors.
- Place the bloodless carcass in hot water for 30 seconds, and then transfer it to a plastic bag for 15 minutes, blocking air access to it. It turns out a steam bath, thanks to which the skin is steamed well. After that, you need to remove the feathers in the previously specified order. With this method, the time of plucking the bird is significantly reduced.
- After the blood drains, wrap the chicken in a cloth. Bring a steam iron to it and turn on the steaming function. Steam the chicken carcass. The pores on her skin will expand, so the feathers can be easily removed.
The above methods are acceptable when it is necessary to process no more than 2-3 birds, since it takes about 30 minutes for each chicken. In case of mass slaughter, one should use the mechanical method.
Mechanical method
It is carried out using a special device in the form of a rotating brush with silicone fibers. It is necessary to bring a carcass to it, which you can smoothly rotate as the fingers-villi pull out fluff during rotation.
The palpation procedure takes little time, but there is one drawback - with mechanical removal of feathers, skin can sometimes be damaged. If the bird is not put up for sale, then this will not cause concern. If the carcass is being prepared for sale, then you must act extremely carefully so as not to spoil its presentation.
This procedure is called a “carcass toilet”. To do this, you should press on the stomach of the bird and at the same time change the paper swab in the oral cavity so that it absorbs the last blood clots. If the excrement gets on the chicken legs, they should be washed with water without affecting the body itself.
After the toilet, the carcass must be scorched to remove the delicate plumage. In this case, you can use a gas burner. If this is not at hand, then singeing can be done over the fire, but first you should grate the carcass with flour, since it will help to quickly get rid of soot on the skin of the bird. When all the fluff has been removed, the chicken should be washed. After that, it will turn pink.
Carcass processing
After all the feathers are removed, you must proceed to gutting the carcass. Such a difficult procedure is performed according to this instruction:
- Chill the chicken carcass in cold water for 10 minutes. Otherwise, the capillaries will fill with blood, so the carcass will acquire a dark unpleasant hue.
- Place the bird upside down.
- Make a circular incision of the cloaca, and then a large longitudinal section, which in adult birds and young animals is usually 4 cm.
- Remove the giblets, starting with a bowel recess with cloaca. Take out the gallbladder very carefully, otherwise it may be damaged. In this case, bile will spread over the carcass, and the meat will have to be thrown out, because it will become bitter in taste.
- From all the taken out entrails, save the liver, heart and stomach. In this case, it will be necessary to carefully and without rupture separate the stomach from the end of the duodenum. The remaining entrails are recommended to be thrown away or given to pets.
- Rinse the heart and liver and use for cooking various dishes. The stomach is cut in half with a sharp knife, remove stones and glass, and then rinse, scald with boiling water and remove the top layer. Only after these manipulations can it be used in cooking.
- In the neck, make an incision from which to remove the trachea and esophagus. Near the larynx also make a small hole through which to remove the goiter.
- After removing the internal organs, thoroughly rinse the carcass and wipe it dry.
After processing, it is worth letting the meat “ripen”. To do this, it must lie down at room temperature for several hours. If you cook it after such a procedure, it will be juicy and with a pleasant aroma.
Meat storage
If you plan to cook the chicken in a few hours, you can simply transfer it to the refrigerator. To prevent the meat from drying out during this time, it must first be placed in a plastic bag or wrapped in a cloth, which is recommended to moisten in table or apple vinegar. Make sure that the fabric does not dry out. For longer storage, carcasses can be used in other ways:
- Freezing. Without it, the bird must be stored for no more than 3 days. You can freeze the whole carcass or divide it into parts, separating the wings, hips, legs, chest and back. In the winter season, you can hold the bird on the street for a day, and then dip it in cold water and put it back in the air. Repeat this procedure several times, and then wrap the chicken in clean paper and store in a cool place.
The carcass can be kept in the cellar, but not longer than 5 days. To prevent decay, wrap it in a clean cloth soaked in vinegar.
- Salting. If meat needs to be stored for a long time, chicken can be salted. To do this, prepare a saline solution, which, using a syringe, pour into the carcass through the beak. After you need to bandage the neck and hang the carcass with its legs up. Salt for 24 hours and drain after brine.
- Cold smoked. Cut the carcass in half and sprinkle with salt. Leave it for 48 hours and then put a load on it. Salting is carried out from 3 to 7 days. Then rinse the carcass, dry with a towel and smoke for about 2-3 days with cold smoke at a temperature of 20 ° C.
- Hot smoked. To do this, the smoking temperature should be about 80 ° C during the first hour, and then it must be lowered to 40 ° C. The duration of the procedure is 4 hours. To remove soot and soot, it is recommended to wipe the chicken with a cloth or towel. Smoked carcasses are stored in suspension, and the air temperature should not be higher than 5 ° C.
So, slaughtering poultry at home is not the most difficult job, so farmers and farmers get used to it quite easily. At the same time, one should not ignore the rules of slaughter and processing of poultry in order to get meat of excellent quality with an attractive presentation.