| Kill It, Cook It, Eat It Series 3 in detail ... Episode 0: Christmas Special – Every year in the run up to Christmas, millions of birds are killed for yuletide dinner tables. In a huge national mass cull that begins in November and has a deadline of 25th December, more than 10 million turkeys and nearly half a million geese are slaughtered. Many of these will come from huge factory farms working intensely for this time of year. Julia examined our attitude to Christmas meat – where it comes from, how it is raised, how it gets to your plate and the history around our eating choices. In a specially constructed restaurant-cum-studio built around a poultry abattoir unit, invited guests watched as the birds were brought in for killing. They were stunned, bled, de-feathered and gutted before their eyes by experienced professional slaughtermen. The birds were then butchered and part of their flesh was cooked and eaten in the studio by the audience. Eight geese and turkeys were brought for slaughter from farms in Lancashire and Essex. The slaughter process continued as normal and each of the birds is checked by an inspector from the meat hygiene service, while a leading veterinary surgeon gave a running commentary of events. The audience participated by eating some of the cooked poultry and discussed their attitudes to the trade in mass produced birds versus those from smaller farms. Episode 1: Deer – Set against the backdrop of the Highland estate of Balavil, the hunts took us into the little understood world of wild game hunting, part of a no-holds-barred exploration of the issues surrounding the killing and cooking of wild animals for our pleasure and for food. For many, deer stalking is the pinnacle of hunting for sport, but venison is an increasingly popular meat, with the line between hunting for pleasure and shooting for food somewhat blurred. The contributors were trained in rifle shooting and taken out on stalks to see how close they could get to a deer before lining the animal up in their sights and squeezing the trigger. Once a stag was killed, it needed to have its guts removed quickly before being taken off the moor and down to be skinned and the carcass butchered for cooking. Episode 2: Duck – The nine novice hunters went back to basics, bypassing the supermarkets and out to the Highlands to kill, cook and eat wild duck. Vegetarians, fast food addicts and food connoisseurs challenged themselves to confront the ethical issues of taking another animal's life to feed the nation's ever increasing appetite for meat. They faced an intensive gun training session before heading to the ponds to shoot mallard at dusk. How did they deal with the prospect of shooting, plucking and butchering wild animals and did they have the stomach to eat the ducks they might eventually kill? |
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