How to Dress a Chook for Dinner

Approximate run-time - 90 minutes.

WARNING - This DVD contains explicit demonstrations of killing of poultry and gutting of the carcass.

This is an instructional DVD designed to show people how to kill and dress poultry in a humane, safe and efficient way and end up with an attractive result for the kitchen cook. The DVD is designed to help a variety of interest groups in mind those being the poultry fanciers, self-sufficient lifestyle people, the hobby farmer and of course the 'man-on-the-land'.

Background to the video

The idea to make a video all started some twenty years ago when my father-in-law Bill Williams claimed the he and his wife Rhoda killed and dressed 500 birds from 6am to 1pm, when they were working on a poultry farm in Werribee. This was in the 50's when Werribee was still country Victoria.

I thought that was a tall story, and at very least the numbers should be divided by five. However, I soon changed my thinking the day he demonstrated the process on a rooster; taking 3 minutes from picking up the bird to putting the carcass in a plastic bag. What's more there was no mess! All this at 70 years old and not having full use of his hands due to having been hit by lighting. His comment about that was "I'm a bit slower now.'

In the 50's poultry was expensive and considered a very special dish; a Xmas treat. There was always a great rush to hawk the dressed birds (many had been caponised) at that time of the year, so poultry farmers had to be very quick at dressing birds - with a good clean result that could be sold.

Over the last 50 years the growing, slaughter and dressing of birds has become a mechanised process, making it cheap enough to have as a fast food. Consequently, the skills required to home kill and dress birds quickly and efficiently have slowly died out with the oldies who worked on the poultry farms.

After watching and practicing, and watching and practicing, I was able to get a skill that sort of resembled the old man's ability, but I could never be as fast! And over the years, I have often demonstrated the same dressing skills to many people who grow their own poultry but weren't lucky enough have a mentor as I had with old Bill to show them how to do it - time and time again. So it came to mind that the skills cannot be shown in an easy to understand way in a book, but a video would be just the ticket.

With the DVD comes a booklet to help the hearing impaired. On the DVD itself - there is also a section on knife sharpening and maintenance - which has been added to help people develop their skills so they can work safely, efficiently and effectively; as a sharp knife is less likely to slip and cause unwanted cuts.

The DVD format has quick access to the various chapters making it a very good educational format. It allows repeating and slowing down the action for closer observation of the techniques shown.