Well, we last left the bird, hanging upside down from the rafters of my woodshed in a rather undignified manner.
It tied it up there on Saturday, and now I felt it was time to untie it, pluck it and draw it (hanging too long will give the meat a very strong flavour- some people find this highly desirable, however, I think my tender tastebuds would prefer a milder taste).
Thinking of the delicious meal I was going to have that evening, I cut the string on which the bird was hanging and took the bird into the kitchen.
Now, the only birds I'd even touched before (no jokes please) were my friend's canary and the odd parrot at a zoo- so I didn't have the first clue about how to go about plucking a bird in order to eat it (funnily enough, my friend never let me pluck his Canary, and I'd imagine zoos take a pretty grim view of this, too). Luckily enough, I actually have a book that tells you how to pluck wild game (funny that, don't you think?). It told me to keep the legs, head and wings on while plucking, then get rid of them once you've removed the feathers from the breast, back and thighs. This seemed like good logic- I could hold on the the legs easily during plucking, and keeping everything together would ensure that I didn't spill blood everywhere. I put a bucket under the bird to catch the feathers, and started plucking.
You need to take just a couple of feathers out at a time, otherwise you risk tearing the skin, so it took a bit of time, but eventually I got to this stage:
I know this sounds silly, but it seemed really strange to see something like a raw chicken appear from underneath the feathers. As yet, I had yet to pluck the back, so I turned it round and started on this:
The back feathers were really beautiful and felt so soft and smooth, it seemed a shame to pluck them, but I didn't think my stomach would think the same in 5 hours time.
Finally, I got to this stage:
I can't help but feel that this photo is almost, well, pornographic. It looks like the avian version of some dodgy college party 'drunk cheerleader' photo.
Now it was time to romove the wings, feet and head. I got my sharp knife out, and easily cut through the bones. I took this photo purely because it looked so strange to my eyes, being more used to seeing either raw poultry or live, healthy birds, but not the two connected together in such a manner:
After plucking the bird as best I could (and finally removing the head), I had to deal with all the little feathers that are too small and numerous to deal with individually. The best way to do this is to quickly run a candle flame over the skin of the bird to burn all these tiny feathers away. Of course, this stinks like burning hair, but I'd rather do this than have them cooked onto the bird in the oven!
Now it was time for the messy bit. I put on a lovely pair of yellow marigolds (rubber gloves, for those non-UKers), took a sharp knife, and made a cut downwards from the base of the bird's ribcage to its bum. I stuck my fingers through this hole and attenpted to pull out the slimy goo that make up the innards. This is a bit like trying to pull jelly out of a balloon- but not strawberry jelly, this is the stinkiest jelly you've ever had the displeasure to smell. I'm ashamed to say, I gagged at one point. This was by far the worst part of the whole process. Eventually, I got all the guts, heart, liver and lungs out of the bird. Having never performed disections at school, this was pretty interesting, although, it was quite tricky to distinguish each bit from the other.
Above you can see the bird with all its innards removed. I was really surprised by the size of the heart (I think its the thing you can see in the bag, lying on top of all the other guts). It takes up a very large proportion of the chest cavity. I guess this must be the case for most birds- they must have to pump a lot of blood round their bodies whilst flying.
Cooking:
With all the preparation done, it was time to start thinking about cooking. I had decided to have roast pheasant- I thought this way would give me the most anadulterated flavour. I put it in a case of tin foil to keep it moist, but the ungrateful beast wouldn't sit still- it kept on falling over because one leg kept flopping to one side. The girlfriend had a stroke of genius and placed some chunks of onion either side of the bird to keep it stable.
By the way, thats red wine and butter around the bird, not blood and gore!
I put it in the oven for about 40 mins, opening up the foil for the last 10 mins to brown the skin.
I took the carving knife and sliced its breast. It looked and smelt delicious. Despite having done all the plucking and drawing myself, it was really difficult to associate what I was cutting with the feathery body that was hanging in my woodshed just hours before. It made me think of how much the food industry has caused us to become so detached from where our food comes from, that even now, I still dissociate between meat and creature.
I had it with roast parsnips, boiled potatoes and carrots (cooked to perfection by the girlfriend, thankyou). A classic british meat, potatoes and two veg.
Delicious. (It truly was!!)
It tied it up there on Saturday, and now I felt it was time to untie it, pluck it and draw it (hanging too long will give the meat a very strong flavour- some people find this highly desirable, however, I think my tender tastebuds would prefer a milder taste).
Thinking of the delicious meal I was going to have that evening, I cut the string on which the bird was hanging and took the bird into the kitchen.
Now, the only birds I'd even touched before (no jokes please) were my friend's canary and the odd parrot at a zoo- so I didn't have the first clue about how to go about plucking a bird in order to eat it (funnily enough, my friend never let me pluck his Canary, and I'd imagine zoos take a pretty grim view of this, too). Luckily enough, I actually have a book that tells you how to pluck wild game (funny that, don't you think?). It told me to keep the legs, head and wings on while plucking, then get rid of them once you've removed the feathers from the breast, back and thighs. This seemed like good logic- I could hold on the the legs easily during plucking, and keeping everything together would ensure that I didn't spill blood everywhere. I put a bucket under the bird to catch the feathers, and started plucking.
You need to take just a couple of feathers out at a time, otherwise you risk tearing the skin, so it took a bit of time, but eventually I got to this stage:
I know this sounds silly, but it seemed really strange to see something like a raw chicken appear from underneath the feathers. As yet, I had yet to pluck the back, so I turned it round and started on this:
The back feathers were really beautiful and felt so soft and smooth, it seemed a shame to pluck them, but I didn't think my stomach would think the same in 5 hours time.
Finally, I got to this stage:
I can't help but feel that this photo is almost, well, pornographic. It looks like the avian version of some dodgy college party 'drunk cheerleader' photo.
Now it was time to romove the wings, feet and head. I got my sharp knife out, and easily cut through the bones. I took this photo purely because it looked so strange to my eyes, being more used to seeing either raw poultry or live, healthy birds, but not the two connected together in such a manner:
After plucking the bird as best I could (and finally removing the head), I had to deal with all the little feathers that are too small and numerous to deal with individually. The best way to do this is to quickly run a candle flame over the skin of the bird to burn all these tiny feathers away. Of course, this stinks like burning hair, but I'd rather do this than have them cooked onto the bird in the oven!
Now it was time for the messy bit. I put on a lovely pair of yellow marigolds (rubber gloves, for those non-UKers), took a sharp knife, and made a cut downwards from the base of the bird's ribcage to its bum. I stuck my fingers through this hole and attenpted to pull out the slimy goo that make up the innards. This is a bit like trying to pull jelly out of a balloon- but not strawberry jelly, this is the stinkiest jelly you've ever had the displeasure to smell. I'm ashamed to say, I gagged at one point. This was by far the worst part of the whole process. Eventually, I got all the guts, heart, liver and lungs out of the bird. Having never performed disections at school, this was pretty interesting, although, it was quite tricky to distinguish each bit from the other.
Above you can see the bird with all its innards removed. I was really surprised by the size of the heart (I think its the thing you can see in the bag, lying on top of all the other guts). It takes up a very large proportion of the chest cavity. I guess this must be the case for most birds- they must have to pump a lot of blood round their bodies whilst flying.
Cooking:
With all the preparation done, it was time to start thinking about cooking. I had decided to have roast pheasant- I thought this way would give me the most anadulterated flavour. I put it in a case of tin foil to keep it moist, but the ungrateful beast wouldn't sit still- it kept on falling over because one leg kept flopping to one side. The girlfriend had a stroke of genius and placed some chunks of onion either side of the bird to keep it stable.
By the way, thats red wine and butter around the bird, not blood and gore!
I put it in the oven for about 40 mins, opening up the foil for the last 10 mins to brown the skin.
I took the carving knife and sliced its breast. It looked and smelt delicious. Despite having done all the plucking and drawing myself, it was really difficult to associate what I was cutting with the feathery body that was hanging in my woodshed just hours before. It made me think of how much the food industry has caused us to become so detached from where our food comes from, that even now, I still dissociate between meat and creature.
I had it with roast parsnips, boiled potatoes and carrots (cooked to perfection by the girlfriend, thankyou). A classic british meat, potatoes and two veg.
Delicious. (It truly was!!)
