If you hand a 6" boning knife to a new line cook, do you teach the seam-to-seam French jointing on whole birds or start them on spatchcocking for speed? I’m building a 40-bird/day lunch program and want clean joints, tight 8-way yields, and minimal bone shards without bogging the station.
clean joints, tight 8-way yields, and minimal bone shards without bogging the I teach seam-to-seam and drill “pop the joint, then cut” — dislocate hip/shoulder before the blade touches to kill bone dust and keep skin clean. Are your birds air-chilled or pumped?
My take: I’d lean toward the simplest next step and see if it changes anything this week — if not, you’ve got a clear case to escalate. What would block you from trying that?
For 40/day, I start newbies on shears + spatchcock for service, then make them do two seam-to-seam 8-ways in prep each shift. Are shears allowed on that station or knife-only? Chill birds 10–15 minutes in the lowboy for cleaner joints and fewer shards, and — building on @johnson68 — teach “dislocate, then slice” with a towel grip on the drum so they can feel the pop.