Re: does duck slaughter method differ from chicken slaughter?


"James Fidell" <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e4c76e$hfu$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mary Fisher wrote:

Yes, I always remove feathers while attached to the skin on any bird.
It's
so much quicker and easier. The skin on even a duck isn't worth all that
hassle.

I learned that tip donkeys years ago from an SAS man who'd had to live
for
some months very rough on what he could get. He caught pigeons (and mice
and
other things) and got fed up with trying to pluck them so discovered that
skinning was efficient and he satisfied his hunger more quickly.

Plucking was important centuries ago when the feathers were needed for
various purposes. Now it's purely cosmetic, I believe. We've come to
expect
to see a naked bird in its skin.

I've always hand-plucked chickens. I've not even bothered to scald
them. It's a bit time-consuming, but not that hard, except for some
of the primary flight feathers. Doesn't having the skin on help keep
the meat moist if you're roasting a bird, or do you wrap it in bacon
or something along those lines?

LOL! Who wants wet meat?

Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

The answer is that we only eat 'chicken' if we know exactly how it's been
reared and killed. The same is true of all the meat we eat, by the way.
There's a huge range of protein available, chicken isn't essential and
because we're so fussy we eat it rarely. We're not prepared to support the
cruelty of the intensive poultry industry.

When we do have 'chicken' it's usually a culled cockerel from a daughter's
farm, which isn't really suitable for dry roasting - although I have done it
without larding, barding or anointing in any other way. Knowing the food and
the oven is the secret. Most of the time we prefer it pot roasted or, even
more frequently, cooked in pieces in other ways. Roasting chicken always
seems wasteful.

Fifty years ago a Jewish friend taught me to poach a chicken until cooked
and tender then quickly roast it to give it the 'traditional' browning. It's
very good that way and very moist. No flesh sticks to the bones so there's
no wastage.

And yes, of COURSE I make stock with the bones and other bits!

When I roast some game I sometimes put bacon over it but that's because we
like the mingled flavours.

There are so many lovely foods and so many ways of cooking them that I don't
suppose we have the same meal twice in a year - if that.

Mary



james


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