How to butcher a goose quickly and easily
Goose is not only down with feathers, but also delicious meat, which can become the highlight of the festive table. For this meat, the hostesses are ready to give substantial money, so those who keep geese in their own yard can be called lucky! Those who do not know how to butcher a goose urgently need to learn this, fortunately, the work is not difficult. For a better understanding, watch the video.
How and when to slaughter a goose and butcher it
Preparatory work
Meat can easily lose its outstanding qualities. And the best anti-prescription that can lead to a similar effect: do not prepare the goose for slaughter in any way, feed and water it as usual, and then hack it into pieces cruelly and without compassion. Of course, after this, it is advisable to discard the resulting product immediately. To prevent this from happening, the slaughter must initially be carried out correctly.
- When geese are slaughtered - an unanswered question, they decide it individually. The bird grows quickly, and already at the age of 3-5 months it can be slaughtered. Over time, the amount of sebaceous deposits in the body of the bird becomes larger, which means that the quality of meat and its price decrease. However, nothing will prevent farmers from sending geese for slaughter at an older age, for example, at 4-5 years.
- The next important point before you start slaughtering geese at home is feeding. You need good food and lots and lots of greenery in the summer or root crops in the winter. Meat will be more nutritious if the birds were fed a balanced feed during their lifetime. Before slaughtering a tasty goose, it is fed 3 times a day.
- It is pleasant to butcher a well-fed goose and it is completely unpleasant if its carcass is full of feces. First you have to empty his intestines: feeding is stopped at least 12 hours before it is time to kill the bird. On the other hand, keeping a bird on a hunger strike for more than 12 hours is unprofitable, as the taste will deteriorate. You cannot feed the bird, but you can drink abundantly: this will prolong the further storage of the carcass.
- It is recommended to slaughter geese in the morning. It is better that the birds, invited to the table as the main dish, stay in a dark room for some time. If the slaughter of domestic geese is delayed in the middle of the day, the pen should be darkened. For these reasons, while waiting for the slaughter of doomed individuals, they are transferred to a separate room.
How to slaughter a goose without problems
Farmers and hunters choose one of two ways to slaughter a domestic goose.
- For the external method of slaughtering, you need a high-quality sharp knife. The bird is placed in a cone, the head of the goose is lowered down and the carotid artery is cut. The bird is left until the blood is completely drained: such a carcass will be stored longer.
- For the internal method of slaughter, you will have to purchase scissors. It is required to tie the feathered paws, lower its head down, open its beak and cut the veins with scissors, and then pierce the cerebellum. Slaughter the duck this way faster than the first one.
With any method chosen, it is a good idea to carefully study the anatomical atlases, or at least watch a detailed video.For an inexperienced person, the first slaughter in his life will be a test of strength.
The main thing is that before cutting, the bird must be deprived of the opportunity to escape and flap its wings, it is advisable to stun it altogether by hitting it in the head with a stick or something equally strong.
At times, there are hot rumors on the Internet that the goose killed the owner in an attempt to save his life. The veracity of these rumors is on the author's conscience, but one cannot argue with the fact that it is difficult to hack to death a creature that desperately resists, has powerful wings and a pointed beak.
How to pluck a bird
A bird without feathers does not look respectable, which is why live geese do not like being plucked. Fortunately, the dead carcass cannot object, and this is the only joy. An inexperienced person should do this work on the street, because the first (and many subsequent times) feathers will have to be collected throughout the house. You can pinch after the carcass is completely bled. This is done in several ways:
- Dry. The method is applied almost immediately after slaughter, when the bird is still warm. She is put on her knees and plucked. How long the processing will take depends on your skill. There are several secrets that can be applied to make your work easier. First, you should pluck large feathers and only after them - small ones, tear them out in the direction of growth. In order for the carcass to end up looking appetizing, and not like a chewed toy, you can't pick up and pinch a lot of feathers at once.
- Scalding is convenient to use at home. The bird is scalded with boiling water or dipped in a basin with the same hot water, but not for long: a minute is needed, not more. Boiling water softens the feathers and makes them easier to pluck, and they will not fly around the apartment as much. The method also has many disadvantages: you need to work quickly until the effect disappears. The shelf life of the bird is significantly reduced, and the feathers and down after such a non-gallant treatment becomes unsuitable for further use.
- Iron. If you have an iron in the house, you should try another interesting method: tie the bird's throat with a rope, place a pump in the neck and inflate the carcass with air. Put cheesecloth moistened and folded several times on top and steam with an iron. So, periodically steaming the bird, it remains to quickly pluck it. The shelf life, as well as the quality of the feathers, will not suffer after this method.
You can pinch both domestic and wild goose. What is the more "correct" way for the owner of the carcass to decide.
When the bird is "naked", it can be cut into portions and you should not postpone this work until later. As the saying goes, work is not a wolf, it will not run away into the forest: you can rest, but the matter will not go anywhere.
Learning to wield a knife
Butchering goose meat is a goal that precedes the stage of enjoying a delicious dish. When they cut domestic geese, they try to do everything quickly so that they do not suffer. On the contrary, the task of butchering a domestic goose does not require speed; this task is almost meditative. It takes place in several stages.
- chop off your head;
- cut off wings and paws;
- separate the trachea and esophagus, cut the abdomen without damaging the intestines, dispose of the contents of the abdomen, except for the liver;
- rinse with cold water and set aside for a while; after a few hours, you can put the portions into storage.
Goose is a very tasty bird, but in order to get a tasty dish based on it, you need to go through a number of stages for cutting the bird. The whole process will take a fair amount of time and effort, but it will be worth it.