Vinny Jones Shot My Duck - Pluck and Draw advice please.

mattogier

Well according to the person that gave me two ducks and two partridge (but no pear tree!!) they were shot by Vinny and his party yesterday!

Has any one any advice on plucking and drawing them - should they hang, how long for etc. URLs with pictures would be great!

Thanks

Matt

squeaky

You'll need to work your way through these - but they look they look useful:-

google partridge pluck


Good luck

mustafa_say_ving

I'd probably have a look on the river cottage forums ,I'm sure someone on there would know .

Excellent claim to fame .Vinny shot my duck ...classic

apple_mint

The first pheasant we were given took OH almost an hour and half to puck and draw. The the farmer told him that he just plucked the breast feathers and cut out the breast meat - the rest being disposed of (not very OS really but less time consuming).

We were given some duck recently (never cooked it before) and the breast was delicious (did a combination of the recipes on OS) - did it in a mix of HM plum jam / HM wine sauce.

Another kind person swapped their free range and ready plucked duck for some of our HM wine. So this is going to be our Christmas lunch tomorrow

mattogier

mustafa_say_ving wrote:

I'd probably have a look on the river cottage forums ,I'm sure someone on there would know .

Excellent claim to fame .Vinny shot my duck ...classic

I was at River Cottage a couple of weeks ago (Hugh demonstrating his Xmas Goose "beak to tail" meal) and got a copy of Meat signed by the man himself - but it's for Xmas so am not allowed to open it til tomorrow.

Anyway - I have established that I can leave the guts in until the day after boxing day (we are doing pressies tomorrow and the big meal on boxing day - with 6 kids it's easier and I get to see them opening instad of being in the kitchen to whole time!) and they should be just right.

Thanks for the help.

Matt

Debt_Free_Chick

Don't hang the duck for too long - yes, deal with them tomorrow. The partridge will be fine for up to a week, but it really depends how cold/warm it is. Hang them outside if you can, otherwise in an unheated shed or the garage. You can cover them with a pillowcase to keep any flies away.

If you've not done it before, then plucking is a real pain!! At this time of the year, I'm dealing with about 12 birds (duck & pheasant) each week :eek:

You might want to pluck one of the partridges and roast it whole, but you could simply joint the other birds and casserole them.

To joint them .... take a sharp knife and slit through the skin only (careful, not the flesh) at the base of the breast bone. No need to pluck, just slit the skin along the breast bone. Gently ease your fingers under the skin and then simply pull it back away from the flesh. Work your way up the breast bone pulling the skin towards the back of the bird - imagine you are pulling a cardigan off the bird

Once you've revealed the carcass, you can simply pull the skin over the legs. The wings won't be worth bothering with, unless you want to make stock from them.

With a sharp knife, you then joint the bare bird, removing the breast & [STRIKE]wings[/STRIKE] edit: the legs. Set them aside. At this point you can discard the rest - skin (still with feathers attached) and carcass, with the guts inside. However, if you want to reserve the carcass for stock, it's an easy matter to cut through the breast bone and drag the insides out using your hands. Not elegant, but easy to do

There is, indeed, a guide to plucking & drawing game birds on the River Cottage Forum, with pictures!

HTH

apple_mint

Thank you Debt Free Chick!

I've just taken a copy of these instructions for OH for when / if we get offered any more game birds