Poultry slaughter can in the same way. Killing you do quickly by chopping off the head. Keeps legs and wings with one hand firmly. For small animals (pigeons, quail..) you can clamp the head between the index and middle and jerk and turn it off. Or crush the scull.
You can pluck (feathers from) grouse. It is easier if you first dunk them in hot water. Waterfowl have very much down. There you have endless picking work. When poaching or skinning you lose most subcutaneous fat ,with plucking plumes of course not. Sear hairs and small feathers off. Do not forget to take away at the neck the esophagus, trachea and crop.
The tip of the wing is almost not to skin or pluck, and not worth even the trouble. I usually cut it off.
You can also let the plumes, pack the slaughtered fowl in clay and so cook it on, beside or under a fire. If you later break open the clay, feathers remain in the clay.
In order to catch running fowl, scoop is a useful tool.
Or a trapping hook, a stake with a hook that has a wide (capture) opening and has a narrow end. Hook attached to a leg. By getting away from you grouse remains stuck on the hook with the bulge where the toes meet.
Pluck always against the direction of growth of the feathers. Without hot water it is very difficult, to pick for example mallards and chickens. Often you even pull and tear the skin.
Cocks comb and chicken leg
Not a shred of valuable meat once went lost, even during the slaughter of poultry. The “Repertoire de la Cuisine” gives a recipe for ”crêtes et rognons de coq’. This is meant the combs, and, not the kidneys (also perfectly edible) but the testes of the rooster.
Soak the balls in cold water to extract the blood and poach them in a well- seasoned fond of poultry. Do not boil because then they brust!
Prick the combs with a needle, press the blood out and rinse with water. Cook them briefly in water, remove the skins and rinse again. Poach the combs about 30 minutes.
Balls nor combs have much flavor. They are used as part of another recipe.
Often scarce goods were exclusive and expensive. The Romans were fond of dainty dishes like peacock tongues and other frivolities.
Chicken legs may not be sold because of the risk of salmonella contamination. Therefore chicken legs are exported to China, where they are a delicacy. Strange but here chickens legs can be purchased in Asian food stores because they are supposedly imported from China or something...
With chicken legs you can prepare a beautiful yellow-colored fond (bottom, basis). And when they are done you can serve them as an appetizer with chilli- or soy sauce.
Plucking waterfowl
I made a cylinder containing a series of rubber strands that as picking fingers (might) work. Which is driven by a drilling machine which is fixedly mounted on a work bench. It worked, but not good enough. The rubber was too hard. As a result, there was little grip on the feathers, there was insufficient plucked, and skin and fat in some places were much whipped.
Tips for those who start the manual labor: (+ 3h!)
Slaughtering is autumn or winter work. Choose to pluck a sunny day, and a place in the sun. Because you are going to sit still for a long time.
Provide plenty of hot water. In a large bucket, where a complete goose fits in.
The plumage is waterproof, so you have to rub to get it open and the hot water to onto the skin.
The bigger feathers you pull out along with the direction in order not to damage the skin too much. Small feathers and down go easier if you pull it against the grain.
Try to keep the water hot, insulate the bucket. (I take two, put together in each other, which gives a kind of thermos effect. With some rope between them , so there is ( almost) no vacuum. The incumbent air between insulates , and you get the buckets easier apart again. And a lid of course.
Take up a chair, so you can sit and lay waterfowl on your knees.
Place a large sheet of plastic or a tarp over your knees, so you stay dry.
Water birds make their feathers waterproof. Therefore the hot water does not reach the skin. Rub with a stick or brush in the water, against the direction of the feathers.
First pluck the long flight feathers and large feathers. Then some openings in the plumage , so that water can reach the skin anywhere.
Pluck as many of the feathers, and repeat the hot tub (and pick a time or 3).
Make sure you have a lid (or sail) to cover it meanwhile to keep the water warm.
Or use a metal bowl on a pair of bricks, with a fire or charcoal below.
Especially the abdomen, with which the animals are on water, ice, cold ground is solid insulated. Take small tufts of feathers, and move them while picking quickly back and forth.
(And scorch away even the hairs after picking. Later brush and /or wash the skin.)
If you want to use the scaly legs: good scrubbing with hot water, or even go over them with the burner, then you can easily peel off the outer layer.
Tips from my blog (Magic Live’r, nov. 2015 (Dutch))
They are immersed 1 to 2 minutes in hot water (65-70° C) every time. As with burning off stubble and hair this should not take too long, or it will melt subcutaneous fat. Addition of detergent would improve the effect. It seemed a reasonable tip, because water birds make their feathers waterproof with grease from the preen gland. Soap can fat dissolve and break the surface tension. But I have no difference ascertained myself. Rubbing (with stick) and to bathe hot enough seem to be better to me.
An alternative is waxing. Slaughterhouses did this. First dipped in hot wax, then cool them in a cold bath and then a second wax dip. The used wax was subsequently melted and sieved for reuse.
Also, based on resin (from conifers) a wax may be made. That it works effectively, many ladies know from firsthand experience. But smart goslings know also that it is easier after a hot bath. Usable experience.
No, thank you. No ox tongue for me. I do not want anything that comes from the mouth of a beast. Give me rather an egg.
"Hmm, that chicken smells delicious. What did you fill it?”“With nothing, she was already filled when I picked her...”