peping Phesant

[slyfox]

Can anyone steer me in the right direction of pluking and prepering a phesant.

as i can find any info on this, loads of recipes but nothing on getting ready for the pot.
Thanks....

 

[dtalbot]

Can anyone steer me in the right direction of pluking and prepering a phesant.

as i can find any info on this, loads of recipes but nothing on getting ready for the pot.
Thanks....

Firstly you need to hang the pheasant ( guts and all ) for between 7 and 14 days depending on how strongly game you like it. Then pluck the bird, starting with the breast and then the wings ( these can be difficult as the feathers are well attached ) and it is best to do this outside or in the garage as you will be finding feathers for months. The knack with plucking is to pull against the direction of growth i.e. with the breast pull up towards the head. Be careful on the breast as if you are too enthusiastic you can pull the skin off.
When plucked you need to remove the head ( cut at body end of neck )and then you need to remove the crop, which will probably contain a fair amount of seed ( some people mistake these for maggots ), to do this you just prise it out with your fingers and take care not to rupture or there will be seed everywhere.
Then you need to gut the bird and to do this you make a shallow cut at the bottom ( not too deep or you will cut into the innards ) and pull the intestines etc out through the bottom.
Trim off feet and ends of wings and wash the inside out thoroughly (make sure all the insides are out). You can you roast your pheasant with pride.
If you don't want to roast it you can remove just the breast fillets and the legs. To do this slit the skin on the breast and peel the bird. Remove the breast fillets and take care not to puncture anything inside. Then cut legs off close the body and peel skin off these. This is 80% of the meat on a pheasant and if you don't want the effort of going the whole hog is a good alternative.

Good luck and happy plucking.

Sarah.

 

[the naughty boy]

make sure you have plenty of veg or stuffing if you only have one bird.if your a big boy youll probably be better off with at least two especially if you have company.

nearly ran over a big cock bird today,beautiful looking birds.id rather see them strutting across a field on a summer evening than being blasted to bits from shotguns .

 

[Kath]

and then you need to remove the crop, which will probably contain a fair amount of seed ( some people mistake these for maggots ),

One time that sticks in my mind it really was maggots though!

 

[Adi007]

Unless it was a big phesant, I'd go with the breast fillets and legs only ... less hassle for not much less meat.

 

[dtalbot]

Unless it was a big phesant, I'd go with the breast fillets and legs only ... less hassle for not much less meat.

Yep,
As Sarah said it is about 80% of the meat and you get that for about 10% of the work and of course if you finish skinning the birdie (or peeling in Sarah's words) you can chuck the remainder in the pot with some veg and a load of water and up with some decent stock. Though having said that a roast pheasant is a nice treat so there is usually a whole bird or two in our freezer alongside loads of legs and breasts for general use.
And Kath, we've never been unlucky enough to find real maggots in there but the one that sticks in my mind is the Ray Mears prog with (if I remember right) the RAF lot on survival training when the students disposed of a perfectly good protein source by mistaking grain for maggots!
Cheers
David

 

[Kath]

The only time I've seen maggots - and they were coz they was wrigglin'! - was someone else's pheasie and and if I recall correctly they'd hung it for about a week in a shed that wasn't particularly dry, had animals in etc. Possibly this had something to do with it ...

Anyway maggots are a good source of protein too aren't they?? :twisted:

 

[Buckshot]

One of my pet hates is plucking birds :yikes:

I very rarely do the whole prepping bit because I hate it sooooo much.

I just take the breast off and the legs if I'm feeling generous and ditch the rest. I agree David, very little workfor almost as much meat.

Cheers

Mark

 

[slyfox]

I Thank you all very much, especially Sarah....

I want to go the hole hog as i need the practise, feel a bit sad as iv lived in the country for 30 years and this is my first plucking.....


Cheers.

 

[bushwacker bob]

I wouldn't hang it. just invites other things to eat it. Half rotten food IMHO is only for true life or death situations.If it turns your stomach to do a fresh chicken,you'll chunder all month with a 2week hung pheasant :-(

 

[Roving Rich]

I've gone right off hanging them. The last one went really maggoty. Crawling with em, it was the ones in its mouth wriggling like a tongue that grossed me out the most. I had been told by the butcher that this was ready to eat, just shake em off and eat it. I tried this, and tiny maggots flew in all directions. The thing was still pulsating so i binned it. yuk. it took us days to clean all the maggots up, they kept writhing out of the brickwork. SWMBO was not best pleased. :roll:
So I'll have em fresh from now on.
My cousin told me this was just a fashion from years ago anyway. When the rich from London travelled by carriage to their country estates, and it took days to get back so the birds were humming. The poor emulated this by hanging their birds for days till they were equally "ripe".
Cheers
Rich

 

[the naughty boy]

lol plenty of fishing bait then?

a m8 of mine shoots pheasent,leaves them to hang for three days inside a mosquito net tube.no flies ,just some nice hung bird ready to eat!

 

[Roving Rich]

Yeh seen those, advertised as "Game larder". Seems a good idea.
Do you rate em ?

Cheers
Rich

 

[the naughty boy]

definitly m8. unless your partial to wee white wriggly things .ever try to get those things out of a thick carpet?
apart from the fact of them all over a potential meal?
easy to make them yourself too...you dont nessecarily need proper mosquito netting just some suitably light weave materiel,some string and a few sticks.

 

[BorderReiver]

Just depends on the weather really.
If it's hot,don't hang em.If it's brass monkeys,there are no flies about to cause any trouble and you can hang for a few days quite safely.

I fully agree that breasting them out is more effort/reward effective,just like pidgeon.

 

[dtalbot]

Mine usually get hung for a week or two in a shed or garage and given the pheasant season is in the winter I've never had maggot problems. Dealing with summer roadkill I'd do the mozzie net thing for safety and drop the hanging time to a few days. In a life or death situation eat it straight away but you don't get anything like the best taste if you don't hang your game!
Cheers
David