Topic: Freshly-shot pheasant — advice sought.

[Peripatetic Phil]

My wife's hotel has just been gifted four brace of freshly-shot pheasant, and I have been asked to "do the necessary".  I know that they need to be hung, but for how long ?  I have improvised with road-kill pheasants in the past, and of course have cooked pre-hung, drawn and plucked pheasants, but never had to deal with multiple pheasants all requiring the full process.  All advice welcome.
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** Phil.

[tempest63]

My wife's hotel has just been gifted four brace of freshly-shot pheasant, and I have been asked to "do the necessary".  I know that they need to be hung, but for how long ?  I have improvised with road-kill pheasants in the past, and of course have cooked pre-hung, drawn and plucked pheasants, but never had to deal with multiple pheasants all requiring the full process.  All advice welcome.
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** Phil.

Hanging Pheasants Phil is a question of taste. Some people will eat a well hung pheasant but others don’t like the gamey taste that develops.
My wife likes her pheasants prepped and in the cooker/fridge/freezer within two days, but we hang ours in the shed and they are at the mercy of the weather conditions, if you have a good meat fridge at 3C you may get away with longer.
We frequently donate up to 10 brace at one of our local restaurants and they prep and store them immediately.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Many thanks, T63.  I will not collect them today (too late to do anything useful with them once I have finished bowling this evening) but will collect, ascertain how long since shot, and proceed on that basis.  If hung further, it will be in a friend’s shed, so cool ambient but not chilled, so maybe only for a day or so if that.
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** Phil.

[tempest63]

Given that you cannot shoot game on a Sunday, I would assume that the latest they would have been shot was Saturday (if not today) so they would be at the latter end of our hanging time.
I don’t know what temperatures you have been experiencing in your neck of the woods but it has been up to 9 or 10C in our little corner of Essex, so give em a sniff before you hang them too long.

What are you planning for them, roasting, casseroling, breasting and pan frying?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Those that have been cleanly head-shot will be roasted; any that are suspect will be casseroled in red wine after careful evisceration and cleaning.
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** Phil.

[George]

About 20 years ago, I went beating for shooting parties several times. We were given a couple of pheasants as partial remuneration, each session. I recall cooking some the next day and experimenting with hanging for various periods. I also played around with seasoning, sauces and other aspects. But nothing I tried, produced a pleasant flavour for my taste. I much prefer chicken. Pigeon is also tasty.

[tempest63]

About 20 years ago, I went beating for shooting parties several times. We were given a couple of pheasants as partial remuneration, each session. I recall cooking some the next day and experimenting with hanging for various periods. I also played around with seasoning, sauces and other aspects. But nothing I tried, produced a pleasant flavour for my taste. I much prefer chicken. Pigeon is also tasty.

I like to think I have trialled a good few recipes on a lot of birds over the many years I have been shooting.
I know when a bird is past roasting and needs to go into a casserole, and I follow loosely a Saint Delia recipe for roast pheasant but use a simple stuffing and a lot of streaky bacon to retain moisture.

[tempest63]

First day of our shoot yesterday. I don’t have a great time available to me so I donated 9 brace of pheasants to our local restaurant and kept back a brace of partridge that I prepped and roasted today. Served with roast spuds, roast beetroot, steamed carrots and sprouts. Finished with a pan sauce made with red wine and redcurrant jelly. Very enjoyable.