Our first!!

[Judy]

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I've never tried pithing just for this reason, that I'd be afraid of messing up and causing a lot of pain. Throat slitting is, I suspect, pretty painless, as they would pass out before the pain of the cut travels the nerve pathways to the brain to get registered.

Good advice on how long in the fridge.

After 4 you will feel like an experienced processor. Don't let the first one scare you off.

 

[averytds]

The book didn't go into the why of slit then pith but did point out the need to pith immediately after the slit, prior to death.

I'd been considering trying it for awhile. It would be cleaner I think to pith and then slit, but because I know how to slit I figure better to learn/practice pithing when I know they're already unconscious and seconds from death anyways.

 

[PortugalBreeder]

Can't find a video pithing a chicken, can anyone help?

 

[codymax2]

here's one I just found

and another right after on the butchering





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[codymax2]

Thanks I'm sooo nervous!!!
Quote:

I've never tried pithing just for this reason, that I'd be afraid of messing up and causing a lot of pain. Throat slitting is, I suspect, pretty painless, as they would pass out before the pain of the cut travels the nerve pathways to the brain to get registered.

Good advice on how long in the fridge.

After 4 you will feel like an experienced processor. Don't let the first one scare you off.

 

[Judy]

Also, I've always read it was pith then slit. The pithing is supposed to kill the brain but leave the heart beating so they bleed out more thoroughly.

 

[averytds]

I did 2 pith then slit and 2 slit then pith. One was a Silkie that I just went ahead and skinned. One I dry plucked half then finished it and the other 2 by swirling in the hot water for about 15-20 seconds, dunking in cold and then plucking. I thought the feathers came out relatively easily dry plucking, but at one point the skin tore hence the hot swirl. After the hot swirl they wiped right off with a hand swipe.


Through the slit, straight back with the paring knife, little twist and out. I used my waterbath canner pot on a single burner electric hot plate about midway heat setting. I actually did everything at the kitchen sink except the killing, but wanted to see if the burner would work or not should I decide to do things outside.


I can't say whether pithing had any effect on plucking or not or whether it made the slitting easier on the birds. Plucking was easy enough, but still more time consuming for me than skinning.

 

[Lorije1]

The 2 people I know who attempted pithing had horrible experiences and will never do it again - and they have butchered many many meat chickens.

Graphic description follows******

Both individuals said that no matter where or how they inserted the knife in the "slit" it did not kill the chicken, and in fact the chicken fought and "screamed" the whole time its brains were filling its beak.

Thanks but no thanks, I'll just stick to the quick finish of lopping off the head

 

[codymax2]

Well we did it! We couldn't stomache doing the pithing or sliting so we went with the head chop, ehhh kinda traumatized=( And I got a face FULL of flapping blood! We did 2 and couldnt do anymore. We also did dry plucking and that was not very fun either, hubby skinned his because he tore most of his skin anyway. Overall experience was not very good, nobody said ANYTHING about the smell when you open the up to gut them!! Woooo almost lost it!! So I learned a bunch though, I won't be doing that again till we move to the country(we live in a neighborhood) then we will use kill cone hung on trees and do the slitting method, also do a bunch in one day and scald them to pluck! I plan on making soup tomorrow, I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[averytds]

No screaming, fighting or brains that I saw. Just blood. Not an instant death. Maybe I did it wrong, don't know, but it was pretty much 100% identical to the video link.

codymax2


My kill cone is just a milk jug that I zip tied to a T post. You could do the cone and chop off too if the slitting doesn't work for you. The cone keeps the blood mess down.

Skinning works out so much faster for me personally and then the mess is almost nothing. I'm not married to the skin though. Gloves are a must for me now for gutting else I can still smell "that" smell on them. You guys could just cut up and skip the evisceration all together. I butterflied the Silkie with the shears. My hand was just not going to fit. Then scooped everything down and out and chopped it all off with the tail.