Hello you gentle snowflakes. We're going to talk
about some serious and real stuff in this episode.
Some of it might upset listeners. We're going
to talk about slaughtering methods for certain
animals because it's important to talk about
where things come from. So just so you're aware
there might be some explicit content in this
episode and people of light heart should maybe
skip this. You're listening to Heritage Radio
Network. Hi everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food
Talks. I'm here with my man Phil, and today we're
going to talk about... How should we name this
episode? Stories from the Slaughterhouse. Yeah,
I think that's a catchy title. Yeah, we were
just talking about foie gras, you know? Very
controversial subject. What's your take on it?
Well, to be honest, I always wanted to visit
a facility where Fogra was produced myself in
order to have an opinion. Because I know, you
know, these kind of things, you have to go and
look for yourself instead of listening to opinions
or reading about it. Because there is a lot of,
I don't know. Also, it's needed to say that we
live in this generation where everything is so...
wrong everywhere and everybody cries about everything
all the time and you know like and in this context
i went to it was like a facility here in spain
run by martico i think they have almost they
produce i don't know if 60 or 80 percent of all
the foie gras produced in spain wow so they're
a big player in the industry so and it was super
interesting to see Well, the whole life cycle,
never said better, of the ducks that are used
for this. And there were a lot of things I didn't
know. In order for foie gras to be foie gras,
there are only two duck species allowed. One
is a Barbary duck, and the other one is a mixture
where the Barbary is the male. And Peking dog
is the female that creates moulard dog. It's
the cross of these two types. Okay. And these
are the ones that they were producing. It's interesting
because there is like a complete different industry
that only provides the inoculated eggs. Okay.
So, and then you can. as an industry, as a factory,
you know, you can buy, or as a slaughterhouse,
or a racing farm, or whatever, you can buy the
eggs already inoculated and incubate them yourself,
or you can buy already the little babies, right,
already born. So in these things, in many cases,
these are transported back and forth from France
to Spain. In this case, of this particular facility,
they have like, I think, Between 10 and 15, I
think 13 farms total. And they process a million
ducks a year. Wow. And there was this crazy story
that they have these clients that they wouldn't
take French ducks. They wanted them to be Spanish,
born in Spain. So they usually never buy the
eggs, but they have to buy the eggs and do the
last process. how do you say when you break the
shell process in spain so that so they could
be considered punished even though these were
inoculated in in in spain incubated in spain
and in many cases they were sent to france just
to be born because it's like a whole different
process and imagine if you have to take care
of i don't know five thousand of these little
ducks you know like it's like like a whole industry
on its own just the eggs and shell breaking phase
of the cycle the next thing this is something
i didn't know like the whole from born till slaughtered
the things live 90 days that's it okay that's
intense Yeah, like in those 90 days, these were
quite big, you know, like I saw them. These were
big ducks. These were not like, you know, like
the ones you might see in the wild or anything.
These are foie gras ducks, you know, they have
to be big. Also interesting, they mentioned something
about the diet, that they noticed a difference
in the quality of the foie gras if they gave
them soybeans for the first week. And just that,
just like an extra protein intake. And then the
outer shell of the foie would break less. So
I know like, imagine like you're raising these
animals for 90 days. So like everything counts,
you know, everything they eat, everything they
drink, every step they take, everything. I don't
know exactly like all the phases, but let's say
for the first three weeks, they're like in a...
closed space, but they're free. They move, but
they're closed because they're still little.
And then once they have enough size, they're
left in semi -freedom. So these are like large
landscapes where they can walk around and do
whatever they want. But in general, they stay
near the main house because that's where you
get shadow and food and water. Yeah, exactly.
So they don't go too far away, but they're allowed
to move and do whatever they want. And this goes
for, I would say, like 70 % of their lives, of
their 90 -day life. And then the last 12 days,
they get in a shelter where it's covered, big
ventilators, so they're relaxed. And that's where
they're force -fed, which is something that lasts
only 12 days. And to be honest, I didn't saw
the force fed process because it was not the
moment for that. I saw the ducks in that last
phase where they are. The guy, I think he's the
CEO of Martico. He was like, they're really chilled.
He took one of the ducks. The ducks was like,
you know, easygoing. He was not like stressed
or anything. He wouldn't run or anything. And
he started like, you know, explaining some things
that if you take it like this and the neck can
almost twist 180 degrees and the wing. He started
like explaining. It reminded me of when you go
to Elcano and you see Aitora Regi explaining,
you know, like the tugbo or whatever. And he's
explaining the pieces of the fish and everything.
I had like this flashback of, you know, just
seeing like a professional being really passionate.
about this product you know pretty knowledgeable
yeah yeah so he was explaining like a lot of
stuff and then he started playing with his finger
into the mouth of the dog and the dog immediately
started like like making like he wanted to eat
okay like so and that's basically what they do
they come with a tube they put it in the mouth
and the dogs come to get that you know like it's
not like they're like in a body sadomasochism
kind of change down the throat and like yeah
you force them they're like no please no i mean
like i i don't doubt there's for sure that i
remember uh in latin america in a restaurant
i was working we once got like a a huge batch
of dogs delivered and these dogs were mistreated
dude you know like the How do you say the mouth
of a bird? How is that called in English? The
beak. The beaks were broken. I don't know, maybe
they killed them with stones. I have no idea,
but that was really... And you could see that
in the end product. The meat was crap, basically.
Because these animals were tortured to death,
probably. That's a completely different thing.
Then we arrived to this slaughterhouse, like
I said. 5 a .m. It was maybe 6 .30. It was super.
We have to wake up really early to get there.
Without intro, you know, like without like just
right into it. We walk in there and there are
these boxes full of birds. They were quite chilled.
You know, they weren't loud or anything because
they already, like in this 12 days where they
have been like super relaxed, you know, having
this life of indulgence and luxuries and lots
of food. And they're just chilling. It's in the
morning. They do it in the morning. So they're
more relaxed. Okay. And then the birds were hanged
on their feet. And they don't really care. They're
like just hanging. And that's where it started.
And it starts moving like. And they're splashed
with water and electricity, so they get unconscious.
And this is key for the slaughter technique for
them to be alive while slaughtered. Because like
same as in halal and kosher and a good slaughter
method, you want them to die by bleeding. not
by any other mean. And that's also something
that there would be like state veterinarians
in the facility and they would take a random
duck out and put it in a corner to verify that
it was alive. So then we walk into this room
where they're all already hanging and they're
like unconscious. And we see this guy. It really
felt like a dentist just... doing something in
their mouth, you know, like, just like, click.
And he was actually doing the killing process,
which was inside the mouth, like, click, and
then it would start bleeding, clean, while unconscious,
okay? They wouldn't even, you know, sometimes
when you kill birds, they move their wings really
hard. That wouldn't be the case. Then he also
mentioned something really interesting that he
said like, okay, this is how they do it. Like
the guy that was showing us around and he says
like, would this be halal? He would do a prayer
for each bird. And I thought, I found that it
would be really interesting because I think it's
important to, to do this kind of things with
respect. You know, like, I remember watching
one of these shows where chefs go late night
and get drunk and then go back to the restaurant
and do a munchies or whatever. Dude, like, killing,
even though it was shellfish, but, like, playing
around with lobsters and crabs and, you know,
like, and playing around with it. And I was like,
playing with food is not okay. Playing with live
beings while alive, that's just next level. That's
just completely wrong. Yeah, I would never ever
do something like that. Right? If you have a
lobster, you're quick and efficient. You're not
fucking around with it. Yep. you do play around
with it no no no i don't actually i i totally
agree it's a cool point that you make with saying
a prayer before each animal because like while
i have done like the sort of like you take a
lobster and you go to somebody who's scared of
lobsters you go you know i mean that's something
no but i'm talking about oh look i'm killing
it and uh and playing around wild and slaughter
that's what i mean no no no and like fucking
around like i actually like it might sound stupid
but like for example with lobsters like i can't
say like before every single lobster but i have
this moment of like when i start killing lobsters
where i'm like the first one right yeah where
i kind of stop and i like mentally say to myself
sort of like um thank you you know thank you
for this lobster and then i kill it um but also
like i like i like lobsters and langoustines
a lot because they really they really fight you
know like they fight to the very end they want
to they want to kill you like if you've ever
killed a lobster that's like very alive which
is good because the lobster is good like good
quality they like you pick it up it wants to
fucking kill you you know yeah and and uh i always
like yeah playing around with the tail I always
respected that. So I'm always kind of like, well,
you fought well, buddy, but that's it for you
now. Actually, when I was in Japan, I had to
kill a lot of langoustines. These like rock lobsters,
you know, the spiny lobsters with the long antennas.
Yeah. And with spikes on it. Yeah, those are
the most common in Venezuela. I killed millions
of those. And they would try to fuck me up. Like
they would like with the antennas, like try to
whip me, you know. I got injured like almost
every single time that I like, and I started
hating them. I was like, fuck you, man. That's
how you develop your allergy. Now everything
makes sense. Okay. Yeah, exactly. It's their
fault. Yeah, I think we need to put a disclaimer
in front of this episode. This is a pretty intense
duck story that you just told there. But it's
very interesting. Yeah, for sure. I am finished.
I can stop. It's very interesting. No, please
continue. So the guy was killing Zucks like a
dentist. Yeah, so they started bleeding. Then,
you know, it's a factory. That's where it started.
They stay hanging up until the very end. So they
go hanging. First, they get their feathers plucked.
Then, the guy that was with us, he said, like,
this is a... Brazilian bikini. Because they would
be sunk in. You already have like your beard
clean, right? So they would first take the outer
wings out, then it continues. Then they would
think this thing. So I didn't mention that the
first plucking method was like, it looked like
a car wash, you know, like this. kind of things
around this so that the birds would go into a
tunnel full of those then it would come out like
pretty much plucked yeah but then they were sinked
in wax dude okay so they're literally waxed and
then water is splashed so that the wax breaks
it all breaks and then then it's really clean
there are no not a single feather anymore okay
then it continues Well, what happened next? Ah,
then the foie is taken first, the foie gras.
So you would have like this very delicate craftspeople
that would open the back and take the foie out.
First thing goes out, the two foie gras. And
of course, it's not like 100 % perfect foie gras.
So some are discarded, some don't hold well,
some have like whatever, like a little hematoma,
like a little hurt or whatever. So that's like
a first process of, you know, selecting everything.
Then they start butchering, basically, taking
different parts for different things. Then there
is a point where there's a row just of butchers
and the bird comes like standing in front of
them. That was really cool. There were like,
I don't know, like 15 guys, okay? And the birds
go like, and then they come. And one, for example,
is doing just breast. And he goes like, suck,
suck, suck. Three seconds. Breast out. Tuck,
tuck. Next. Tuck, tuck. Next. And so like that.
And the next one would do the opposite breast.
And the other one would do the wing. So at the
end, you would have like this. There was even
like a little machine to take the filets out.
Like a doner. Yeah. And then you would have like
this clean loins that are under the breast. And
then at the end, carcasses. Like clean carcasses.
And this would be used like for whatever. They
said mainly for a gastronomy company, like restaurants,
buying them for stocks or whatever. And yeah,
then everything would be put in place. Another
interesting thing was the veining, taking the
veins out. So that's also something important.
For all of these things to happen correctly,
that the foie looks good and it's clean, it's
because the birds were... bleed it while alive.
And it's important to make it while alive because
the heart is pumping. So that's how you get the
meat clean when it's ready for butchering. And
then they would like, whatever, everything goes
to a different plate, and do it like that. That
foie gras, I think that's an incredible foie
gras, the one they do. And also all their duck
products and everything, I think it's over the
top. yeah martico i mean for people who don't
know they know in spain you know it's a huge
supplier of of duck products you know i mean
like super premium yeah must have been sounds
really really interesting ah and there's something
i didn't mention which is again like crazy the
the sanction the the last phase where they're
12 days sheltered before the slaughter dude all
the poo goes into like a methane gas processing
unit i'm talking i think the size of just to
give you an idea like the quarter size of a football
field like a huge barrel that is imagine like
i don't know maybe two stores high of a building
two three stores high and this would be a tank
producing gas out of the poo of the ducks that
would give the electricity to the slaughterhouse
facility. That's crazy, man. It's really cool,
though, that they have a sustainability aspect
of it built into it. It's the only one in the
world that works with duck poo. The same thing
exists with other animals, but not with duck.
Yeah, that's super, super cool. But yeah, killing
animals. Killing animals is... pretty intense
like i've had to do it quite a number of times
in my career and i think it's very important
to do it at some point just to get because it's
an impactful experience even if you kill a fish
or a lobster something that you know it's not
sort of like closer to our heart as a mammal
like a veal right or a chicken i mean even because
for example when i was in japan At some point,
I worked myself up to be able to do the fish
prep. And one of my jobs, one of my tasks was
to do the Ikejime. So for people who don't know
Ikejime, similar to what Eric was just talking
about with the ducks, you bleed the fish out.
You have a fish, you make an incision in the
neck through the spine and at the tail so that
you open the spine at two ends. Then you insert
a long wire through the spinal cord to break
all the nerves. So the rigor mortis doesn't set
in. And then you put it in ice water and all
this blood circulates out through the spine into
the ice water. And that's where you get very,
very clean fish with a very nice texture with
no fishy taste. And so I, every day, had to kill
like five, six sort of like big halibuts, sort
of like lots of kind of smaller fish, a ton of
spiny lobsters every day. And these halibut,
they were big, you know, they were the size of
like two iPads put together, three iPads put
together, so big fish. And you would get them
in big plastic bags filled with seawater. You'd
open it, you take the fish out, the fish is moving,
it's like, what the fuck is going on? I'm not
in my bag anymore, help. So you kind of like
had to like put both your hands on the fish and
kind of like just press gently so it would calm
down. And at some point it would stop flopping.
And that's where I would take my big -ass fucking
Debra and, you know, just give him the mercy
kill in the back. And while it's actually quite
a good way to kill the animal, because the animal
is going to die anyway, right? It can die by
electroshock, but it can also die by just getting
whacked on the head, like it happens in a lot
of fishing boats, you know? But this very clean
and surgical killing is actually one of the most
humane things that you can do to the animal.
And even so, after months of killing fish every
day, it was getting to me. And I was like, man,
I don't want to kill anything anymore. Even though
a fish is something cold -blooded and we don't
relate to it as much. It really, really weighed
on me. But it makes you appreciate it. The story
has been told a million times. You go to the
supermarket, you pick something prepackaged up,
you're so disconnected from reality. But it's
true. It's really, really true. And we need to
remind ourselves of that because it's very easy
to get like caught up in the everyday sort of
consumerism and forget like the system behind
it, where things come from and what it means.
I absolutely agree. And I think that's part of
just like a commercial strategy to keep you away
of being aware of this because they know they're
going to just sell more. If you think that chicken
grows in the fridge, you know. That's just not
the way it works. It's like a whole industry
that works like this, that has been working like
this. I mean, not like this, like this, but we've
been raising animals to feed ourselves for thousands
of years. And it's part of our species, of what
we've been so far. And in order for it to get
to an end, and if it has to, like a proper solution
needs to come. And that's why a lot of speculation
is being built around alternatives. For example,
this whole lab -grown meats and these kind of
things where theoretically you're going to get
delicious, tasty meat that was... taken from
the animal a piece and then grown in a lab so
you have like a replica of that same compound
of things biochemically so and in the food tech
world that's today the the biggest area of speculative
investment. A lot of people is betting on whole
governments. Take, for example, Singapore are
putting a lot of money on researching around
this. But it's just a bet like nobody can tell
because this hasn't been completely implemented
in any country so far. And the market will decide
if... That's an alternative if that is valid
or not. But yeah, for example, 100 % veganism
generates, in some cases, health problems. And
that's something that people should be aware
of. If you want to become a vegan, at least you
should do some medical checks once in a while
to check if perhaps you're not getting a specific...
specific intake of a nutrient that you need and
yeah absolutely yeah i mean there's the there's
the moral side and there's the health side no
like if you want to be a vegetarian or vegan
from a moral standpoint you know okay like fair
enough but like with the health standpoint there's
this very different opinions floating around
no like you say yeah you know what really pisses
me off is when people say, oh, I don't want to,
I prefer not knowing where my meat comes from.
I like, how many times have you heard somebody
say like... Millions of times. I like going into
a supermarket and just buying a little pack.
I don't want to see the animal. I don't want
to know where it comes from. Of course not. But
you know what that's like to me? That's like
somebody saying, ah, I don't like thinking about
women getting sexually assaulted. It makes me
feel sad. and makes me feel uncomfortable so
i'd rather not think about it it's like man shut
the fuck up it's like this is like this is something
that's happening it's a real thing you know absolutely
yeah you feeling uncomfortable about it like
doesn't fucking matter like you have to think
about it right this is you don't just get to
like close your eyes yeah and um i think like
And one thing is getting taken like it's much
more serious, you know, and the other thing is
also like, man, it's also serious, you know,
like you're doing, you're having an impact on
the planet. You're making constant choices, constant
choices what you support as a consumer almost
every day. Yeah, I understand also that there's
a lot of people that are very sensitive about
many things and that any image that can be too
raw or too heavy, can be traumatic you know like
or can like drive them crazy really quickly oh
my god talk talking about sensitive imagery you
have no idea like when you ever like worked on
a cookbook you know i have not written a cookbook
but i've like been in the process with people
that have done it you know and the amount of
times that an editor you know you choose images
like to go into the book The amount of times
that an editor will reject a picture because
he's like, I remember a friend of mine in Berlin
wrote a cookbook a few years ago. And he was
like, this picture got rejected. I was like,
why? It's just a picture of a chicken on the
field. You know, like a very nice countrysidey
picture. And the editor was like, no, I don't
want people to associate that this is where that
dish comes from. Because it's going to make them
sad. This is exactly what this is about. Exactly.
It's exactly what the picture is supposed to
do. But in a good way. No, but I mean like cooking.
That's exactly what cooking is about. Cooking
is about understanding your products first. Like
that's the first thing. You know, you have to
understand. What do you have in your hands? Where
it comes from? How it grows, be it vegetable
or animal, it doesn't matter. Or how it's been
cooked in different approaches. But if it's an
animal, you should know what it is, where it
comes from, what did it eat, where did it live.
You should absolutely know that. That's it for
this week's episode of Putt Lock Food Talks.
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