Chicken butcher

[Anonymous]

There’s a very highly rated local shop near me that sells chicken and eggs. People low this place and they’ve been in business for decades. They do their own processing in the back. It’s a small shop, like the size of a fast food place. Just a counter and small displays, plus the back area behind a door where they do the processing.

I love fresh and local, but the thing is the stench when I walked into this place was gross. Elderly women and middle aged men were there ordering happily and I seemed the only person put off by the smell. Is this to be expected in a butcher that processes its own meat? Is it specific to chicken?

The chicken itself tasted good and the eggs were good.

[Anonymous]

It’s normal. Not just chicken. I’ve been everywhere from a butcher shop in Mongolia to a Tysons kill floor. They all have that odor.

[Anonymous]

You would really be floored about the smell in large commercial processing plants.

[Anonymous]

It’s a pile of dead flesh and guts. Do you expect it to smell like Chanel No.5?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would really be floored about the smell in large commercial processing plants.

I don't doubt that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a pile of dead flesh and guts. Do you expect it to smell like Chanel No.5?

No, but I've been in plenty of other generalist butcher shops (not poultry specialty shops) that don't smell like that. Do chicken butcher shops smell uniquely terrible while beef/pork butchers don't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a pile of dead flesh and guts. Do you expect it to smell like Chanel No.5?

No, but I've been in plenty of other generalist butcher shops (not poultry specialty shops) that don't smell like that. Do chicken butcher shops smell uniquely terrible while beef/pork butchers don't?

DP, but it depends on what they are doing there. Most butchers get in the large pieces that they are going to turn into specific cuts. They’re just handling parts and turning them into smaller parts. It sounds like this place is culling and processing, which brings in a different dynamic and different, um, materials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a pile of dead flesh and guts. Do you expect it to smell like Chanel No.5?

No, but I've been in plenty of other generalist butcher shops (not poultry specialty shops) that don't smell like that. Do chicken butcher shops smell uniquely terrible while beef/pork butchers don't?

Yes -- chicken has a uniquely gross smell. There is a difference between a butcher and abattoir. The abattoir does the slaughtering and processing - the smelly stuff. The butcher just breaks the animal down - way less smelly. This chicken place is the poultry equivalent of an abattoir, hence the smell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a pile of dead flesh and guts. Do you expect it to smell like Chanel No.5?

No, but I've been in plenty of other generalist butcher shops (not poultry specialty shops) that don't smell like that. Do chicken butcher shops smell uniquely terrible while beef/pork butchers don't?

Yes -- chicken has a uniquely gross smell. There is a difference between a butcher and abattoir. The abattoir does the slaughtering and processing - the smelly stuff. The butcher just breaks the animal down - way less smelly. This chicken place is the poultry equivalent of an abattoir, hence the smell.

This. Most butcher shops are not slaughterhouses.