Game birds- some advice please!

lucasmum

Hi,
I have been given 5 birds, 3 partridge and 2 grouse. I am hoping that someone here will have a bit of advice for me as I was given them by my brother who is a very experienced shooter but he has given them to me frozen but still as whole birds with feather guts and all!
They are just taking up room in my freezer to the mo so I would really like to know what to do with them.

I am a bit concerned that they shouldn't have been frozen with their guts still in, so I would rather find out now they are no good before I start getting my hands dirty!

If anyone has any info on whether they are still any good and if they are how I would go about gutting them. Obviously any recipes would also be great if they get that far.

Thanks in advance.
Becky

quintwins

oh i have no idea about all the bits my hubbys shoots but he plucks and cleans them out for me, all i can suggest is that when he's short of time he just cuts the breasts out so you could defrost them and try that

Reevsey

I suggest when you are ready to use them defrost them, cut down the breast bone and remove the breast meat - will look like small versions of chicken breasts when taken out. I'd discard the rest of the bird to be honest this time. Not sure if you've cooked with them before what i'd do is: roll the breasts in flour and bown off a little in a frying pan until lightly browned. Put them in a caserole dish with onion, carrots, other root veg, quartered spuds, prunes (sweetness if lovely when cooked), red wine and some veg stock and cook on low heat (180ish) for 1.5-2 hours. The flour will thicken the juices a bit and slow cooking will make the meat v tender. Beware when eating the meat may contain some shot, discard if found so as not to damage your teeth!

In future always get the birds gutted and plucked before freezing if you can, although i must admit i usually take off the beasts as saves so much mess and not much meat on the rest of the bird.

Hope you enjoy them!

LGH29

Cooked this many times.

Pot roast pheasant (gypsy style)

Ingredients:

• 2 whole pheasants
• 3 slices of white doughy bread to line the base of the casserole (crusts removed)
• 1 bramley cooking apple or two eating apples and half a lemon
• 6 slices of streaky bacon
• 1 large glass cider just covering the bread
• 3-4 of sprigs of thyme (9-12 separate twigs)
• Parsley to garnish

Method:

Pre heat oven to 160c (140c fan)

Ideally you have an oval casserole and aluminium foil

1. Layer the base of the casserole with the slices of bread.
2. If using a cooking apple: Quarter the apple and remove the core (no need to peel the apple). Put half the apple, quartered again into the cavity of the pheasant. Chop the remaining half and scatter over the bread.

1. If using eating apples: Chop one apple and press it into the cavity. Chop the other apple and scatter over the bread base.
2. Chop three of the streaky bacon slices and scatter over the bread.
3. If using eating apples: squeeze the lemon juice over the pheasant and rub in. Halve the squeezed lemon and place in the cavity of the bird.
4. remove the woody bits from the thyme and scatter the leaves and soft stems onto the layer of bread. Place the three remaining slices of bacon over the breast of the bird and carefully place it breast down on the layer of bread .
5. Put a piece of foil under the casserole lid to make a tight seal. Place in the centre of the preheated oven for 1.5 hours. Check to see how tender the bird is, using a fork. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes if necessary until very tender.
6. Adjust the oven temperature 180c (160c fan) and turn the bird over, breast up. Return the casserole (without lid) to the oven to brown the bird for ten minutes.
7. Remove the pheasant to a warm place and stir your sauce well before serving.

Serve the bread, bacon and apple sauce on each plate with the pheasant, sprinkled with torn parsley leaves. We also serve the apple from inside the bird as an instant apple sauce.

lucasmum

Thanks for your replies, I think I will stick with just using the breasts this time. Do I need to skin/pluck them first or just cut through everything?

greenbee

Cut through everything. You could also cut the legs off. Given the size of the birds, you'll probably be best off doing them all at once and then maybe pan frying or casseroling.

lucasmum

Brilliant, I will get on to it tomorrow. Thanks, I knew this was the right place to come!

Sublime_2

I'm usually given them already cleaned and gutted.

The last couple of pheasants I had, had been gutted and plucked on the spot, but still were a bit fluffy. The easiest way to get rid of the remaining feathers was to take the entire skin off, lay bacon strips on top, and cook in my slow cooker. Delicious, cooked with red wine.

heretolearn_2

Yes, with the smaller scrawnier game birds it's easiest just to cut the meat off. cut down to the breast bone, you can sort of slide the skin out of the way/almost turn them inside out, and pop the meat off. Legs if you can be bothered to pluck - or again, just cut the feet off and slide the skin away!