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Post by canadamike on Nov 3, 2009 2:23:19 GMT -5
Pheasants are not very good eating, despite what people may claim, and plucking them is a nightmare, as the skin tears and rips with every handful of feathers. Pheasants taste very gamey and are strong flavoured, of the two the hen birds taste the best, cock birds have very long sharp tendons in their legs like thorns, according to tradition in the UK pheasants are at their best when hung in a cool larder for about two to three weeks-and that's how the gentry and land owners like them, Personally I do not like the flavour at all as it is too strong for me, -"Yuk" Not true! I had a pheasant farm and raised thousands in flight pens, Darth Slater HA, but it is not wild pheasant then... as an exemple, here, we have two tastes for deer: the truely wild one and the taste of the not so so wild deer eating in corn fields...  |
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 3, 2009 5:57:56 GMT -5
If you are roasting any kind of bird, it should have the skin still on it. That helps heep the moisture in the meat as opposed to evaporating. Or at least use a covered roasting pan. You can also pull up the skin and put onions, garlic, herbs, etc between the skin and the meat. Geez, don't you guys watch Martha Stewart?  lol I might be wrong, but don't you soak wild tasting birds in brine before you cook them? |
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Post by Darth Slater on Nov 3, 2009 9:26:10 GMT -5
Not true! I had a pheasant farm and raised thousands in flight pens, Darth Slater HA, but it is not wild pheasant then... as an exemple, here, we have two tastes for deer: the truely wild one and the taste of the not so so wild deer eating in corn fields... There is absoulutly no taste differance, from a wild bird and a tame one. In the wild the pheasnt will still eat seeds and corn when it is avalible, which is most of the time. As for leaving the skin on, yes it retains some moisture but that is why God created bacon! Engaurd Martha! |
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Post by grunt on Nov 3, 2009 20:52:44 GMT -5
I have a little garden plaque that reads "Martha doesn't live here."
Smother the bird in tomato juice. Tweaks the flavor a bit, and prevents most of the dryness. Also tenderizes, if any of the bird is tough. Works well for any tough meat.
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Post by Darth Slater on Nov 4, 2009 0:04:52 GMT -5
I have a little garden plaque that reads "Martha doesn't live here." Smother the bird in tomato juice. Tweaks the flavor a bit, and prevents most of the dryness. Also tenderizes, if any of the bird is tough. Works well for any tough meat. You don't know me Grunt, but I like you! Darth Slater |
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Post by solarguy on Nov 6, 2009 13:41:28 GMT -5
Wild pheasant (never had the commercially raised kind) tastes like, chicken. At least it tastes pretty much like the dark meat.
Double thumbs up on wrapping in bacon. Any dry meat benefits from the bacon wrap method.
Finest regards,
troy
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Post by michaeljohnson on Nov 8, 2009 2:00:40 GMT -5
As they say- T'was my delight on a shiny night in the season of the year. trudging back through fields and woods with a large bag of pheasants on our backs, here's a little story about that- on one particular good night we had twenty two pheasants in the bag, and decided rather than keep them for a few days and take them all in to the game dealer at once, we would take these in to him that morning as soon as it got to around nine o'clock- we arrived at the game retailers prep sheds where several women were employed plucking them and preparing them amongst piles of various game birds, the owner came up to us to meet us and said -morning boy's- are they fresh", oh" yes we said-and opened up the bag of pheasants to tip them out on the deck for him to see, as soon as they hit the deck -one of them was not quite dead and recovered-it must have been a glancing shot to the head,-the bird suddenly got up and flew straight into the dressing shed-"good God" shrieks the owner- you cant get them much fresher than that can you? and paid us out in cash straight away-leaving us feeling a little embarrassed as we scuttled away rapidly.  |
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 9, 2009 6:51:07 GMT -5
I'm half tempted to catch these birds, so they don't starve to death. No one hunted them and there will be no food for them in a few weeks. The snow gets very high here. That means no access to seeds. Very sad.
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Post by michaeljohnson on Nov 10, 2009 1:22:28 GMT -5
You should not worry- pheasants are very adaptable and eat almost anything, they peck about and scratch about just like chickens, here in the UK pheasants survive quite well when there is two foot of snow on the ground for weeks on end, they tend to frequent woods and trees rather than open ground and there is lots of bits for them to eat, and then later in the day spreading out to open ground to feed.
In the absence of trees I have even known them to take cover underneath the cabbages in cabbage fields for the night.
They originated from the harsh mountain regions of China often covered in snow for months-before they became popular as a game bird in other countries.
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 10, 2009 5:44:58 GMT -5
The birds have sufficient tree cover. It's a mix of field and forest, so they have the edge where they meet. Lots of pine. I have been seeing them under my apple tree. And in the other hedgerows. Turkey and grouse make it all winter.
I hope they still have some of the hardiness from China. Snow can be several feet on the ground for months on end. And I don't put up bird feeders. I don't want my birds trying to get to them or eating sour seed. I'll just hope for the best and keep my eye on them.
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Post by Jim on Nov 10, 2009 18:38:48 GMT -5
Next year I'm getting a shotgun to join the other idiots in the woods..this year a friend is taking me rabbit hunting. Next year I buy a doe tag.
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Post by michaeljohnson on Nov 11, 2009 1:16:34 GMT -5
You don't need a shot gun to catch pheasants- all you need is an old gypsy trick, you take a handful of raisins or sultanas and soak them in best rum, overnight-then thread them with a needle and a five foot long length of very thin nylon fishing line so that they are all strung out along the line in a long row, then you take these -(several lengths of them) to the feeding areas and spread them out on the ground, the pheasants come along and gobble them up greedily, the next morning you go there early- and you will find several pheasants on the ground as drunk as skunks where you can quickly grab them and pull out the thread of nylon from their beaks. Another method is burning sulphur candle- you take a long twelve foot long thin hollow tube like a fibre glass fishing rod tube which all joins together in sections, a sulphur candle and some matches or lighter, then you travel to the area at night- you know the pheasants are, in the bottom of the tube I forgot to mention you have a small plastic funnel , you then assemble the tube and funnel and light the candle- then stepping into the woods carefully and lightly you look for pheasants perched in low branches of trees, then you raise the tubing as close as you dare to the perching pheasant underneath it-pop the sulphur candle underneath the funnel, and as soon as the pheasant gets a whiff of this it it drops like a stone unconscious - these are just a couple of very ingenious methods for poaching pheasants-developed donkeys years ago. |
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 11, 2009 6:28:17 GMT -5
Next year I'm getting a shotgun to join the other idiots in the woods..this year a friend is taking me rabbit hunting. Next year I buy a doe tag. You don't get 2 tags automatically, one for doe and one for buck? I think they started issuing 2 here a few yrs ago. The local hunters are looking to fill the freezer. The idiots are looking for that 10 pointer. Hunting for food doesn't bother me. Hunting just for sport does. |
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Post by Jim on Nov 11, 2009 10:19:14 GMT -5
I'm not exactly sure how Michigan works but I know there are doe tags and buck tags. I'm looking for eaters not trophies. I could care less home many points. I'm looking to feed the family.
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 12, 2009 7:32:38 GMT -5
You'll probably have to take a hunter safety course too. Are you going to make the Bambi jerky? It's very popular here.
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lol
