NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/902203
34 NEBRASKAland • NOVEMBER 2017 W hen I was young, the downside of pheasant hunting with Dad was that after the hunt my brothers and I would always end up in the basement cleaning birds while he was upstairs catching up on football scores. We cleaned the entire bird, and when Mom fried them it was the whole pheasant: breast, legs, wings, back, ribs, heart, liver and gizzard. At the supper table, with six kids in the family, we spared not a piece. These days, after a successful pheasant hunt, some hunters simply tear away a bird's breast feathers and fillet out the breast meat and toss the remaining carcass. Their woeful justifications for wasting the remaining meat go something like this: "pheasant legs are full of tendons and tough as rawhide, you can't eat them," "there's no meat on a pheasant wing, why clean them?" and "eat the heart, liver and gizzard? That's gross!" The practice of only filleting out the white-meat breasts stems from hunters not knowing how or not taking the time to properly clean, butcher and prepare an entire pheasant. If they invested a little more time, learned a few tips and expanded their cooking repertoire, they and their families could enjoy delightful meals made from the whole bird. Aging, Cleaning and Butchering Pheasants There is no doubt that pheasant meat, especially that of an old rooster, can be tough. To enhance a pheasant's tenderness and flavor, I often age harvested birds prior to cleaning them. I know many hunters and non-hunters alike are repulsed at the thought of hanging an uncleaned bird in their garage for a few days – they fear bacteria is tenderizing the meat. It is not. All good beef is aged and many hunters hang their deer for several days before butchering; why not pheasants? In England, aging pheasants has been a tradition for centuries. Aging of meat occurs when natural enzymes in the muscle cells, given time, break down collagen, a hard, fibrous protein. Preferred temperatures for aging meat range from a few degrees above freezing to about 50 degrees F. Bacterial growth is limited below 60 degrees. I age my pheasants, feathers on and un-gutted, four to eight days – if it makes you feel less queasy, gut the birds before hanging. In November, I often hang them in the garage. Later in the season, if it is cold enough outside to freeze the birds, I set them on a cold basement windowsill or in the refrigerator. Aging makes even the tough legs and thighs of an old, long-spurred rooster tender and more flavorful. For more details see "Aging Game Birds Results in a Delectable Treat" at Nebraskalandmagazine.com. As for cleaning pheasants, I have seen hunters slash, tear and pull on birds for minutes without making much progress. Knowing when, where and how to slash, tear and pull helps, especially when saving the entire bird. I start with a little trick unknown to many hunters – pulling the tendons from the drumsticks. Having to eat around the sinewy tendons is why many hunters do not eat pheasant drumsticks. One fall morning about 20 years ago, Dick Turpin, long-time conservation officer, was being videoed by the crew from the Outdoor Nebraska television show in the Commission's Lincoln office parking lot for a segment on how to pull tendons. Passing by on my way to work, I stopped to watch. Turpin had snapped the pheasant's lower leg bone and was trying to extract the tendons using pliers and was struggling mightily. To save him from further filmed embarrassment, I stepped in, put the pheasant's foot under my shoe and quickly pulled the tendons. He smirked and called me a "young whippersnapper." To pull the leg tendons (see photos on page 36), first pop the joint between the bones where the feathered drumstick meets the scaled lower leg by grasping the lower leg and pushing it sideways against the joint. Next, lay the pheasant's foot on a concrete or gravel surface with the lower leg angled upwards at about 45 degrees. While grasping the drumstick step on the lower leg near the spur with the ball of your foot. The bone should snap. Now, with the ball of your foot firmly placed on the pheasant's foot, PHEASANTS Story and photos by Gerry Steinauer, Botanist When properly cleaned, butchered and prepared, all parts of a pheasant – including the wings, legs and even the heart, liver and gizzard – can be made into delectable meals. Prepping the whole bird