Reflections On TheFrench Poultry Killing Knife(Blood Cups & Brain Sticking Too)

Dateline: 14 September 2015

(click pictures to see enlarged views)

Last month I blogged here about some Vintage Butchering Tools I have acquired, one of which is a 100-year-old French Poultry Killing Knife, made by the G.P. Pilling Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That knife, coupled with the excellent 100-year-old how-to information in the Agriphemera PDF download, How to Kill and Bleed Market Poultry, had me champing at the bit to butcher this year's crop of homegrown chickens. 

The common way to kill and bleed a chicken (or other poultry) these days is to tip them upside down into a killing cone, slice their neck arteries, and let them bleed out. The killing cone restrains the bird, while bleeding them with an artery cut allows the brain and heart to continue working (axe-chopping a bird's head off does not allow the heart to pump the blood out). As blood drains, life ebbs, the animal weakens, and soon dies, with a minimum of pain and trauma.

Unfortunately, many people who thus bleed poultry will unnecessarily (and often inadvertently) sever the bird’s trachea and esophagus when making the neck cut. This causes unnecessary suffering to the animal. Neck-slicing of chickens also results in a bloody head and neck.

One hundred years ago the approach to killing and bleeding poultry for market was much different than it is today. Back then, whole birds were sold with the neck and head intact (this is explained in the Agriphemera download, Dressing and Packing Turkeys For Market). Plucked birds that were sold in the marketplace also had certain feathers left on them. And, amazingly, the bird’s innards were left in. 

Seeing as the head and neck were left intact, a bleeding cut to the outside of the neck was cosmetically unacceptable. Therefore, the birds were killed and bled with the precise slice of a major artery at the back of the mouth. The cut was made with a short, narrow, sharp blade, like the French Poultry Killing Knife.

The 1915 bulletin, How To Kill And Bleed Market Poultry, goes into great detail explaining (and showing) the anatomy of a chicken’s neck and head. It reveals exactly where, at the back of the throat, the main artery can and should be severed for efficient bleeding. You simply will not find a better tutorial on the subject.

And so, with my first chickens in the killing cones, and my vintage French Poultry Killing Knife freshly sharpened for the task, I held a chicken’s head exactly as the illustration in the old bulletin shows, and I inserted the knife into the back of the mouth, exactly where I was supposed to. I made the cut and, to my delight, a steady stream of blood began to flow out the bird’s mouth. 

I bled several chickens this way and the technique worked but it seemed that the birds did not bleed out as quickly as they did when using a neck cut. So I bled some chickens using a neck cut. I did not time and compare how long it took the birds to die, but I’m pretty certain they died more quickly with the neck cut. Though they bled well at first when using the French Poultry Killing Knife through the mouth, the blood tended to clot and the flow slowed down.

I should mention here that, in conjunction with a cut in the back of the mouth, the old-timers also used a poultry blood cup. These cups were weighted receptacles that were hung on the bird’s beak immediately after making the cut through the mouth. They served to keep the head down (and the neck straight) as well as to capture the flowing blood. I believe this weight made a significant difference when it came to facilitating the steady flow of blood.

My search for an antique French Poultry Killing Knife was a long one; they very rarely come up for sale on Ebay. But I’m pretty sure that finding an antique poultry blood cup would be even more difficult. I don't imagine the sons and daughters of the old-timers wanted anything to do with inherited poultry blood cups. And were a few to survive to this century, who would have any idea what they were once used for?

The aforementioned bulletin, Dressing And Packing Turkeys For Market has pictures of a blood cup. This 1913 Article From Country Gentleman Magazine shows a blood cup for chickens. I may fabricate a couple of blood cups of my own design to use next year, come poultry processing time.

It may be that the neck cut is a better approach for this day and age. After all, it's no longer important that the head and neck of the birds we butcher be presentable. They are typically removed when butchering. Times have changed. 

Even still, I'm not going to give up on my French Poultry Killing Knife and the through-the-mouth artery cutting technique until I've fabricated a couple of blood cups and tried them out. That will be a project for next year. If a blood cup does help to keep the blood flowing smoothly, this old technique may be worth reviving for the simple reason that it is far less messy. As anyone who processes chickens knows, blood tends to splatter all over the area as a result of the head-and-neck death spasms of a throat-cut bird. 

In any event, if you butcher your own homegrown poultry, I think it is worth knowing how to bleed a bird through the mouth, as How To Kill And Bleed Market Poultry explains. And even if you decide not to use the technique, the explanations of artery location in a chicken’s head and neck are very useful when it comes to making an efficient outside-the-neck cut. I am now, without a doubt, making better artery cuts from outside the neck after reading the old bulletin and knowing where the arteries are. And I now understand why the blood flows better from one side of the neck than the other.

Brain Sticking

Another topic that is explained in detail in the How To Kill and Bleed Market Poultry bulletin is that of brain sticking to loosen feathers. It so happens that after cutting the artery at the back of the bird’s mouth, the old-timers would stick their knife into the chicken’s brain just-so, and that would loosen the feathers for easy plucking. 

Since I have a Whizbang Plucker, I did not try the brain-sticking technique. But it’s one of those intriguing old skills that would be good to know how to do if the need arises. As I understand it, a properly placed brain stick loosens the feathers so well that most of them can be easily wiped off the bird’s carcass… without the need for scalding. Imagine that!

Here are a couple more poultry killing knives from the G.P. Pilling & Son Catalog of 1914..

I am skeptical of the claims made for this instrument.
Cutting the jugular vein, is plausible. But severing 
the spinal cord to loosen feathers does not
correspond with the old how-to instructions I've read.