Does how you butcher affect taste of meat?

[erinchelsea]

Just curious as to your experience....is it true that cutting the throat as opposed to totally removing the head to kill really affect the flavor or texture of the meat? I've read that to slit the throat is better but yesterday when we culled one of our meaties we just lopped the head off with a poultry shears in the killing cone and that seemed a heck of a lot easier for newbies. Is there anything wrong with doing it that way?

The bird is resting in the fridge, I am anxious to see how it tastes as it was the first one we have butchered! It dressed out at 3 lbs. 12 oz. at 6 weeks and looks yummy!

 

[wood&feathers]

thoughts on the subject - as long as the kill is quick and clean, with the bird well bled and properly chilled and rested, I don't think it makes a difference. However I do think the careful throat cut is quicker and less struggle than decapitation - all that gasp reflex thing. I've tried both and now like the knife, others prefer the chopping block. I suspect if I had to do many EEs or other bearded birds I would lean the other way - it is hard to get the cut right quickly when obscured by feathers.

What would flavor the meat is the hormones and chemicals of panic. If the bird was killed quickly it should taste fine.

 

[yinepu]

My husband shoots ours in the head.. my mother used to use an axe and lop the head off. Some old roosters would take several whacks to remove the head while they struggled on the block. I've never noticed a difference in the flavor or texture of the meat between the way she killed as to how we handle it.

 

[soap&eggs]

i have never used shears nor killing cone..we ax ours on a very HARD block of wood or stump. if it isnt hard, axing takes a bit more . also we have 2 long nails at end to put head between .feet i tie a rope cord around feet/ legs., once head is removed, bird will jump & flop around, i hurry & hook ropecord over post to drain. i have heard the flopping on ground causes bruising of the meat. if you dont drain blood out will cause meat to taste bad.

 

[erinchelsea]

I'm definitely using a killing cone...I have too many memories of headless chickens running around the yard as a youngster.

But I'm glad to know beheading the bird won't make any difference as far as taste & texture of the meat. I've got our first bird in the crock-pot right now for dinner.

The meat looks great, I am really impressed with these CX's so far even though I wouldn't say raising them has been a real treat! (stinky, dirty things...and ours our outside on grass & fresh air)

 

[Bossroo]

The stress hormone changes of one's chase of the ckicken probably affects the taste and/ or texture more so than the method of execution. The delivery time of the amount of stress hormones is drastically reduced by the rapid loss of circulating blood to the muscles from a very calm bird vs. one in flight mode. Texture or toughness is associeted more to not allowing the bird to rest long enough to let rigor mortis to pass. That is if one doesn't cook the bird immediatly ( like right now) after plucking and gutting before rigor mortis starts of set in.

 

[Mrs. Mucket]

What exactly does the stress hormone do to the meat? Does it taste offensive? We had an unfortunately challenging slaughter yesterday (one-year-old rooster) and we don't think the first slit killed him (we did it again). He was calm though--had been in a crate all night and I carried him nicely to the cone so there was no chase.

 

[yinepu]

Mrs. Mucket :

What exactly does the stress hormone do to the meat? Does it taste offensive?

From what I have heard it makes them taste gamey.. I dunno for sure though​

 

[erinchelsea]

Well, we ate the roo last night and it was very yummy! I cooked it in the crock pot and made a casserole out of it. Lots of nice white breast meat and no fat to be seen.