Best Way to Dispatch Adult (eating Quail)

Hello,

Looking for opinion on the best way to murder my quail for eating.

One way i found somewhere on the net was to hold them upside down and snip their heads off with sharp scissors.

Well call me a girl but i can't do that!

I lkie the idea of gassing! but does that affect the meat?

What other ways do you suggest?????

I think if you used a CO2 chamber the meat would be fine.

I think the best way is like a chicken, break the neck, its quick and the animal is rendered unconcious straight away. However, i'm too much of a wimp after Harrie told me about pulling a head off by mistake, so I cut the head off with a big knife.

Scissors sounds like a really bad idea, since you have to put a fair bit of force onto the knife to go through the neck in one swoop I really don't think you could do it cleanly with one snip (except with proper dispatching shears).

Hi,

They use Co2 Gas to cull adult breeding turkeys are they are so big to go the other way.

Scissors??? What a way to go, I bet there must be loads of blood just flying around the kitchen.

Cull the same way as chickens are, by "wringing" their necks, it's clean, it's fast the birds are dead straight away.Don't pull to hard, as Harrie found out, their heads end up in your right hand, and blood squirting all over the place.

Leave the birds to hang for a few minutes (heads down) to Stop flapping about, then dip in warm water (125°F) for 15 seconds lift out and rub the feathers off. The heat of the water melts the surrounding fat and the feathers come out quickly, leaving you a clean bird with no ripped skin. Gut straight away, leave to cool, and either put them in the fridge for tomorrow or freezer for a later date.

Derek.

I actually found out with the clean cut you don't get blood shooting out, I did it over the sink so I could quickly point the neck down the drain and blood just gently drips out with the muscle spasms.

you think that is grotesque, I've seen a guy teaching a survival course bite the head off a chicken
Quick and effective, but not recommended!

andoy wrote:you think that is grotesque, I've seen a guy teaching a survival course bite the head off a chicken
Quick and effective, but not recommended!

Why that must be the best part of a survival course! lol
They sometimes use Co2 to kill mass-bred factory birds instead of having to kill 1000+ one at a time
ETA: Despite claims of being "cheap, easy and *humane*" research has found that it is, in fact, not humane. The hearts/lung work to get rid of the Co2 by exhaling them from the body, when Co2 is put into the body the repiratory system have to work harder to get rid of it, as they are not breathing oxygen and are inhaling the Co2 it causes them to exhale faster to get rid of it, slowly suffocating. So, actually it isnt very humane, it would be more humane breaking the neck or cutting the head off then using Co2. - Just thought I would add that.

i read somewhere to use anvil type pruners,

as for gutting, can someone elaborate please,

To gut, I just poke a finger inside, swirl a bit to loosen stuff then pull it out, takes 3/4 goes to get rid of everything, then wash through.

yak,

Forgot to add aswell, when you cut/break the necks try not to cut the crop!
For gutting I just cut carefully down the bellys and pull everything out (again trying not to cut through any guts)

If you were going to cut of the breast and legs to cook rather than cook the bird whole would it be ok to not bother gutting it at all? would that only be ok if the bird was too be used striaght away. just an idea for anyone who finds it too gross to do

I have taken breasts & legs off to cook but it seems a bit of a waste as the meat is good all over really. They'd be fine in the fridge for a few day or so.

I was trying to get away from the "hands on" bit

These are Quail i raised from the egg! Said welcome to the world when they were born, slaved day and night to provide for em.....worked my fingers to the b.........

Can i not just go on holiday and come back when my freezer is loaded with oven ready quail!!!!!!!

I did the head/neck pull and twist thing with a pigeon i had winged when shooting, but pulled too hard and the head came off in my hand!!!

I was on me own and i remember saying "sorry" to the decapitated bird!

OH always apologizes to anything he has to cull before the deed. Bless.

Harrie wrote:OH always apologizes to anything he has to cull before the deed. Bless.

Sounds fair enough. I'd worry if he was smiling, laughing or singing Cliff Richard songs while doing the deed.

Don't think there is an easy way of doing it. A life is a life, just make sure they don't die in vain

This is off topic but did you know when you put something in a microwave you kill all the cells in that food, Making it more acidic like candy and un-nutritious. Think of Radiation Therapy to kill cancer cells. Your doing basically the same thing by heating things in the microwave.

Now i hope nobody is thinking what i am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

naaaaa Would make too much mees and the Missis would have a fit

You could just not kill it.

I know you guys are just jesting, but just in case anyone is thinking of it. A microwave is a horrible way to kill something. It's like boiling it alive. Several people have been prosecuted for killing animals this way. The animals were said to scream and struggle for some time in torment before they died

I hope you don't do that man.. That would be terrible.

THats like putting a child that you've raised in an oven.

Oneounce2many wrote:This is off topic but did you know when you put something in a microwave you kill all the cells in that food, Making it more acidic like candy and un-nutritious. Think of Radiation Therapy to kill cancer cells. Your doing basically the same thing by heating things in the microwave.

I'm not gonna even start on quite how wrong you are there.

I just took it that Oneounce2many meant that cooking in a microwave is a bad idea from a nutrition point of view. Sure you don't mean to nuke live quail Ounce do you?

Harrie wrote:I just took it that Oneounce2many meant that cooking in a microwave is a bad idea from a nutrition point of view. Sure you don't mean to nuke live quail Ounce do you?

Yeah, I understood the implication of the post was about nutritional value, not bird killing, but there were so many daft inaccuracies

In fact, as the post was so off topic (something we do not encourage), i'll address the inaccuracies in the hope that future incorrect asides don't happen:

This is off topic but did you know when you put something in a microwave you kill all the cells in that food, Making it more acidic like candy and un-nutritious. Think of Radiation Therapy to kill cancer cells. Your doing basically the same thing by heating things in the microwave.

Food cells are already dead. You take a chicken breast out of a chicken, the cells are dead. You can't kill a dead cell.

Microwaves emit EM waves - the same as light just a shorter wavelength. Microwaves work by making water (and fat) molecules vibrate, give something energy and it turns into heat - that's how things cook. Some cells lyse (burst open) some don't, this doesn't make them "more acidic", nor does it make the food less nutritious per se. Some vitamins/flavanoids etc are lost as a lot of steam is given off during microwaving, but in something like meat it makes no difference. You're much better off eating some microwaved peas than a boiled sweet.

Radiotherapy uses ionizing radiation (think radioactivity, not lightbulbs!) to kill cells, which is why there tend to be nasty side-effects. Radioactivity messes up the DNA in a cell (which is why radiation sickness is so deadly), wrong DNA = wrong protein = cell death because it just "stops working".

But who cares about that - my actual message is please stay on topic. We don't want a strict forum where every little aside warrants a telling off, but if you're going to go off-tack at least go off on a tangent that was in some way linked to the topic. Thank you!