Featured Watch Out For Pheasants

I had a terrible track record with birds when I was younger.

Trying to stop one meeting another nearly killed me.

 

Pheasant Pluckers Song

 

I wish I could hit a pheasant. The only things in the roads where I live are snakes, rabbits, and coyotes. I hit a dead coyote on my way to work in the early morning hours while on my Scrambler just a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, it wasn't long-dead and hadn't bloated or putrefied yet, so it was just an unexpected "thump-thump" and I transited the curve.

While I don't like to eat snakes, I do have a collection of rattles from the diamond-backs unfortunate enough to get caught on my dirt. I'm going to start shooting them with something other than a 12 gauge though, because I'd like to start tanning the skins and maybe making a hatband or a belt from them.

If I want to eat rabbit (which i frequently do), I just step out onto my back porch and ding one with my trusty .22 and get it onto the stove before it grows cold. No need to scrape one off of the asphalt.

The coyotes are usually somewhat mangey, and I'd have to want to eat mighty bad before I put one of those on the spit. The county used to have a bounty on them, but they haven't done that in a year or two ($16 for a summer pelt, and $21 for a winter pelt).

But I digress. It's been a few decades since I've had pheasant, and when I did it was prepared/cooked by my parents. I'm told it's best when aged until it's right about to "turn", and then cooked. Is there truth to this?

 

Taste kind of like chicken. They're lean and "gamey" though. I recommend marinating for a day or so. A wine or balsamic vinegar based marinade is effective.

 

No @Desert Yeti , the people who like their pheasant rotten are some weird hangover from the days of the chinless wonders interbreeding... I suspect Jacob Rees-Mogg (the honourable member for the 18th century) likes his in a state of liquid putrefaction... whereas I like mine the day they are terminated.

 

I have found you need a day or two to soften the meat. Same ways as a good steak is aged, but then I’ve only a little chin.

 

Kill it, fillet, fry it, eat it...

 

Stopped plucking these little fuckers years ago. Just fillet off the breasts and use in a casserole or curry to keep them moist. Or quick fry especially pigeon breasts. They're now quite the delicacy in many restaurants. How things change!

 

Every time I shoot a wild turkey I process it similarly.

The first time I shot one was when I was stationed in the eastern Carolinas back in the 80's. It was a tom that weighed-in around 14 pounds, and I was advised that to make plucking the bird easier, I should scald it in near-boiling water. I prepped a big kettle over a propane burner and when I thought the water was the right temperature I gave the bird a good dunk. All this really did was make it wet, and amplify some unpleasant aromas (I later learned that the water should have been at a rolling boil, and I should have left the bird in for about three times as long as I did; feathers are after all, an excellent insulator).

Anyway, I then commenced to plucking, and to this day I swear that there were new feathers growing from a dead bird faster than I could pluck them. I ended-up with a large trash can liner FULL of feathers, and some beat-up hands. From that point on, if there was nobody around willing to pluck the bird for oven-roasting, I simply skinned it and made a casserole instead.

Regarding pigeons: where I live there is a preponderance of ring-neck doves. They are considered an invasive species that is forcing the indigenous birds out, so they may be taken with impunity; no license, no season, no limit.

It takes about half a dozen of them (I just pluck-out the breast meat like nuggets and toss the rest over the fence for the coyotes), but they make an excellent fricassee.

 

Ha. Literally have a had the same thing this week. I live near goodwood and went for a blast over the downs on Sunday. Had four near misses with pheasants (one literally tried to do a ninja attack on me by leaping out of the hedge just as I arrive!). Also had one squirrel and one weird rodent type thing come running out. Felt like nature was trying to call it a day!!

 

Ha. Literally have a had the same thing this week. I live near goodwood and went for a blast over the downs on Sunday. Had four near misses with pheasants (one literally tried to do a ninja attack on me by leaping out of the hedge just as I arrived!). Also had one squirrel and one weird rodent type thing come running out. Felt like nature was trying to call it a day!!