Patent ID: 7195554

Claim:
A method of separating thigh meat from oyster meat, which is a small lump of meat connected to the thigh meat with a membrane and to a white cap with a sinew, the white cap being an end of a thighbone of a work, which is a thigh portion of an edible beast or fowl, the method comprising the steps of: suspending the work by clamping the thighbone just below a knee joint of the thighbone to allow the thighbone to be swung during conveyance thereof; separating the thighbone with the oyster meat from the thigh meat; and cutting the sinew connecting the oyster meat to the white cap, wherein the cutting step comprises conveying the suspended work to a guide-with-a-cutter device, which has a Y-shaped guide, a narrow slot extending along a conveying direction at a base part thereof, downstream relative to the conveying direction from the Y-shaped guide, and a cutter downstream relative to the conveying direction from an opening of the narrow slot, with an open end side of the Y-shaped guide directed toward upstream of the conveying direction, wherein the Y-shaped guide contacts the thighbone and swings the thighbone toward upstream of the conveying direction, the white cap rides on the base part of the guide-with-a-cutter device while the sinew connecting the oyster meat to the white cap is introduced into the narrow slot as the thighbone with the attached oyster meat hanging from the white cap under the Y-shaped guide is conveyed, and the sinew is cut with the cutter to separate the oyster meat from the white cap.