I can taste the fear in their eyes - I love cooked eyes!
October 3, 2015 9:22 PM Subscribe
I often read about how quickly killing animals makes better-tasting meat. Supposedly the fearful state a hunted animal often dies in releases chemicals (adrenaline? bad juju?) that make the meat less wonderful. True or woo? Science me, please!
Best answer: Actually, when it comes to beef or pork, a "quick kill" isn't desireable.
No one wants the animal to suffer, so most slaughterhouses use a cattleprod to stun the animal, instantly knocking it unconscious. (If all goes properly it never wakes up again, but once in a while they do.)
The animal is killed by being suspended by its hind legs and then having its throat cut. Death is caused by bleeding to death, and it takes quite a while because there's a lot of blood in a steer.
They do it that way because it's the only reasonable way to get most of the blood out of the carcass. "Instant kill" which stops the heart leaves lots of blood in the flesh, and the resulting meat won't taste as good.
Kosher slaughter and Halal slaughter (they're the same) don't stun the steer. (Obviously neither does pigs at all.) It is allowed to stand, and the butcher cuts its throat. Done properly this cuts the blood flow to the animal's brain and it goes unconscious in seconds. Then it bleeds to death. The ASPCA considers this an acceptable method of slaughter.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:50 PM on October 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
No one wants the animal to suffer, so most slaughterhouses use a cattleprod to stun the animal, instantly knocking it unconscious. (If all goes properly it never wakes up again, but once in a while they do.)
The animal is killed by being suspended by its hind legs and then having its throat cut. Death is caused by bleeding to death, and it takes quite a while because there's a lot of blood in a steer.
They do it that way because it's the only reasonable way to get most of the blood out of the carcass. "Instant kill" which stops the heart leaves lots of blood in the flesh, and the resulting meat won't taste as good.
Kosher slaughter and Halal slaughter (they're the same) don't stun the steer. (Obviously neither does pigs at all.) It is allowed to stand, and the butcher cuts its throat. Done properly this cuts the blood flow to the animal's brain and it goes unconscious in seconds. Then it bleeds to death. The ASPCA considers this an acceptable method of slaughter.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:50 PM on October 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
One term for this is "adrenaline kill". An animal that is stressed during slaughter will have adrenaline flood the tissues, which does change the flavor of the meat in a very distinctive way. It is just a cultural thing in the USA that this change is for the worse. In many cases, especially poultry, in Asia and the Middle East this type of meat is actually prized, and butchers there have come up with "humane" techniques to acheive the adrenaline rush during death-- it usually involves slitting the bird equivalent of the jugular vein and then tapping the wound in a staccato pattern as the bird bleeds out, to slow the process of death and give the adrenaline time to flood throughout the entire caracass. As a side note, it is a common debate among Islamic scholars as to whether or not Halal butchering actually must be an adrenaline kill, but that is probably a whole other post. Scientifically, this issue is not completely about adrenaline, but also about animals under stress using up the glycogen in their muscles, which is necessary to produce lactic acid, which is necessary after slaughter to give meat the taste that the western palate has come to expect. This may be the strangest answer I have ever given on AskMe.
posted by seasparrow at 9:58 PM on October 3, 2015 [19 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 9:58 PM on October 3, 2015 [19 favorites]
When it comes to animals that have been hunted, field dressing is a major variable in how the meat tastes.
If an animal isn't field dressed in relatively short order, or it's not done properly, this can affect the taste of the meat, having to do with quickly bringing down the carcass temperature and removing organs in a timely manner.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:33 PM on October 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
If an animal isn't field dressed in relatively short order, or it's not done properly, this can affect the taste of the meat, having to do with quickly bringing down the carcass temperature and removing organs in a timely manner.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:33 PM on October 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
Chocolate Pickle: Kosher slaughter and Halal slaughter (they're the same) don't stun the steer
No: Jewish shechita/kosher slaughter cannot involve pre-stunning, but Islamic dhabihah/halal can. In the UK, the majority of Halal meat is from animals stunend before slaughter (in New Zealand, all of it is).
The ASPCA considers this an acceptable method of slaughter.
Many other organisations, such as the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council, the British Veterinary Association, the Royal Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals, and the British Humanist Association consider slaughter without pre-stunning to be unacceptable.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 2:53 AM on October 4, 2015 [6 favorites]
No: Jewish shechita/kosher slaughter cannot involve pre-stunning, but Islamic dhabihah/halal can. In the UK, the majority of Halal meat is from animals stunend before slaughter (in New Zealand, all of it is).
The ASPCA considers this an acceptable method of slaughter.
Many other organisations, such as the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council, the British Veterinary Association, the Royal Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals, and the British Humanist Association consider slaughter without pre-stunning to be unacceptable.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 2:53 AM on October 4, 2015 [6 favorites]
One of the ways many people "learned" this fact was from Tom Robbin's book Another Roadside Attraction. You can see people discussing it on Marks' Daily Apple as well. Here's an article in the Atlantic that touches on this and you can read the Wikipedia article about this. Googleable term is "PSE meat"
posted by jessamyn at 7:29 AM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn at 7:29 AM on October 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
The idea of a "fearful state" is also going to depend on the way the animal was hunted. With large animals (deer, boar) we generally no longer chase them all over the countryside with dogs and horses like medieval noblemen. In America it's more common sometimes to stalk them quietly through the woods; even more common to sit silently and camouflaged until you can get a shot at them. The animal can run a bit after it's shot but ideally not for long.
Game birds are often flushed out from their hiding places with dogs or people (otherwise hunters wouldn't know they were there) so it seems like they would be more likely to have adrenaline going at the time of death: however people are divided on how game birds are "supposed" to taste and how gamey they want the flavor. The birds are often not eaten right away, and are sometimes hung to "ripen"; but I have no idea how adrenaline might interact on a stored bird.
posted by Hypatia at 8:33 AM on October 4, 2015
Game birds are often flushed out from their hiding places with dogs or people (otherwise hunters wouldn't know they were there) so it seems like they would be more likely to have adrenaline going at the time of death: however people are divided on how game birds are "supposed" to taste and how gamey they want the flavor. The birds are often not eaten right away, and are sometimes hung to "ripen"; but I have no idea how adrenaline might interact on a stored bird.
posted by Hypatia at 8:33 AM on October 4, 2015
I don't have any more info about other animals, but with regard to fish this concept has been well developed by the Japanese. See ikejime.
posted by madmethods at 9:58 AM on October 4, 2015
posted by madmethods at 9:58 AM on October 4, 2015
I'm not a hunter but I have quite a few very avid ones in my family and family-friend circle. I haven eaten my fair share of venison and can very clearly taste the difference between a venison that was spooked and venison that went down without knowing what hit it. I am 110% confident I could identify them in a blind taste test. I've tasted that same weird (spooked meat) flavor in the only rabbit I've ever eaten. Maybe it's cultural, as seasparrow said, but I am not a fan. I like my meat relaxed.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 12:20 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 12:20 AM on October 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
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Look on Pubmed and search for "meat quality" AND stress and you'll see a ton of research.
posted by gaspode at 9:27 PM on October 3, 2015 [2 favorites]