On hanging pheasants

I just read that as well.. Very interesting article. I am going to try to hang them a bit longer as well. One thing I have never done..but am interested in learning how to do the right way is de-feathering a bird..removing the organs and roasting a full bird skin on. If anyone has any advice on a good way of doing this please let me know! Thanks!
 
IF you haven't already, I would recommend you check out the late Datus Proper's Book "Pheasants of the Mind". I don't remember all the details but he has a chapter on preparing a pheasant for the table. The book is out of print so you may have to shop around for it but it is well worth the effort.
 
Not sure that I buy in here.Probably because I'm not big on gamey flavor.The reason we age beef is so the enzymes in the marbling break down,this tenderizes and adds flavor.One of my cousins who was a third gen Hereford rancher and recognized cattle expert never aged a deer.As soon as it hit the ground he skinned and quartered it to get the body heat out.He said that since venison has no marbling,it does no good to age it.(Have you tasted venison fat)? I have always done the same and like my venison better than most.I can make tenderloin medallions from a fresh killed deer that will have you begging for more.
When it comes to aging phez,I'll try it but am skeptical that it does much except make the meat taste like the guts.
 
Thanks this was a great read, as much as I would love to try this out I really dont have the space and keeping the temp between 50-55 might be an even larger problem UNLESS we get a real nice snow...wait I will try this later in the winter when there is snow on the ground :) does anyone know if the garage is a bad idea for hanging pheasant, i doubt my wife will like it but I mean in general is it a bad idea?
 
Great find! Thanks for posting. I don't actually hang mine, but if it is cool and going to stay cool I let them lie around for several days before I dress them. Eliminates having to do work after a day afield when one would rather be drinking, dining, lying about, and hawking and talking. A fella out in NW KS told me some guys came over from Ireland for several days and took all their pheasants back to Ireland whole and in paper sacks like baguette sacks, one bird per sack.
 
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Great read. A couple of my hunting partners and I have discussed the hanging of upland game but never did so as we were unsure who would end up sick first. Now that we know the guidelines birds will hang this year.:)
 
LoneRooster said:
I just read that as well.. Very interesting article. I am going to try to hang them a bit longer as well. One thing I have never done..but am interested in learning how to do the right way is de-feathering a bird..removing the organs and roasting a full bird skin on. If anyone has any advice on a good way of doing this please let me know! Thanks!
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No secret that I've ever found besides patience. Scalding doesn't seem to help. Just take your time and dry pluck them pulling only a few feathers at a time.
 
quail hound said:
Here is a good read on dry aging pheasant. I always hang mine for a day before I clean them but if conditions are right this year I'm going to try this out.

Bad link, hopefully I get this one right.

http://honest-food.net/2012/10/20/on-hanging-pheasants-2/
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My Dad would always hang his birds for a week to 10 days. We had a shed out back and in the late fall it was full of hanging pheasants. My Sicilian mother (a great cook) who doesn't like game, to this day loves hung pheasant but not fresh.

I just installed a cellar cooler that I keep at 55 degrees and I'm going to do it this year too.
 
very interesting!

i always thought it was, dont let game sit around for very long after shooting it 2-3 hours max.
 
I've never hung birds this way, but have on more than one occasion let them sit outside overnight in the cool fall air.

RanchoD - I always age my deer. The fresh killed and butchered deer I've eaten in the past was the worst I've ever had. Extremely gamy, smelled nasty cooking and tough. I've had arguments with my brothers about this and one year they shot two deer out behind the house on the day we were gathering to butcher the other deer shot during the season. Despite my objections they skinned and butchered it right away, placing the wrapped meat in grocery bags on the cold garage floor. The next morning we came back to a lake of blood. The meat, not having gone through rigamortis, had bleed out during the night. What a mess. They had to re-wrap all the meat and I refused to take any of it.

If the temperature is right I'll leave them for a couple weeks, hide on. 20 years ago my dad's best friend and our lifelong hunting companion, had a heart attack while dragging a 12 point swamp buck he shot opening morning. That week the temps got into the low 40's during the day and around freezing at night. the deer hung for 10 days. He said that was the best venison he's ever eaten.
 
Ranger Rick said:
I've never hung birds this way, but have on more than one occasion let them sit outside overnight in the cool fall air.

RanchoD - I always age my deer. The fresh killed and butchered deer I've eaten in the past was the worst I've ever had. Extremely gamy, smelled nasty cooking and tough. I've had arguments with my brothers about this and one year they shot two deer out behind the house on the day we were gathering to butcher the other deer shot during the season. Despite my objections they skinned and butchered it right away, placing the wrapped meat in grocery bags on the cold garage floor. The next morning we came back to a lake of blood. The meat, not having gone through rigamortis, had bleed out during the night. What a mess. They had to re-wrap all the meat and I refused to take any of it.

If the temperature is right I'll leave them for a couple weeks, hide on. 20 years ago my dad's best friend and our lifelong hunting companion, had a heart attack while dragging a 12 point swamp buck he shot opening morning. That week the temps got into the low 40's during the day and around freezing at night. the deer hung for 10 days. He said that was the best venison he's ever eaten.
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So let me get this straight,hanging a deer with hide on for two weeks makes them less gamey?

Where your bros went wrong with their butchering was by not soaking the cuts in saltwater first.(notice I said skinned and quartered,not butchered).If you have to butcher immediately,(sometimes neccessary to reduce bulk in the backcountry or in high temp conditions) a saltwater soak hastens rigor,tenderizes and leeches the gamey tasting blood.


I am looking at my "pet" deer in the yard right now,I could shoot her,remove the backstraps and have the tastiest,most tender venison tips you ever had within an hour.Done it many times in the old deer camp days where the first baldy went for camp meet.
 
I hung beef, elk, deer, antelope, etc, but never birds even when I lived in Montana. And I always gut game promptly. To each his/her own, but I reckon the only time that I might be tempted to hang a pheasant is if I catch him stealing horses.
 
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koja48 said:
I hung beef, elk, deer, antelope, etc, but never birds even when I lived in Montana. And I always gut game promptly. To each his/her own, but I reckon the only time that I might tempted to hang a pheasant is if I catch him stealing horses.
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Classic.Classic.Classic.
 
How can you tell if a bird is gut shot, or not?
It's easy to tell on a 200 lb deer, but hard to see on a bird that hasn't been gutted.
 
If you got a wing, or the back/body in-general it's highly likely pellets found the entrails, also.
 
ranchodeluxe said:
So let me get this straight,hanging a deer with hide on for two weeks makes them less gamey?

Where your bros went wrong with their butchering was by not soaking the cuts in saltwater first.(notice I said skinned and quartered,not butchered).If you have to butcher immediately,(sometimes neccessary to reduce bulk in the backcountry or in high temp conditions) a saltwater soak hastens rigor,tenderizes and leeches the gamey tasting blood.


I am looking at my "pet" deer in the yard right now,I could shoot her,remove the backstraps and have the tastiest,most tender venison tips you ever had within an hour.Done it many times in the old deer camp days where the first baldy went for camp meet.
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Backstraps are different. They are already tender and don't gain much if anything from aging, even in beef and they are susceptible to drying out too much.

The rest of the animal is a different story. Aging deer/beef makes it more tender and deer less gamey and concentrates the flavors. Your friend is incorrect that aging will only work on well marbled meat. The enzymes that tenderize the meat are present in the meat itself and not the fat. Aging lower quality beef doesn't make a lot of sense financially and lower quality beef is less marbled beef. Like beef, it is far better never to get venison wet.

I was skeptical of aging deer until a friend and I did a comparison. He used to skin and hang his deer for upwards of 2 weeks. It would form a skin of dried meat on the outside that he would peel/cut off. Then he would butcher.

It was far better than freshly butchered deer, much more tender and tasted better.
 
Tenderloins are no different in structure than any of the rest of the animal.I guess i have just been eating bad venison for 35 years.I doubt my friend was wrong about anything related to red meat as he made himself a multi-millionaire grass-feeding beef on the sd prairie and was constantly in demand as a speaker for 4h,FFA,SD Cattlegrowers assoc. etc.

Just to carry my point a little further, I could cook fresh-killed neck meat from an antelope killed on a 70 deg day,that would have you coming back,plate in hand,asking for more.
 
Instructions for getting the game flavor out of wild meat.
1


Begin soaking your deer meat in salt water with just a little bit of white vinegar at least 72 hours before you plan on cooking it. Make sure the meat is covered and refrigerated during the soaking process.

2


Change the water every 8 to 10 hours. The water will look like watered down blood-this is good. The blood is what gives the meat the wild game taste, so that's what you have to get out.





3


Continue to let the meat soak and change out the water until it becomes light pink. When the water is almost clear the soaking process is coming to an end.

4


Add more salt and white vinegar to the water (1/4 cup or more, depending on how much deer meat you are soaking). All of the blood should be out of the meat by 12 to 24 hours before you plan on cooking it.

5


Take the deer meat out of the salt water and vinegar solution after all the blood has come out of the meat.

6


Soak the deer meat in a good marinade for 12 to 24 hours prior to cooking.
 
I guess I'm weird, I like my game to be a bit "gamey". I'd rather eat dove over quail, quail over pheasant, and pheasant over chicken. Aged venison will put aged beef to shame anyday and I almost never marinate anything. One of my favorite things in the world to eat is a medium rare deer tenderloin with only salt and pepper on it.
 
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