# Snipe



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I've ate a few snipe, mostly baked in a casserole dish with some dressing. They were OK, an earthy flavor, somewhere between a teal and a pigeon.

I always thought I would prepare my next snipe or wood**** like the Europeans, the Scots and Brits do, whole, guts n all. So here we go.

Goober's Snipe


If leaving the skin on the bird the earlier you pick it the better. The feathers come off easier when the snipe is still warm. If you want to leave the feathers on and just cook the bird whole, fine. You can even leave the guts in if you want. Uh...I'm gonna have to pass on that method for now. The intestines are OK. Snipe "clean" themselves out when flushed, but I don't care for the worms in their crop and gizzard, and I'm not a fan of bird lungs. I'm such a puss.

Call me crazy but I prefer to pick and gut my gamebirds and then soak them overnight in some lightly salted water. If they're strong flavored or shot up they get soaked in milk with a splash of vinegar. A "splash" is no more than a teaspoon in 2 cups of water.

Rinse off the birds and pat them dry. Place them on a greased cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven to BROIL.

With a knife make a small cut in each one of the snipe's legs. Roll the beak around and put it through the slits in the legs.




Scrape out any "leftovers" in the small intestines with the back of a spatula. Roll the intestines up in a neat circle and place them on the cookie sheet. Pulverize the heart, liver and kidneys. Pile it up on the cookie sheet with a half teaspoon of butter. The goal is to make a paste, a sauce, out of the viscera so the tough gizzards normally are not included. 


Baste the bird with butter, sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Place in the hot oven. After 2 or 3 minutes remove the small intestines and set aside. Stir the gutpile and then cook it for another 2 minutes. The birds should cook between 12 to 15 minutes total. They should be browned, seared, on the outside and rare to medium rare on the inside.


I ate one of the intestine pinwheels on a crouton. It was pretty good.

Remove from the oven, cover the birds with foil and let rest.


Fillet the breast meat out and remove the leg quarters from the birds. Set aside. Place the carcasses and heads in a pot of water with some carrots, a slice of onion, salt, pepper and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.


While the stock is simmering puree the cooked viscera in a small blender or coffee grinder. At this point I added a one-half cup of plum sauce, one-half cup of strained stock, a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of sherry and blended it until it was a runny paste. Use your imagination here. The plum sauce can be replaced with butter, apple sauce, orange juice, your call. Use brandy instead of sherry, or no alcohol at all.


Heat the sauce up on the stove or in a microwave.

Slice some round bread and toast it.

If the birds cooled off warm them up in an oven or a microwave.

Arrange one-half of a breast and a leg quarter on each slice of toast. Drizzle with warm sauce and sprinkle your favorite fresh herb on top. I used chopped parsley and basil.


Served with butternut squash and some pearl onions.


Cut the head in half, a beak on each half. Scoop out the tasty brains using a snipe's beak as a spoon. Eat "straight up" or dipped in the sauce.


Good grief.


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## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

I'll pass. 
And I'll usually eat pretty much anything. :shock:


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

very impressive goob. i need to shoot more snipe. not sure I could get the kids to eat the guts though. me and my oldest daughter at the fried giblets from my shoveler and teal though. she seemed to like it.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

35whelen said:


> very impressive goob. i need to shoot more snipe. not sure I could get the kids to eat the guts though. me and my oldest daughter at the fried giblets from my shoveler and teal though. she seemed to like it.


Way2go!
.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Dang Goob, that looks pretty awesome!


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

Cooked up my snipe Sunday. I barely got to taste it. My girls each wanted a leg n a breast and I ate the scraps. It was not bad at all I didn’t keep the guts though. I’ll try n get some more n do em all fancy like yours


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

And I thought this was a thread dealing with kids running up and down ditch banks banging pots and pans with gunny sacks.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Did someone say "snipe?"

bump


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