Rules for slaughtering ducks at home

Among all the poultry most in demand by domestic and foreign farmers, ducks are one of the most prominent places. And this is quite natural, because the birds in question have many undeniable advantages. They are quite unpretentious, and their meat can boast of excellent taste.

Slaughter of ducks at home

In addition, they quickly turn from ducklings into adults, and therefore it is not surprising that such a topic as slaughter of ducks at home is consistently popular. Of course, such an event cannot be called It’s pleasant, but in many cases it’s really impossible to do without it, which makes the disclosure of this topic an entirely justifiable solution.

Preparatory activities

First of all, it should be noted that before how to kill the selected duck, you need to familiarize yourself with several key conditions, the accounting of which is highly desirable. It is strongly discouraged to ignore them, so that the result of the procedure does not disappoint the owner of the bird. So, hammering a duck, the weight and dimensions of which do not reach the average values, is not worth it. Practice shows that this bird is best sent for slaughter when it reaches the age of 2-2.5 months (the best term for slaughter is 60-65 days).If the age is optimal for slaughter, then in the vast majority of cases the meat of such a duck will have a much less pleasant taste.

As for the other significant rules that provide for the preparation of this bird for slaughter, their list looks like this:

1. Regarding how much time a duck should not be fed before slaughter, it is worth noting that this period is within 12-15 hours. Also, if the owner plans to kill the bird in the morning, she can arrange nightly starvation.
2. Regardless of the chosen preparation option for slaughter, the duck needs free access to water.
3. selected for keeping the bird should be lit throughout the dark of the day.

All of the above measures must be taken into account so that the intestines of the duck sent for slaughter are empty.

Slaughter of a bird

As practice shows, the most popular method is through which you can slaughter the duck is outdoor. The reason for this is extremely simple: this technique has been tested by many generations of poultry farmers, characterized by maximum simplicity and reliability. Guided by its rules, anyone can kill a duck, even the novice owner of such birds. This circumstance is especially important for those who seek to solve the problem at home, without any special tools or specific skills.Of course, a duck can also be cut, but the method of killing a given bird described above is considered much more preferable.

So, for anyone who wants to know how to properly slaughter a duck using the external method, it is reasonable to familiarize yourself with the following sequence of actions:

1. The bird needs to be hung head down, while laying one wing after another. Also, in such cases, it makes sense to use a special metal cone.
2. The duck’s neck needs to be extended, and then the carotid artery located on it must be cut.
3. After performing the above action, you need to wait until the bird’s body bleed out. As a rule, this takes a little more than a quarter of an hour.

Guided by the simple recommendations listed above, everyone can correctly slaughter their duck. Also, anyone can see a lot of videos on this topic that are present on the World Wide Web and allow you to accurately solve this problem. Well, after the blood stops flowing out of the body of the killed bird, you can proceed with the implementation of further measures, such as plucking the carcass and its subsequent cutting.

How to pluck the duck correctly?

Before plucking the duck, it is important to take into account that it is not recommended to start work immediately after slaughtering the bird.This is explained by the fact that the fat located under the skin of the carcass must freeze, so that the cover can be saved without problems. The experience of specialists shows that it is worth starting plucking no earlier than a couple of hours after slaughter: this is the time needed to give duck fat tissue optimal temperature. As for the feather removal procedure itself, it provides for three main methods, each of which is presented below:

1. Dry. A great option for anyone who wants to solve the problem at home. In order to pluck a carcass in this way, you need to put it on paper or a piece of cloth, and then remove large feathers in the direction of growth, and small ones in the opposite direction. As soon as the main cover is removed, you can start singeing out the smallest hairs (the time spent on this operation is only a few seconds – to avoid melting subcutaneous fat and burning the skin). After that, it remains just to wash the carcass, thoroughly cleaning it from soot.
2. Scalding. In order to pinch the duck in this way, you need to place it in a suitable container, approximately half filled with water. The latter must be heated to 75-80 ° C, and then rotate the carcass in it, thereby scalding it. After the duck is completely filled with water and left for a period not exceeding a quarter of an hour. Next, you need to get the carcass out of the tank, wait until the water drains from it, and then – pinch and gently singe it.
3. Hot method. In this case, you need to take a bag of strong fabric, soak it in hot water and place the duck carcass in it. Having tied a bag with a beaten bird tightly, it is held for 15 minutes, and then the feathers are ironed through the fabric using a conventional household iron. The final stage of the event under consideration is plucking, which allows you to remove each feather with minimal time and effort.

The first stage of cutting

After completing the plucking of duck carcass, You can proceed to its cutting and gutting. If we single out the first action envisaged in a similar situation, then such is the removal of the intestines. In order to perform it, you need to make a special hole in the region of the anus of the carcass (if the intestine is not removed, the latter will not be able to be stored in the refrigerator for a long time). As for the next steps, their sequence is presented in the following list:

1. Before gutting a beaten bird, it is important to cut its neck.
2. Next, the wings and legs are separated. The first must be cut along the initial line, and the second – a couple of centimeters below the heel joint.
3. Gutting the carcass should be done after an appropriate incision is made on the belly. Subsequently, the extracted offal can be used as minced meat or broth ingredients.
4. Do not forget about the removal of goiter and esophagus.Proper cutting of the duck involves removing it through the hole in the neck.

Duck carcass must be cut so that there is no abdominal fat deposits in it – they must be removed.

Further actions

After finally gutting the beaten bird, you can start rinsing it with running water, drying and subsequent freezing. If the carcass is intended for the preparation of a particular dish without delay, the sequence of further actions is as follows:

1. First of all, the ham is separated using a suitable knife – so that the meat is captured as close to the spine as possible. The wings should be treated in the same way.
2. The loin should be cut lengthwise, and scissors can be used to separate the ribs and tail.
3. It is advisable to chop the meat into several portions, without forgetting to get rid from the sebaceous gland. The latter can make the taste and smell of duck meat much less pleasant, and therefore you should not ignore this recommendation.
4. As for the skin, you can melt it directly with fat, and it makes sense to use the remaining ridge of the beaten bird in the manufacture of various first courses.

In the end, it remains to be noted that in this way both ordinary domestic ducks and their musky relatives, Indochka, whose popularity is steadily growing every year, can be cut. This thesis is also true for wild representatives of this biological species, with the only difference being that during the process of cutting birds killed during hunting, it is necessary to pay increased attention to the removal of carcasses stuck in them from carcasses.