Chicago Live Poultry

I'm sure others have had this experience, but it was a first for me, and a bit unnerving. I'd driven past Chicago Live Poultry (on Western, about a block north of Devon) many times, and was curious about it. This afternoon, on the way back from meeting with a client, my curiosity overtook me. I parked the car and walked in.

First impressions - a little smelly, but not necessarily in a bad way. The front room is pretty barren. Since I was there just for my own education, and not for a specific culinary purpose, I didn't know what I wanted. I wasn't going to spend a lot of money for this lesson. I perused the chalkbord, with all its many options. Finally, I told the counter guy I'd like a quail. He said okay, called to one of the guys in the back, and told me to follow him.

The back room was amazing. Cages upon cages, row upon row, filled with all sorts of chickens - various breeds - ducks, geese, rabbits ... more live birds than I can ever remember seeing in one place. He pointed to the quail cage and asked (at least I think he asked, English was not his first language, to say the least) which one I wanted. I didn't want to be responsible for the death of any of them, so I told him to pick one. (Okay, I recognize that by ordering it I was responsible for the death, but at least I can rationalize that I wasn't exactly responsible for that particular bird's death.)

The bird he picked out was so cute and docile - I could easily see taking it home as a pet. "Kill it?" he asked. I said "yes, and remove the feathers."

There are two butchering rooms between the front and the big back room, both of which are visible from the front. He took the quail into the further of the two rooms, and was out of sight for a minute. (I assume there was some sort of boiling or steaming process going on.) Then he came to the front butchering room, dead bird in hand, and I watched him pull off the feathers. He turned the formerly cute little thing to his partner, who cut it open and pulled out the guts - saving the gizzard, liver and heart for me. He wrapped it in a plastic bag and gave it to the counter guy. I handed over my $4.

So that cute little bird is now in my refrigerator, but not for long. Quail dinner tonight.

Poor cute little dead bird. But I guess that's what the food chain is all about.

Anyone else have a perspective on this kind of stuff?

I was complaining to my father last week about receiving a frozen turkey (rather than the usual gift certificate) as I do not have much freezer space (and had just filled it with bargains.

He reminded me that when he started working at the plant where he was employed, they used to give out LIVE turkeys. People would take them home, slaughter them on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. What a mess it was. Occasionally, a few birds would get loose and they would be chasing them around the plant trying to get them under control.

HI,

My friend raises chickens. I have been asking to help with the slaughter for the experience. She used to do it herself, then found a local woman to do 'it' for $1. She tends to alert me a bit late. One of these days, we will hit it right and I will take a photo essay for those nervy enough to pursue it.

I will steel myself not to act badly.

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In Babette's Feast, they have a scene where they kill the quails by simply twisting their necks. They are cute and docile. They also looked delicious when it was time to eat.

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In the 1950's epic 'Giant,' they had a Thanksgiving scene. The kids began to realize the turkey for dinner was their barnyard friend. The kids started weeping. I know how they feel.

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A friend of mine died a few years ago. When he was a child growing up in Texas, they had a chicken who learned how to ride a tricycle. His Father was a minister who often found himself with unexpected guests. His Mother killed this chicken to have enough food to offer an unexpected guest. More than 70 years after the fact, this man still got tearful remembering that wonderful chicken.

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My Grandfather grew up on a farm in Ireland. For him, animals - except his beloved dog - were just live stock. Some winters ago, an opossum died in my garage which went undetected until Spring. My cousin dug a hole, then together we collected the animal, but we didn't want to see it. So we threw a newspaper over the corpse and gingerly lifted it onto a snow shovel. There was a breeze and we almost saw 'it', which scarred the tar out of us. My Grandfather was swearing up a storm calling us, "City kids."

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I still haven't even told my turtle story ...

Just over the weekend, there was an article on challenging jobs. One was a butcher describing how he was trained and how to build up to slaughtering an animal. (Another segment was on cleaning crime scenes)

I am completely all over the emotional map when it comes to doing the real work of slaughtering. I don't want to have any emotional tie-in, because otherwise I'll grant it a name and take it home.

What can I say, I am in sympathy with you and your experience. I'm just a city kid.

We always call our Thanksgiving turkeys "Pedro," because that's the name of the fowl butchered and served in Giant. I'd like to know if the live poultry experience is worth it -- can anyone comment on whether chicken purchased there tastes notably different than that bought at the supermarket? Thanks for this report, by the way -- I've often wanted to go in there but hadn't yet -- I certainly won't take my kids if I do, as they are animal lovers but happy meat eaters at the moment and I'd like to put off their total vegetarian conversion until they hit their teens. Though every time I re-read Fast Food Nation (I use the book in a class I teach) I go off meat for a while myself. Too much familiarity with the creature and/or with the process that brings the meat to our table can make vegetarians of us all.

Anyone else have a perspective on this kind of stuff?

I've been going to a friend's place in GA every year for several years to butcher and cook a hog. Its always a great time. I was a little queasy the first time. But since then none of it bothers me. I have or would butcher anything live I would eat. I haven't butchered a cow yet though. I have an opportunity to butcher and create some veal next spring that I'm thinking about doing.

I won't post pictures of my experiences. I will email pictures if someone wants to see them. I plan to put them on a web page once I get some time to figure out Front Page.

Years ago, as a recovering vegetarian, I went to CLP for some rabbits and was totally unprepared for the smell, which shot up my nostrils and thudded to the bottom of my stomach like cannon shot. I also wimped on choosing my own coneys--wouldn't even venture into the back--but caught a glimpse of them carried into the cutting room dangling by their hind legs, and jerking upward like trapeze artists. I didn't choose to witness their end either but heard it from the waiting area. If I can generalize from my pair, in the seconds before the blade connects, rabbits scream like terrified little girls.

I valued my CLP experience less for the freshness and quality of the stock--though it can't get much fresher--than for the abbreviated but poignant lesson in Where Food Comes From. I was especially impressed by the number of customers ahead of me who ordered and left with their animals still breathing. It seems like a good thing somehow, in this big modern burgh, that there are lots of people that still know how to kill what they eat.

Two related items: first, there's an article in today's New York Times that discusses a controversy involving a kosher slaughterhouse -- products from it are sold under the brand name Aaron's Best -- that employs techniques that are not, dare I say it, kosher (though whether technically kosher or not is being disputed by various rabbis, as discussed in the article.) A PETA videotape reveals that cattle were often alive for many minutes after their throats were cut, their windpipes ripped out while they were still conscious. Pretty unpleasant. Also, in another class I taught I used to show "Roger and Me." Despite the grim scenes of evictions, urban decay, and general human misery depicted in the film, my students all recoiled at only one scene -- that in which the "bunny lady" is shown slaughtering rabbits. Though Michael Moore clearly understood this woman to be a resourceful survivor, my students often saw her -- not GM president Roger Smith -- as the villain in the movie. Animal suffering trumps human suffering every time.

As my father and my mother-in-law raised and butchered rabbits for money in the '30s-60's to feed their families during the Depression and the war, I was really surprised how easy it was to skin a rabbit and now, I have a couple of nephews who raise rabbits for food.

There is something good about a Michael Moore film.

ToniG wrote

I'd like to know if the live poultry experience is worth it -- can anyone comment on whether chicken purchased there tastes notably different than that bought at the supermarket?

I once purchased two chickens from Chicago Live Poultry to take to a BBQ at a friends house. The birds were marinated in Jamaican jerk and grilled over lump charcoal. The end product was tasty but the meat was too tough to eat. I've been told that the chickens at these live places are raised as free roaming birds and tend to be more muscular than their factory raised cousins making them more suited to stews and other low and slow cooking methods.

Later that evening someone speculated that the halal butchers at CLP figured me for an infidel and slipped me a couple of roosters that had overstayed thier wellcome

I think the key to the whole live chicken thing is knowing what age/sex bird is best suited to the dish being cooked.

JSM

I've purchased from John's Live Poultry (a turkey), tasty but a bit tough. I found out that there is rigor mortis in poultry as well as in beef, so it's best not to immediately cook a bird. You don't have to wait days. I think it's just 6 to 8 hours. Of course, now I can't remember exactly where I got this info. Anybody know anything about rigor in birds?

Birds, probably mammals also, cooked while in rigor mortis will be tough. The trick is to cook extremely soon after slaughter before rigor mortis sets in or wait until the meat relaxes. I haven't raised chickens for many years, so my memory on timing is a bit hazy. Slaughtering the day before eating is definitely enough time, though.

LTH,

In the take this for what you will category, I stopped by the newish live poultry place on Elston and was less than enamored. Bare front area, which is not unusual for a live poultry business, for ordering and a somewhat disinterested attendant on duty, also not unusual*.

What caused me to leave without making a purchase was the lack of poultry sounds, the place was eerily silent, and an unpleasant odor. I'm not talking barnyard, chicken poop, feathers flying, but a bit more elemental, in a Danger, Will Robinson sense.

Like I said, this is one impression**, I'd be very interested in others take on the place. But, for now, I will stick to John's Live Poultry when in the market for fresh kill chicken or duck.

Enjoy,
Gary

*in any business, not just live poultry
**I may very well have missed out on a terrific chicken, but paying attention to the (very) occasional Danger, Will Robinson has served me in good stead.

Elston Chicken Poultry
4350 N Elston
Chicago, IL 60641
773-545-5589

John's Live Poultry and Egg Market
5955 W Fullerton
773-622-2813
Fresh Geese