Discussion
Any wild geese? never tried a wild goose.
teal is a delight if a fiddle, keen to try pintail but haven't chased up local wildfowlers.
not tried woodcock or snipe but know woodcock is meant to the best guts eviscerated and all but served up as in your pics would be a bit of a challenge to me...is that the traditional way?
teal is a delight if a fiddle, keen to try pintail but haven't chased up local wildfowlers.
not tried woodcock or snipe but know woodcock is meant to the best guts eviscerated and all but served up as in your pics would be a bit of a challenge to me...is that the traditional way?
escargot said:
Anyone else a keen hunter and consumer of game?
Yes.... two haunches of venison over Christmas and pheasant throughout the year - usually in a whisky/cream/mushroom sauce.It's easy to forget how good (for example) pheasant is and that the birds have a far better life than a supermarket chicken. People should eat more of it - not expensive and much healthier.
NDA said:
It's easy to forget how good (for example) pheasant is and that the birds have a far better life than a supermarket chicken. People should eat more of it - not expensive and much healthier.
Hens for preference, but it’s very easy to dry pheasant out. Better still, partridge or pigeon. Or venison.
Juan B said:
Theres a good YouTube channel 'Thomas Straker' who has a Game Eater series of videos documenting the shoot, butchering and cooking of various game, I find them quite interesting and filmed well.
Started watching him recently. Amazing what he can do on an outdoor stove. Muzzle sweeping his cameraman and shooting over a road whilst grouse shooting wasn't his finest hour, but his long video on English partridge and hare, where his hosts get plenty of opportunity to talk about land management and allowing wild game to flourish is brilliant.Probably would have been better starting this topic on 12th August as we've only got a few weeks left.
I am part of a small syndicate where we put down under 1000 pheasant. They come to us at six weeks which is older than a supermarket chicken and after a few weeks in a release pen they are allowed to roam free though hopefully will stay in our woods eating the food we put down for them. We have planted hundreds of trees and shrubs and we have abundant wild birds.
The other dimension is the dog work. There is very little more satisfying (and frustrating) than training and working your own dog.
I'd encourage anyone to try game when they see it on a menu in a pub or restaurant. Partridge is a good entry point for chicken fans. Pheasant stands up really well to stewing and currying. For those who like rare meat, pigeon, hare, and venison are magnificent.
Here are some of my recent highlights. Clockwise from top left Woodcock (pheasant for OH), Mallard, Rabbit pie, Canada Goose pastrami, truckful of idiots, grouse, rabbit loin, salmis of teal, pheasant schnitzel.
Juan B said:
Theres a good YouTube channel 'Thomas Straker' who has a Game Eater series of videos documenting the shoot, butchering and cooking of various game, I find them quite interesting and filmed well.
Another good one is Scott Reahttps://www.youtube.com/@TheScottReaproject/search...
theplayingmantis said:
Any wild geese? never tried a wild goose.
Wild goose can't be sold. I did hear about an enterprising butcher selling a pound of sausages for £10 with a free goose but that's a bit naughty.Greylag and Canadas (which are protected but move on an off the general license with bewildering frequency) are pretty challenging to make palatable - I favour aging and using hot smoker for cleanly shot breast or mincing with fatty fork to make burgers or bolognese.
Pinkfoot is magnificent. Probably my favourite wildfowl - still smaller than a farmed duck.
theplayingmantis said:
teal is a delight if a fiddle, keen to try pintail but haven't chased up local wildfowlers.
Wild duck can be a bit of a lottery depending on what they've been eating and how they've been hung. Salmis method is your friend with small wild duck. Brief roast. Remove breast and legs. Make a stock/sauce with the rest of the carcase. Return the legs and poach until tender. Finish the sauce and warm the breast meat in it. As you say a fiddle.theplayingmantis said:
not tried woodcock or snipe but know woodcock is meant to the best guts eviscerated and all but served up as in your pics would be a bit of a challenge to me...is that the traditional way?
Woodcock and snipe are essentially the same from a culinary point of view. They s
t when they take off so perfectly OK to eat the innards. My slightly modified traditional way with woodcock is brown all over in butter and put pan in hot oven for 10 minutes. In the meantime saute very finely chopped onion or shallot in butter. Remove woodcock. Snip the vent and take innards out with a fork. Discard gall bladder. Chop innards very finely and add to onion. Flame with a drop of brandy and spread the pate on toast. Woodcock on top. Woodcock meat is very fine and the legs are lighter in colour than the breasts which should be pink. The pate on the toast is probably the tastiest part of the whole dish. Excuse for fine wine.Another trick I've found with small birds (eg pigeon) which have breast meat that should be served pink is to separate legs and confit them in duck fat to produce a crunchy salty morsel alongside the breast
oddman said:
I am part of a small syndicate where we put down under 1000 pheasant. They come to us at six weeks which is older than a supermarket chicken and after a few weeks in a release pen they are allowed to roam free though hopefully will stay in our woods eating the food we put down for them.
An estate near me have recently changed the species of pheasant they put down - this new lot stay together and don't roam. There are far fewer (if any) roadkills around me as it happens.PM me if you want the detail and I can try to find out.
NDA said:
oddman said:
I am part of a small syndicate where we put down under 1000 pheasant. They come to us at six weeks which is older than a supermarket chicken and after a few weeks in a release pen they are allowed to roam free though hopefully will stay in our woods eating the food we put down for them.
An estate near me have recently changed the species of pheasant they put down - this new lot stay together and don't roam. There are far fewer (if any) roadkills around me as it happens.PM me if you want the detail and I can try to find out.
Our birds come from the same supplier every year. He arrives before 0800 having got up at god knows what hour to collect up and box the poults.
They arrive dry and perky and not feather pecked and since using him we've no problems with disease. We kept the faith with each other through COVID and bird flu epidemics and he didn't take the opportunity to price gouge in the post COVID year so pretty happy overall
dunkind said:
I’ve used this site for about 15 years.
https://honest-food.net/
That's where I got the goose pastrami recipe fromhttps://honest-food.net/
SaulGoodman said:
I couldn't shoot or butcher it myself but I enjoy eating it in a nice restaurant. We went to St John Bread & Wine a few times last year and they do really good pheasant, partridge and pigeon.
The below is from Brat - a lot of people who saw the pic weren't keen on the presentation!
no issue with legs and claws, just the head is new one on me. but then doesn't bother me on fish i suppose!The below is from Brat - a lot of people who saw the pic weren't keen on the presentation!
NDA said:
escargot said:
Anyone else a keen hunter and consumer of game?
Yes.... two haunches of venison over Christmas and pheasant throughout the year - usually in a whisky/cream/mushroom sauce.It's easy to forget how good (for example) pheasant is and that the birds have a far better life than a supermarket chicken. People should eat more of it - not expensive and much healthier.
game dealer most butchers or online and its dirt cheap especially if country butchers/markets - real countryside not DFL country.
oddman said:
Woodcock and snipe are essentially the same from a culinary point of view. They st when they take off so perfectly OK to eat the innards. My slightly modified traditional way with woodcock is brown all over in butter and put pan in hot oven for 10 minutes. In the meantime saute very finely chopped onion or shallot in butter. Remove woodcock. Snip the vent and take innards out with a fork. Discard gall bladder. Chop innards very finely and add to onion. Flame with a drop of brandy and spread the pate on toast. Woodcock on top. Woodcock meat is very fine and the legs are lighter in colour than the breasts which should be pink. The pate on the toast is probably the tastiest part of the whole dish. Excuse for fine wine.
Another trick I've found with small birds (eg pigeon) which have breast meat that should be served pink is to separate legs and confit them in duck fat to produce a crunchy salty morsel alongside the breast
ta, im part based in a big wildfowling area so if i get of my ass i could source some geese, didnt know couldn't be sold though! everyday a school day. t when they take off so perfectly OK to eat the innards. My slightly modified traditional way with woodcock is brown all over in butter and put pan in hot oven for 10 minutes. In the meantime saute very finely chopped onion or shallot in butter. Remove woodcock. Snip the vent and take innards out with a fork. Discard gall bladder. Chop innards very finely and add to onion. Flame with a drop of brandy and spread the pate on toast. Woodcock on top. Woodcock meat is very fine and the legs are lighter in colour than the breasts which should be pink. The pate on the toast is probably the tastiest part of the whole dish. Excuse for fine wine.Another trick I've found with small birds (eg pigeon) which have breast meat that should be served pink is to separate legs and confit them in duck fat to produce a crunchy salty morsel alongside the breast
yep why i avoid mallard (althought a good one is nice), wigeon and teal are more consistent.
Ever had Pintail?
never bother with pigeon legs carcass end up in the bonfire after breast removal. might try.
controversial but is there a difference between a true wild pheasant well i suppose feral/descendants - and those simply reared/released to be sport? i know some support that view. i have no feelings either way. ethically or culinarily.
also hare and grey partridge, should they be shot given the collapse in the latter (although situation is improving slightly in some places) and the conjecture around the former, which is a pest in my parts of the world and scarce in the other!
theplayingmantis said:
Ever had Pintail?
No. Would treat it like teal or mallard and expect it to taste similar.theplayingmantis said:
controversial but is there a difference between a true wild pheasant well i suppose feral/descendants - and those simply reared/released to be sport? i know some support that view. i have no feelings either way. ethically or culinarily.
I imagine the only way you could surmise a bird was wild would be if you shot a one a good way both in time and distance from any released birds. AFAIK the closest that come to wild pheasant shooting is in fenland where birds haven't been released for years. The Old English variety don't have the white collar or any of the blue feathering you see on the back of modern Kansas or hybrid birds. I'd guess the flavour is likely to be determined by what they eat and how old they are than genetics.We had 'wild' pheasants on a partridge shoot I used to go on but we weren't supposed to shoot them so I never tasted them.
theplayingmantis said:
also hare and grey partridge, should they be shot given the collapse in the latter (although situation is improving slightly in some places) and the conjecture around the former, which is a pest in my parts of the world and scarce in the other!
Grey partridge need very intensive keepering to produce a surplus. You can see where this is taking place from the really wide field margins that you see from the A1 on the Duke of Northumberland's land. It's kind of like lowland grouse keeping so tends to be for the very wealthy alndowner who can spare habitat and pay for keepering. We usually see a covey of English on our shoot but would be kicked off if we shot them and rightly so.Hares seem to vary a lot in number. Anywhere land is not intensively managed and they aren't persecuted, they'll flourish. We get a steady number on our shoot and leave them alone but on the old partridge shoot, their fox controller was shooting 50-100 hares a year from about 200 acres of cereal land and sending them via a game dealer to France. Where they are prolific the farmers often want them shot not so much as vermin control but to keep the lurcher boys away. The only way I pick up a hare these days is my mate's spaniel is an incorrigable courser so get the odd one each season.
I have shot wild pheasant, wild English grey partridge (you can rear and release greys - and I've shot those too) and hare.
I've done all three in Northumberland on low land around grouse moors, miles from anywhere that releases pheasants. I have also shot wild greys in East Anglia (though accidentally in a flush of red-legs). Hares in East Anglia are now numerous enough to be a pest (4 hares eat the same amount of crops as one sheep), so I have been on a handful of culls (including a couple where we used golden eagles).
I've done all three in Northumberland on low land around grouse moors, miles from anywhere that releases pheasants. I have also shot wild greys in East Anglia (though accidentally in a flush of red-legs). Hares in East Anglia are now numerous enough to be a pest (4 hares eat the same amount of crops as one sheep), so I have been on a handful of culls (including a couple where we used golden eagles).
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