Do you hang your birds?

Claybuster

Claybuster

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I've always just cleaned and eaten the grouse or pheasant I've shot. This horrifies an English friend of mine who insists game birds should be hanged for several days to tenderize.

Do you hang your birds? If so, how long and in what temperature? Head up or down? Gutted or not?
 
I take the guts out and hang them by placing them in the fridge for a day or 2. I don't hang with the guts in, as many people do (or used to do) I find that it mars the flavour of the meat.
 
Claybuster said:
I've always just cleaned and eaten the grouse or pheasant I've shot. This horrifies an English friend of mine who insists game birds should be hanged for several days to tenderize.

Do you hang your birds? If so, how long and in what temperature? Head up or down? Gutted or not?
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Many years ago when living in Scotland,my friend and i went fly fishing up north to for the day, parked the old morris minor and then hiked about a mile or so thro the heather to the loch.

We had to knock on the door of the gamekeepers cottage to get the permit to fish.

Hanging on the stone wall by the door were several game birds ( i cannot remember exactly what kind ) but they were hanging head down and looked as if they had been there for a while :lol:

Then the keeper came out,wearing his kilt that looked as if he had been sleeping in it,(probably was) and the old hammer SxS was standing on the inside of the open door 8)

This was not a tourist thing, this was and old stone cottage, hundreds of years old and no other dwelling for miles

SO, i guess,if the old "Highland gamekeeper" hangs his birds,------ :idea:
 
Our ducks and grouse often sit for a couple of days provided it's not sweltering in the end of September. THis isn't so much for the meat, as it is to stave off plucking, gutting, and cleaning until sunday when we cant hunt.
 
Absolutely. I'll even go up to 5 days or so when the weather is just right, just above freezing. I put them on the concrete floor in the garage, on their backs. Right now I let them sit overnight, and clean the next day. Remember, this isn't ground beef we're talking about, the meat is almost completely sealed in there and hasn't been exposed to air or bacteria. Everything drains to the back. Yes I'll wash the meat clear of blood and shot areas after I clean it, but I'm just taking breast meat and legs. I also can't recall doing this with any birds that were horribly shot up.

I used to clean the birds right after the hunt, but sometimes found they were still stiff from rigor. That certainly doesn't make for tender meat.

G M
 
Brining will tend to increase flavour and tenderness by increasing the water content.

COmmercial chicken producers do this- It's called "pump" They can use a lower grade of chicken and when the water/saline content is increased, it is more tender and flavourful, so they can sell for more.

It also increases the weigth with water.

I don't know Wes's reaosns... :mrgreen:
 
haggisbasher said:
SO, i guess,if the old "Highland gamekeeper" hangs his birds,------ :idea:
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It was my English friend and the memory of a trip over the pond that started me thinking about it. At a country pub I'd eaten a meal of grilled wood pigeon breast and it was outstanding. Really good. I asked the pub owners what they did to the birds and they said they hanged them for a week before cooking them.

If things are good this season I think I'll give it a try providing the weather's cool and my wife doesn't object too strenuously to a grouse or a pheasant or two hanging in her horsebarn.

I plan to gut the birds and hang them by the head. If however hanging a pheasant in the horsebarn is deemed a hanging offense on the domestic front, brining sounds like a reasonable alternative.
 
I don't think i would gut out the birds,and then hang them in the barn----flys are not part of the process.

Hang them the way that they are shot :lol: ,just like the 'old gamekeeper' in Scotland did.

Then breast out the meat, then soak it as 'westicle' suggests and then i'm sure the meat will be very flavourfull.

Let us know how it turns out,( or send me a sample) :wink:
 
Good ol' people from the Continent used to hang them for quite a while.
I remember a case with pheasants.... they hung by the neck until they fell off.

Might be extreme, but tasty nevertheless
 
back to Claybuster...........

I have a British wild game cook book that was given to me by my sister-in-law. Pretty well all of the recipes include things like hanging the birds, guts in, or in the case of woodcock, hanging the birds, guts in, then COOKING the birds, guts in. (You use the bill for a skewer BTW :shock: )

So anyways the likelihood of me ever following any of these recipes is, to put it mildly, remote. :roll: PM me with your address and I will mail it to you.

Doug
 
I wouldnt brine as adding salt and water does nothing for the flavour unless you're addicted to salty water. Blood in the flesh draining over a few days allows the enzymes to break down the natural toughness present in breast meat, (this is why yearling buck fillet is so expensive as it hasnt been used and is tender!) hanging helps with gamyness a peculiar flavour that wild meat has over farmed meat. The only reason meat processors pump water into meat is to sell you water as it is cheaper than meat! I hang on a saturday afternoon after the shoot and I will draw and pluck no later than 7 days if the temp is below 5 degrees. If it is above then I only hang 24 to 48 hours. Here we used to use game larders which are an outdoor wooden cupboard with fly mesh windows which help keep circulating air aroud the bird or hare. I never hang rabbit and I always paunch within 15 minutes (the same for venison) as it is really easy to taint! With woodcock it is told that nailing the bird to an outside door until a tug of the feathers removes all in one go is supposed to be correct. The birds tend to be shot early or just before dusk and their internals turn to jelly when roasted. A lot of game is given to the guns and beaters etc but what is sold t the game dealer usualy gets processed within 48 hours and is chilled. European hygene regs.
 
Doug said:
back to Claybuster...........

I have a British wild game cook book that was given to me by my sister-in-law. Pretty well all of the recipes include things like hanging the birds, guts in, or in the case of woodcock, hanging the birds, guts in, then COOKING the birds, guts in. (You use the bill for a skewer BTW :shock: )

So anyways the likelihood of me ever following any of these recipes is, to put it mildly, remote. :roll: PM me with your address and I will mail it to you.

Doug
Click to expand...

I LOVE IT :lol: Just like i said with the old gamekeeper-----same way as they cook haggis--guts in :p
 
Doug said:
back to Claybuster...........

I have a British wild game cook book that was given to me by my sister-in-law. Pretty well all of the recipes include things like hanging the birds, guts in, or in the case of woodcock, hanging the birds, guts in, then COOKING the birds, guts in. (You use the bill for a skewer BTW :shock: )

So anyways the likelihood of me ever following any of these recipes is, to put it mildly, remote. :roll: PM me with your address and I will mail it to you.

Doug
Click to expand...
Thanks for the very kind offer Doug but that woodcock recipe sounds a little too "English" for me. :lol:

I usually don't seriously chase the birds until later in the year. Too many leaves on the trees in the early part of the season so it will probably be cold enough that I won't have to worry about flies although I thank TimC for the suggestion of a game larder. It sounds simple enough to make one to keep any flies off the birds.

The remaining question is whether to gut the birds or not. Maybe I'll try both methods if I have enough birds and then feed the results to my inlaws. I like serving them game if only to see the looks on their faces when I explain that they may find lead shot in their dinner. They flip when I tell them about the guts. :lol:
 
What's the point of getting yourself fresh meat if you're only going to let it rot before you eat it? I can see smoking, curing, jerking or drying it, but just letting a game bird hang for days....with the guts in.....YUCK! I cant imagine the smell that must come off the guts of a dead partridge(bird) after its been hanging for days. I know...I know..thats the way it used to be done...but c'mon.
 
No Mike, you have to see it to believe it. It is NOT rotting over that period, in cool temperatures, as we've described. Ducks and geese, I just breast and take the legs, so you're never in the guts anyway. Grouse usually get pulled in the field or at least a field evisceration. Then the cleaned breasts will rest in the fridge for several days either before eating or freezing. I age them on the cold garage floor for several days and the meat looks and smells exactly the same as if I'd cleaned it that day. No air is getting into the guts or the meat. I've been doing this for years now with no problems or complaints. But I would say the meat is better for having aged. I no longer get those hellaciously chewy knobs that you have to spit out.

And partridge guts smell bad anyway, they can't get any worse.

Grouse Man
 
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