Having had the experience of hunting wild duck, goose, partridge and grouse, its ineresting just "what" people do with the meat so "harvested"...
Coming from parents/grandparents who outlived the Dirty 30's and settled the area at the turn of the previous century, I do not mean to attract comment on how I just phrased that...anyone who hunts understands its very difficult to attract birds or animals to a reasonable range, and just as difficult to take them cleanly, and quickly, and retriee whatever you shoot, and use it...
Anyways, it was neat to hunt with my father, uncles and grandffather on occaision, and, when it was ducks that we were after, go through all of the production of plucking, dipping in wax to take off the down and pinfeathers, gutting and cleaning (usually late at night, after an early morning!), and the "hot toddy's that were on offer after this was completed, to come up with some admittedly small carcasses which were roasted whole...
As I aged, I got to shoot with some farm boys, who knew better how to deke the bird in, and was once enthusiastically supported by a company president who flew in with his son-in-law, that man's father, and their field trials champion retriever...and with 2 or 3 co-workers we "lowered the population" of mallards that week (no difference, there's even more of them now!) but the funny part was that "Lloyd" and myself wound up in my basement with 6 guy's limit of ducks in front of us, and the prospect of an 0400 alarm the next day, to do it again...
This is where I learned to butcher the birds, taking the legs, thighs and breast meat, which, on a wild duck, you will appreciate is 93% of the usable meat...
"Lloyd" showed me how you placed this in a stainless steel bowl, covering it with water, and adding about a half cup of Kosher Salt to pull the blood out, that the next day, with this "aging" affected on the meat, you could drain, rinse, pre-season with seasoning salt, meat tenderiser, onion and garlic powder, etc, and bag and freeze the meat in meal size portions...
The seasoning and tenderisers worked the meat until freezing was achieved, and helped the thawing process, much as does a marinade by Rainee...and once thawed, coating it with a light bit of flour, you could saute it in cheap red wine, olive oil and garlic that even my wife demanded another package be opened and cooked up (her father was a meat inspector and she had major fears over wild meat!)
This "graduated" me to deer and moose in time, and it was neat to note how the handling of the animal in the field was, the careful removal of the digestive tract (okay, I'm being careful here to avoid censure from the BoardMaster! Anyone who has ever field butchered will catch my point!) and avoidance of contact with hair, or mud to meat...
The importance of having a place to hang the carcass and again the VITAL importance of hanging at least 14 days, if not longer...and with deer and moose, cutting away ALL the fat and bone....
Steaks and "roasts" are all you'll get in a solid piece, the rest is a long couple days with a flensing/boning knife, and you better have the sharpening stone handy...as you WILL be using it! And the resultant mass is good for hamburger or sausage only...unless you have the skill to cut away "cutlets", which should be treated (IMO) exactly like the goose breasts, and cooked the same too!
Anyways, its late, and will see if there are respondents to this and if we can take the cooking methods forwards for others...
Lifter
Coming from parents/grandparents who outlived the Dirty 30's and settled the area at the turn of the previous century, I do not mean to attract comment on how I just phrased that...anyone who hunts understands its very difficult to attract birds or animals to a reasonable range, and just as difficult to take them cleanly, and quickly, and retriee whatever you shoot, and use it...
Anyways, it was neat to hunt with my father, uncles and grandffather on occaision, and, when it was ducks that we were after, go through all of the production of plucking, dipping in wax to take off the down and pinfeathers, gutting and cleaning (usually late at night, after an early morning!), and the "hot toddy's that were on offer after this was completed, to come up with some admittedly small carcasses which were roasted whole...
As I aged, I got to shoot with some farm boys, who knew better how to deke the bird in, and was once enthusiastically supported by a company president who flew in with his son-in-law, that man's father, and their field trials champion retriever...and with 2 or 3 co-workers we "lowered the population" of mallards that week (no difference, there's even more of them now!) but the funny part was that "Lloyd" and myself wound up in my basement with 6 guy's limit of ducks in front of us, and the prospect of an 0400 alarm the next day, to do it again...
This is where I learned to butcher the birds, taking the legs, thighs and breast meat, which, on a wild duck, you will appreciate is 93% of the usable meat...
"Lloyd" showed me how you placed this in a stainless steel bowl, covering it with water, and adding about a half cup of Kosher Salt to pull the blood out, that the next day, with this "aging" affected on the meat, you could drain, rinse, pre-season with seasoning salt, meat tenderiser, onion and garlic powder, etc, and bag and freeze the meat in meal size portions...
The seasoning and tenderisers worked the meat until freezing was achieved, and helped the thawing process, much as does a marinade by Rainee...and once thawed, coating it with a light bit of flour, you could saute it in cheap red wine, olive oil and garlic that even my wife demanded another package be opened and cooked up (her father was a meat inspector and she had major fears over wild meat!)
This "graduated" me to deer and moose in time, and it was neat to note how the handling of the animal in the field was, the careful removal of the digestive tract (okay, I'm being careful here to avoid censure from the BoardMaster! Anyone who has ever field butchered will catch my point!) and avoidance of contact with hair, or mud to meat...
The importance of having a place to hang the carcass and again the VITAL importance of hanging at least 14 days, if not longer...and with deer and moose, cutting away ALL the fat and bone....
Steaks and "roasts" are all you'll get in a solid piece, the rest is a long couple days with a flensing/boning knife, and you better have the sharpening stone handy...as you WILL be using it! And the resultant mass is good for hamburger or sausage only...unless you have the skill to cut away "cutlets", which should be treated (IMO) exactly like the goose breasts, and cooked the same too!
Anyways, its late, and will see if there are respondents to this and if we can take the cooking methods forwards for others...
Lifter