Learning to kill a hen

We enjoy eating hen and vegetable soup regularly in Sontule. The hens are killed on the same morning they are served up for lunch. They spend their lives before this pecking and scratching at the ground around the house eating a diet of mainly corn and grubs. We hope to be getting involved in farming when we get back to the UK, so we were happy to have the opportunity to learn to kill a chicken and prepare it under the expert guidance of Lucia.

Firstly, the chicken is tied up by its legs to a branch and the wings are folded over themselves twice to prevent flapping. The hen is soon surprisingly calm.

The next part can be a bit tricky for an amateur: cut the skin on its neck, locate the major blood vessel, and sever it with the knife. Unfortunately, on my first attempt I chopped the windpipe. Not only that, but after I had cut the correct vessel and the blood started to flow out of the hen's body, it gave a last mighty flap. I had only crossed the wings over once, rather than twice, and Lucia and I were splattered with dark, sticky blood. The hen dies within seconds but continues to twitch for a while. It's left to hang for a good half hour to drain all the blood.

The next stage is to pluck it. To do this easily, the hen is submerged in a big pan of boiling water for a few seconds and then it's no problem to pull out the feathers.
Feather-plucking

There are still a few remaining bits of feather so the next step is to char the skin well over a flame. Next the chicken is scrubbed with soap and then rinsed thoroughly.

All that's left to do then is to cut the carcass into pieces. We were impressed by how efficiently and quickly Lucia did this, extracted the windpipe and the few bits that really are inedible (although the cat was happy to give them a go). The organs were kept, as was an egg, still in the hen, and a few developing eggs.

This hen (gallina) had clearly led a long and active life, as the meat was a little on the tough side, but it did taste good and for us it was important to know what goes into the process of killing, preparing and eating a bird.