Food for Free - Roadkill

[Nightwalker]

I was off this evening, driving to pay my dad a visit when I came across a dead Pheasant in the middle of the road. I thought it looked very fresh and in good beautiful condition. So I stopped, parked up and went to take a look, picking it up by its neck I was happy to find it was still warm!

I put the pheasant in the car and have brought it home, well its in the garage hanging. I have never (yet) skinned an animal nor prepared one for my food, but I have seen it done and thanks to the superb BushcraftUK magazines I now have clear instruction on how to Breast or skin the Pheasant. I plan to prepare, cook and eat the pheasant myself, I might let a lucky friend have a taster lol.

Here is a couple of pics of the beautiful bird:

Any recommendations (to a beginner) on the storage, preperation and cooking of this bird would be greatly appreciated.
So I suppose my first question should be about storage. If I need to store it for a couple of days whats the best way? Im currently hanging it in my garage (cool, dark, free of flies). My father reconed that you could keep them hanging for a good while because buchers etc. would. And he mentioned something about with proper preperation the meat could get better with a little age. Any input appreciated, thanks for your help and time.

 

[Montivagus]

Yes game is traditionally "hung" but quite honestly this "tradition"(strange misinformation driven by class conscious snobbery) just stems from people not having fridges and in my opinion the fresher the better. Gut it skin it and put it in the fridge 'till you use it I say.

Recipe advice?....If you pluck it you can roast it a la chicken 'cos it has its skin it won't dry out. Plucking though is faf I can do without most of the time so I slow casserole/stew it to keep it tender

 

[Snufkin]

I personally don't let them hang a long time, couple of days at most. As you put it somewhere that is cool, dry and insect free it should be fine for a while. If you roast it you want to lay strips of fatty bacon over it as pheasant is a lean meat and tends to dry out. Personally I'd casserole it with some sherry, smoked bacon and wild mushrooms. Possibly served with dumplings with chestnuts in them (I have no idea if chestnut dumplings are any good, it just occured to me as I was typing. And now I'm hungry!).

 

[Rebel]

Try this thread.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=10293&highlight=pheasant

Personally I go with "Montivagus" new tradition.

 

[Hunter_zero]

Any recommendations (to a beginner) on the storage, preperation and cooking of this bird would be greatly appreciated.
So I suppose my first question should be about storage. If I need to store it for a couple of days whats the best way? Im currently hanging it in my garage (cool, dark, free of flies). My father reconed that you could keep them hanging for a good while because buchers etc. would. And he mentioned something about with proper preperation the meat could get better with a little age. Any input appreciated, thanks for your help and time.

Traditionally a Pheasant is "hung" until you can easily pull out the tail feathers.
The reason for hanging was so that the skin isn't damaged when plucking!
However, I don't like to hang any meat. If you hang the bird for more than a few days, the smell will put you off! trust me. This was recently proven (to my mind). A friend of mine who owns a farm, came over the other night. I was showing him my freezers stocked with prime venison for the forthcoming months. He proclaimed that he didn't like venison as it "tasted " musky.
I gave him some of mind, next day he called me to say that the venison was wonderful! best he had ever tasted. Tasted just like beef
The deer was shot at 8am and in the freezer butchered by 10pm.

If this is the first Pheasant you have got, then I would skin the bird and not pluck it.
Wrap the skinned bird in some best bacon, after stuffing with chestnut stuffing of course! Serve hot of cold with some current jelly.

HTH

John

 

[fred gordon]

The current Bushcraft magazine (Issue 3) has agreat article on page 38 on 'Skinning a pheasant'. This would be worth a look. I am hoping to try this out soon as we aget a lot of roadkilled wildlife in our area.
Had a real heartbreaking experience earlier this week when I found a dead otter on the road. It was fully grown and in great condition. Such a shame that people can't slow down when they see such animals on the road, or at the very least pick them up and put them on the verge showing them some respect.

 

[Montivagus]

I found a dead otter on the road. It was....in great condition.(

How fast do you have to be going to do this? I've never managed this in my life and had hundreds of oportunities as it were?

On topic make sure road kill is fresh! and prepare it quick...internal injuries might taint meat without obvious signs of burst guts showing on the outside.

 

[Tengu]

A cock pheasant ran straight out in front of me today. (as they tend to)

I managed to miss but that is only because I already have a full freezer.

If the bird is skinned you can protect it by wrapping in foil...or dough.

I saw one of our suburban roe deer dead by the side of the road last week, what a terrible waste.

 

[Nightwalker]

The current Bushcraft magazine (Issue 3) has agreat article on page 38 on 'Skinning a pheasant'. This would be worth a look. I am hoping to try this out soon as we aget a lot of roadkilled wildlife in our area.
Had a real heartbreaking experience earlier this week when I found a dead otter on the road. It was fully grown and in great condition. Such a shame that people can't slow down when they see such animals on the road, or at the very least pick them up and put them on the verge showing them some respect.

Yeah I had read it a couple of times and thats the exact plan I think I will follow.

A cock pheasant ran straight out in front of me today. (as they tend to) I managed to miss but that is only because I already have a full freezer.

LOL.

 

[wingstoo]

I am surprised that deerstalker hasn't added to this post yet...


Here is a posting he made on another forum in regards to roadkill...

The of taking road killed game, provided you did not kill it yourself, is unfortunately an urban myth. No game may be killed on taken in the UK without a valid game licence. All game is the property (live or dead) of the landowner who's land it happens to be on. The 1994 Deer Act states quite clearly that it is a criminal offence to enter any land (not your own) for the purpose of killing or the taking of deer (dead or alive). Often the game rights of adjoining landowers cover the whole of the road. In the case of there being different landowers each side of the road, then each landowners rights extend to the centre of the road. In this stituation, to pick up road kill from the road or verge would mean you are guilty of poaching.

Other roads are the property of local authorities and othe executive transport agencies. These roads, although, technically, in public ownership, do not give you any extra rights to pick up game. Such game is still not your property and you can be prosecuted under the game act, the 1994 deer act, the 1961 (or is '62) theft act (stealing by finding), as well as a possible conviction for poaching.

It is interesting to note that on summary conviction, the vehicle used to pick up such game will be confiscated by the the authorities.

As a professional deer manager, a member of The Humane Slaughter Association and a marksman on a retainer to defra, I would beg you all not to attempt to hit a deer in your car. At best your car will end up a write off, at worst you will end up dead (I think about 30 people lost their lives last year as a result of deer impacts).

The health issues are far reaching. As somebody said, you really don't know why these deer are hit by cars. or indeed how they died. I have been called out to dispatch road casualties which, have been hit because they are old, diseased, darted with anaesthetics or even contraceptives.

If I or a vet dispatch an animal, we don't take it home. It becomes the resonsibility of the landowner or council to arrange collection of the carcass by the knackerman for incineration.

As a professional stalker, not only are we trained (it's a hard course) in disease recongnition (how many of you would know where a deer's lymph nodes were and how to recognise such things as bovine TB?), but we also hold a large game meat hygiene certificate, so when you buy venison, not only can you guarantee it is clean fresh meat, but you can trace it to the stalker who shot it.

We stalkers know exactly where to shoot deer and with the correct weapons. This ensures a humane kill without damaging the gut. If the gut is ruptured, then the meat is contaminated and not suitable for human consumption. It is essential that the animal is bled and gralloched straight after death (no you don't hang it up from anything). The object of the game is to cool the carcass as quickly as possible (we have special tools to hold the chest cavity open to assist rapid cooling).

Gralloching a deer is nothing like paunching a rabbit.

Considering a deer involved in a RTA will suffer fatal trauma, you have no contol over disease, gut damage, drugs, haemorrhaging etc.

Any deer that has cooled to, or near ambient temperature without being bled or gralloched is a health hazard and not suitable for human consumption.

I guess we should all be careful when removing dead birds or animals from a roadkill site, a conviction for theft wouldn't look good on anyones CV

LS

 

[Montivagus]

Wow ! So if a deer dies over the middle line no traffic can pass untill someone has informed both game licence holders/land owners and the deer has been very carefully sawn in half to be taken away by such.
That's the kind of common sense I like.

And how did humans ever manage to survive this far without the Large Game Hygiene Certificate.

 

[Nightwalker]

Thats a interesting post thanks for that ludlowsurvivors. However it has not changed my opinion on taking (fresh) road-kill, this is my first.

it is a criminal offence to enter any land (not your own) for the purpose of killing or the taking

I didnt enter the land for the purpose of killing or taking, however yes I did take the dead bird that was killed by someone else's car (still warm), and im confident that in reality if I were "caught in the act" by the bobby he would probably be appreciative of me taking the carcass away and he would probably understand the respect of me making use of the bird. Arguably however I bet there would be other officers that would like to take the time and effort to report it to the land owner.

And I believe in cases (lets say exactly like mine) if anything went to court and was individually reviewed I dont think anyone would be prosecuted over this. I mean pheasant dont cost much at all these days, and im sure if anything did kick up you could appologise and maybe give the land-owner a bottle of whiskey (worth more than the bird) and he would drop the case

Anyways..

The pheasant is all done and dusted!

This was the first animal I have ever skinned and im fairly proud with the job. I have never tried pheasant for eating neither, so im looking forward to it. Great appreciation to Mark Aspell & the Bushcraft Magazine team for the brilliant article in the Bushcraft magazine that guided me through the process of skinning the pheasant! (Issue 3, page 38).

I followed those instructions closely and nearly all went well. The only step I nearly forgot and struggled with was the snapping of the legs (just above the knee) and then removing the tendons in the muscle in the upper leg. Out of the book:

To remove the lower legs and feet grasp the bird by the ankle and hold it horizontally so all of the bird's weight is supported by it. Using the back of the knife sharply hit the bone of the leg just above the knee joint. Hitting the bone like this will crack it without cutting the soft tissue.

Holding the lower leg like a T section so the upper leg is between the first and index finger pull the lower leg. The tendons in the muscle in the upper leg will come away with the lower part making the meat much more tender.

I followed the instructions and this part didnt seem to work for me, I tried a couple of times and then my girlfriend commented to try hitting it harder (because it said sharply as she said ) hit it a fraction harder than previous and it cut the soft tissue (as mentioned not to do in the book), tried again making another small cut and still no break, so I resorted to breaking the leg at the knee joint which is very close to where we was hoping for the break anyway. At this point I forgot that the actual purpose of this part of the method was to remove the tendons from the meat, so the tendons are still in the upper leg meat. Im guessing this is no major problem?

Overall it went well and it was a great experience. I treated the bird respectfully and feel good for making use of it.

So now the meat has been cleaned and its in the fridge. So it the bird will have been dead for less than 24hrs before hitting my fridge, that should be fairly good for its freshness. Now thats all done myself and girlfriend will get looking for some different pheasant recipes. If you have one to recommend please do. If you dont have Issue 3 of the Bushcraft magazine (and havent seen the exact steps I have taken).. I have ended up with two seperate legs and breasts, just as in the picture in the magazine, so buy the magazine its great! Now; recipes anyone?

 

[Tengu]

Taking things out of skips is theft in this county too, but I severly doubt anyone would make an issue of it.

 

[BorderReiver]

The funny thing is LS,if a deer writes off your car,you have absolutely no claim on the "legal owner" of the deer.

We aint 'alf got some screwy laws in this country.

 

[rik_uk3]

Pheasant is not my favourite bird, when growing up, my step father would cook a brace from time to time. OK roasted, but much better when slow cooked in wine and onions with garlic.

 

[Feygan]

On this subject I nearly had me a whole sheep this morning

I was driving a bus load of drunkards back from a club, when along one section of road I saw quite clearly the total wooly thing lying there stiff as, Ive seen them a few times on that stretch normally they wander upto the road edge from the field and watch the traffic. This one obviously went for the extreme close up.
If it hadnt't been for my passengers it would have gone straight in, I was sorely tempted to go back with the car if it wasn't for the fact that traffic police go up and down there all the time and I didn't know how I would explain loading an entire sheep into my boot

But definitly a missed opportunity there. The amount of things I could have had, tasty roast leg of lamb tomorrow and maybe by the end of the week a fully made fleese lined sheepskin body warmer. The thing only looked about 18-24 months too.

 

[Nightwalker]

Regards the legal issues of taking road kill (brought up by ludlowsurvivors), I would be more concerned when taking a dead lamb/sheep, infact personally I dont think I would take one, but thats me. The reason I wouldnt is because they are somebody's livestock and im guessing that because of the size of the animal chances are the death of the animal will be reported faster than say a pheasant and the livestock owner will probably retrieve it in time to make some use of it, and after all it is his produce. As for a pheasant, no one bothers about a dead one on the road and it will normally just be left there to get ran over a few hundred times.

What other road-kill animals have you folk bagged?

 

[ArkAngel]

The most important thing is....

...make sure it's dead!!

A friend of mine (a station chief in the fire service) and some of his collegues were going to a training session. Imagine the scene with 5 burly firefighters in a Peugeot 306, a pheasent ran out in front of them too near to do anything about. It was given a good whallop by the car. Quick as a flash my mate jumped out, grabbed it, thought it was dead and threw it in the footwell "Well that's lunch taken care of lads!"
Please now inamgine the surprise when the dead (but actually only stunned) bird woke up in the confined space of a Peugeot 306 with 5 burly fire fighters in it 10 miles down the road!!!!
Fortunately they managed to stop quickly and released the bird leaving it to hitch hike home.

 

[Nightwalker]

The most important thing is....

...make sure it's dead!!

A friend of mine (a station chief in the fire service) and some of his collegues were going to a training session. Imagine the scene with 5 burly firefighters in a Peugeot 306, a pheasent ran out in front of them too near to do anything about. It was given a good whallop by the car. Quick as a flash my mate jumped out, grabbed it, thought it was dead and threw it in the footwell "Well that's lunch taken care of lads!"
Please now inamgine the surprise when the dead (but actually only stunned) bird woke up in the confined space of a Peugeot 306 with 5 burly fire fighters in it 10 miles down the road!!!!
Fortunately they managed to stop quickly and released the bird leaving it to hitch hike home.

LOL Quality story! I actually thought of that when I was picking the pheasant I found off the road. I mean I didnt hit it so I was supprised to find it still warm, I watched carefully for any signs of breathing or life, and it was dead. But yes it crossed my mind!

 

[Tengu]

and break its neck first.

(has had run ins with stunned birds too)