Why hang pheasants

Secondly, birds with little damage in critical areas. For example, a crossing bird will often present as hard-shot on just one side so the other side will be in fairly good condition.

Thirdly, highly damaged birds. There are three considerations in terms of how damaged the bird gets in the process of despatch. If possible the game cart should be unloaded between drives and birds hung in the shade.

We must consider how the birds have been handled at the shoot and what effect the weather may have had. On a cold January day, the time taken for the birds to cool to air temperature may still be two to three hours.

If possible, on warm days, ensure the game cart is unloaded between drives and the birds are hung in the shade, ideally in a breezy spot to help them cool as quickly as possible. You will need to take into account the ambient temperature during this period of lag time when you consider how long, if at all, to hang the birds for. The longer the lag time and the higher the temperature, the more swiftly the birds will decay.

Do not put warm game in a cool box — they will simply keep warm. This is crucial. Make sure, even if they cannot actually hang in the fridge, they are laid out nicely, ideally on clean newspaper to help absorb any oozing.

Once your birds are fridge-cold, you have a little time on your hands and you should deal with them in order — the most damaged first and the least damaged last. Game cookery recipe: A fantastic game cookery recipe using pheasant and an excuse to raid the freezer!

If you prefer a stronger flavour, you can go to four or six days — but beware. If you have missed a bit of damage in your assessment and you leave the birds to hang for a full six days, you are likely to be in trouble. It is better by far to hang for just a day or two and then pluck. It is impossible to give a simple answer to the question of hanging shot game; there are too many factors involved. Depending on the bird, the temperature it is hung at and its age, as a rule of thumb, a bird should be left to hang for days.

A younger pheasant shot at 16 weeks, for instance, will have lovely and tender meat, but will still need to be hung for the flavour to develop. Lee Maycock, the national chairman of the Craft Guild of Chefs, also maintains that pheasant and partridge both need at least two days of hanging before being cooked, regardless of any other factors. Temperature is a key factor which affects how long your game should be hung for.

September until November is now an increasingly warm time of year, and so you may need to find a cooler place to hang your meat. Separate your shot birds — separate your birds as soon as they have been shot, as in a pile of shot birds, the temperature can build up very quickly.

Lay them breast up so that they cool rapidly. At the end of the drive, you should get them to the game cart and then the chiller as quickly as you can, especially on a warmer day. Mauled birds — those shot in the gut or mauled by a gundog should not be hung, but instead used as soon as possible to make a stock or a game pie.

Hang at least six inches apart — the meat should not touch. So now you have shot your bird, how do you go about hanging a pheasant?

Do inspect your birds before you hang them. If you find that any of them have been shot in the gut or badly torn in the retrieve, then skin or butcher these straight away for cooking or freezing. We leave the pheasants completely intact not plucked or gutted and hang them by the neck to keep the blood in the carcass.

This helps prevent the meat from drying out or freezing if temperatures drop dramatically. We usually leave our birds to hang for a maximum of 3 days. For old cock birds, we tend to breast these and label the freezer bags accordingly — I use these for my long, slow cook recipes so it becomes deliciously tender during the cooking process. Many hands make light work! Most importantly, any young or novice guns should definitely be encouraged to pluck their own bird.

It really reinforces the idea that shooting is not just about the sport, but about respect for the birds and the satisfaction to be gained from preparing and eating the just rewards of all your hard work!

Plucking a bird is a messy business, feathers can get everywhere. A much simpler and handy tip is to pluck the bird directly into a plastic carrier bag or bin bag. Depending on the weather and the number and age of plucking assistants! Put your bag in a sink, or put a clean bin liner in a big kitchen bin, pull up a seat, draw up the sides of the bag and hold the bird inside.

Feathers will still escape, so I recommend putting a few sheets of newspaper down too. It can help to slightly dampen your hands when plucking so that the feathers stick to your hands rather than floating up to tickle your nose or down to stick to your clothes.

Hold the pheasant by its legs and back comb the feathers against the grain , so they are proud of the bird. Using short downwards movements, pluck the feathers away from the bird — straight into the bag. If you find you are pulling away skin from the bird, then you are being too rough. Now hold the body of the bird and pull out the tail feathers one at time.