'Freshly Killed Chicken'

[nr706]

I had fresh killed chicked once. In 1980. The texture was better. I would love to have it again to see if the taste could match my memory.

I can't eat regular supermarket chicken. It's a texture thing. Spongy or plastic or something that just isn't right. Organic is much better but not as good as my memory of fresh.

Here in Chicago, I can get fresh killed chicken but I can't bring myself to do it. Because I would have to select the bird and wait while they took it in the back room and killed it. At least I think they take it in the back room. I don't think I could watch. Or listen. The horror.

- kim

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I made my first trip to Chicago Live Poultry a couple of months ago on Western, about a block north of Devon). Here were my impressions at the time:

A little smelly, but not necessarily in a bad way. The front room is pretty barren. Since I was there just for my own education, and not for a specific culinary purpose, I didn't know what I wanted. I wasn't going to spend a lot of money for this lesson. I perused the chalkbord, with all its many options. Finally, I told the counter guy I'd like a quail. He said okay, called to one of the guys in the back, and told me to follow him.

The back room was amazing. Cages upon cages, row upon row, filled with all sorts of chickens - various breeds - ducks, geese, rabbits ... more live birds than I can ever remember seeing in one place. He pointed to the quail cage and asked (at least I think he asked, English was not his first language, to say the least) which one I wanted. I didn't want to be responsible for the death of any of them, so I told him to pick one. (Okay, I recognize that by ordering it I was responsible for the death, but at least I can rationalize that I wasn't exactly responsible for that particular bird's death.)

The bird he picked out was so cute and docile - I could easily see taking it home as a pet. "Kill it?" he asked. I said "yes, and remove the feathers."

There are two butchering rooms between the front and the big back room, both of which are visible from the front. He took the quail into the further of the two rooms, and was out of sight for a minute. (I assume there was some sort of boiling or steaming process going on.) Then he came to the front butchering room, dead bird in hand, and I watched him pull off the feathers. He turned the formerly cute little thing to his partner, who cut it open and pulled out the guts - saving the gizzard, liver and heart for me. He wrapped it in a plastic bag and gave it to the counter guy. I handed over my $4.

So that cute little bird is now in my refrigerator, but not for long. Quail dinner.

Poor cute little dead bird. But I guess that's what the food chain is all about.

I think it'll get easier next time - I might even pick out my own bird.

[jsolomon]

Part of the difference of a freshly killed chicken may also be in the different care taken in the raising process.

Having grown up a on a farm, as a sprout we would usually get between 50 and 150 chicks and butcher them in 2 or 3 flights during the summer. We had damned good chicken.

Although, I have never, to my knowledge, had freshly killed chicken. After slaughtering between 20 and 60 chickens in a day, the last thing you want to face is a drumstick, no matter how charming it is.

But, our chickens were damned tasty. Fresh or not.

[Ben Hong]

Funny, because at a trip to Grand Sichuan last year we did a taste test: had the fresh-killed kung pao chicken, and regular chicken prepared... some other way, can't remember how.  The two dishes tasted different, of course, but I couldn't detect any particular "fresh-killed" taste in the kung pao.  It just tasted like kung pao chicken.  Good kung pao chicken, but nothing special.

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The best way to tell the taste difference between fresh killed and iced/frozen factory chicken is to have "bak chet guy" or white chopped chicken (poached) as the Chinese do when they have a fresh chicken. Other dishes mask the taste. You can use any kind of factory chicken parts for kung pao.

Fresh killed chicken does indeed taste more intensely "chicken-y" to us because we in North America have had our tastes "adjusted" by the need for styrofoam trays, sterile supermarkets, semi trained help, instant this and instant that, and ultra rigorous processing at plant. No inherent taste can survive the processing that a commercial chicken undergoes, therefore we are sold the idea that we are getting a true chicken... gleamingly clean, wrapped in stretch cello, blemish free and above all cheap. And, they are all killed before their time, ie: too young to develop that "al dente" springiness to their flesh.

There is one more important differentiating feature between the "Chinese" fresh killed chicken and the regular supermarket kind or even the locally available fresh killed ones . The former are what we Chinese call "wong mo guy" or brown feathered chickens. These birds have a feathers all the way down to their toes, almost. Whether they are a subspecies or not, I cannot aver, but they do taste like real chicken.

Edited April 25, 2005 by Ben Hong (log)

[jsolomon]

Fresh killed chicken does indeed taste more intensely "chicken-y" to us because we in North America have had our tastes "adjusted" by the need for styrofoam trays, sterile supermarkets, semi trained help, instant this and instant that, and ultra rigorous processing at plant.  No inherent taste can survive the processing that a commercial chicken undergoes, therefore we are sold the idea that we are getting a true chicken... gleamingly clean, wrapped in stretch cello, blemish free and above all cheap. And, they are all killed before their time, ie: too young to develop that "al dente" springiness to their flesh.

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Not to swing too far off-topic, but I think the problem starts more with our factory farming of them, even earlier than with our factory processing of them. Birds that don't eat bugs just don't taste right.

[kellytree]

Chopping its head off or breaking its neck and sticking it immediately in the pot is not a good idea.

You kill it and then let it sit overnight or for a couple days to "soften" it up.

[touaregsand]

The bird he picked out was so cute and docile - I could easily see taking it home as a pet. "Kill it?" he asked. I said "yes, and remove the feathers."

This is how I felt at the Korean restaurant when I was told to choose a duck. The restaurant had outdoor seating overlooking a pond full of ducks that could fly away. I told the server he could choose for us. I glanced over at the ducks in the pond and I felt a tinge of guilt. Afterall I could be eating a relative or a friend. But as the thinly sliced pieces of duck cooked on the hot grill I realized that the ducks were oblivious to the smell of duck meat cooking and that even though one of them would periodically dissappear they stayed in the pond.

Poor cute little dead bird. But I guess that's what the food chain is all about.

I came to the same conclusion.

[Pan]

Chopping its head off or breaking its neck and sticking it immediately in the pot is not a good idea.

You kill it and then let it sit overnight or for a couple days to "soften" it up.

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As I mentioned in another thread (which, I can't remember right now), when I was living in rural east-coast Malaysia in the 70s, that was not the case. The chicken was slaughtered and then prepared and cooked right away. Since they had electricity only at night in those days, there was no refrigeration, and chickens could be boiled plain on the first day and then reheated with seasonings (e.g. as chicken curry) the next day, but they were not left raw for the insects and other stuff to eat up. They were all free-range organic chickens and, because they ran around all the time, they were much tougher than most any chicken you're likely to find in the US and had to be cooked a long time, but they were good!!!

[thecuriousone]

There is a poultry market not far from our home (Poultry, chickens, ducks squab, quail, rabbits). We usually stop by on sat am for a sunday dinner and I point out the one that I want. They then do the chopping, de-feathering, and gutting. I take it home. They told us to ice it for at least two hours so that the, "body heat" would leave it.

The flavor is great, they cost a little more, but for a special occasion, there is nothing like it.

Chopping its head off or breaking its neck and sticking it immediately in the pot is not a good idea.

You kill it and then let it sit overnight or for a couple days to "soften" it up.

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As I mentioned in another thread (which, I can't remember right now), when I was living in rural east-coast Malaysia in the 70s, that was not the case. The chicken was slaughtered and then prepared and cooked right away. Since they had electricity only at night in those days, there was no refrigeration, and chickens could be boiled plain on the first day and then reheated with seasonings (e.g. as chicken curry) the next day, but they were not left raw for the insects and other stuff to eat up. They were all free-range organic chickens and, because they ran around all the time, they were much tougher than most any chicken you're likely to find in the US and had to be cooked a long time, but they were good!!!

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[afn33282]

The back room was amazing. Cages upon cages, row upon row, filled with all sorts of chickens - various breeds - ducks, geese, rabbits ... more live birds than I can ever remember seeing in one place.

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This sounds just like Antonelli's Poultry in Prov., RI. THey have quail and pheasants (or are they grouse?), too. You can stand in the back and watch them do their thing.

Chris